- Joined
- Aug 15, 2003
- Messages
- 28,059
- Reaction score
- 441
I just got back from USCAP 2006 in Atlanta (not that I would really have noticed if it was in Atlanta other than that is what the airport and the local tv stations said it was since we barely left the two block area around the hotel). It was interesting and I am glad I went (was there sunday-this AM).
Thoughts:
1) Went to the house staff seminar on sunday night. It was a panel of private and academic pathologists and a recently graduating resident. The consensus: Employers are looking for people who have some extra training (like a cyto or hemepath fellowship) but not TOO MUCH extra training. More than two fellowships is actually frowned upon and employers start to wonder what your problem is. As usual, doing a dermpath fellowship is the most desirable currently but almost any fellowship will give you a leg up (except for microbio, chem). Private jobs are starting out in many places well over $200k, academics $120-140k. But the real numbers are not actually available and a lot of it depends on variables like whether they pay your malpractice, benefits, etc. In short: There are enough jobs out there and opportunities are apparently increasing.
The importance of the surgical pathology fellowship was emphasized, as the impression is growing among employers that residents are not as well trained in basic competencies as they were in the past and now require more hand holding at the start.
You can see the handouts for free online at www.uscap.org - look at the "evening specialty conference handouts" under house staff.
They also specifically addressed the "path mill" type jobs and said the current prevelance of these jobs is still under 5% of the total jobs around the country, and the CAP and other organizations are actually actively lobbying to decrease these jobs and encourage people not to take them. Dr Silva and others said that it is unlikely these jobs will become commonplace.
The main factors important to employers which are often overlooked are "Interpersonal skills" and "Communication skills" as well as the ability to work with others. If you do well in residency and get good references from your attendings, this will have a large impact on your job search success.
2) Lots of good specialty conferences. I attended the long course yesterday on liver/pancreas and thought it was pretty good. Also attended a lot of psoter presentations, platforms, and specialty conferences at night. The highlights I think were seeing Rosai present a case presentation (he looks old but moves fast- he blew by me at the poster presentations and obviously can still move quickly 😉 ) and the GI conference on tuesday night. It included 5 case presentations, two of which will be long remembered - John Hart from U of Chicago presenting a case of Behcet's disease and being very liberal with his use of the term "scrotal ulcer" and Appelman presenting a case of solitary rectal ulcer syndrome in a weightlifter which was the highest of high comedy.
3) I got to present a poster and it was a great experience - got to talk to lots of great GU pathologists and others from around the country. They also had a session every morning from 7-8am where they had food for housestaff and the opportunity to meet well known pathologists and chat, which people did not take advantage of. Another local resident and I went M-W and were nearly the only ones there. We also got taken out for dinner last night by three attendings from our instutitions which was neat. Then they bought us drinks at the bar.
USCAP is busy - there are events from 8am-9:30pm every day and multiple events at each time. Never a shortage of things to do.
4) There were about 10,000 posters about EGFR and P16.
Thoughts:
1) Went to the house staff seminar on sunday night. It was a panel of private and academic pathologists and a recently graduating resident. The consensus: Employers are looking for people who have some extra training (like a cyto or hemepath fellowship) but not TOO MUCH extra training. More than two fellowships is actually frowned upon and employers start to wonder what your problem is. As usual, doing a dermpath fellowship is the most desirable currently but almost any fellowship will give you a leg up (except for microbio, chem). Private jobs are starting out in many places well over $200k, academics $120-140k. But the real numbers are not actually available and a lot of it depends on variables like whether they pay your malpractice, benefits, etc. In short: There are enough jobs out there and opportunities are apparently increasing.
The importance of the surgical pathology fellowship was emphasized, as the impression is growing among employers that residents are not as well trained in basic competencies as they were in the past and now require more hand holding at the start.
You can see the handouts for free online at www.uscap.org - look at the "evening specialty conference handouts" under house staff.
They also specifically addressed the "path mill" type jobs and said the current prevelance of these jobs is still under 5% of the total jobs around the country, and the CAP and other organizations are actually actively lobbying to decrease these jobs and encourage people not to take them. Dr Silva and others said that it is unlikely these jobs will become commonplace.
The main factors important to employers which are often overlooked are "Interpersonal skills" and "Communication skills" as well as the ability to work with others. If you do well in residency and get good references from your attendings, this will have a large impact on your job search success.
2) Lots of good specialty conferences. I attended the long course yesterday on liver/pancreas and thought it was pretty good. Also attended a lot of psoter presentations, platforms, and specialty conferences at night. The highlights I think were seeing Rosai present a case presentation (he looks old but moves fast- he blew by me at the poster presentations and obviously can still move quickly 😉 ) and the GI conference on tuesday night. It included 5 case presentations, two of which will be long remembered - John Hart from U of Chicago presenting a case of Behcet's disease and being very liberal with his use of the term "scrotal ulcer" and Appelman presenting a case of solitary rectal ulcer syndrome in a weightlifter which was the highest of high comedy.
3) I got to present a poster and it was a great experience - got to talk to lots of great GU pathologists and others from around the country. They also had a session every morning from 7-8am where they had food for housestaff and the opportunity to meet well known pathologists and chat, which people did not take advantage of. Another local resident and I went M-W and were nearly the only ones there. We also got taken out for dinner last night by three attendings from our instutitions which was neat. Then they bought us drinks at the bar.
USCAP is busy - there are events from 8am-9:30pm every day and multiple events at each time. Never a shortage of things to do.
4) There were about 10,000 posters about EGFR and P16.
