What you wish you had known before your first position out of residency/fellowship

[mjohnsonets]

I hadn't seen this question posed in the recent (years) posts of this forum so thought it would be a good question in the young ophthalmologists' forum.

There are many ophthalmologists who end up changing practices after one year out of residency or fellowship; some don't even wait that long. From my experience, much of this seems to be a personality mismatch but occasionally I hear "I was over-promised". What are some questions you wish you had asked or things you wish you had known before joining your first practice?

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[LightBox]

New associates have to realize that work comes before reward. Too often, they see the partners' success and expect all of the benefits without any of the work or risk. The only thing that matters, in terms of "promises", is in the work agreement. Nothing just spoken matters.

 

[Fascia Lata]

New associates have to realize that work comes before reward. Too often, they see the partners' success and expect all of the benefits without any of the work or risk. The only thing that matters, in terms of "promises", is in the work agreement. Nothing just spoken matters.

I think “overpromised” does not necessarily imply financial promises, but also access to patients, scope, certain procedures, etc. In some practices, the senior partner may only allow the new associate to do the complex cases that have significant chair time, while all the quick, high paying and cash procedures like premium IOLs and MIGS are “routed” some how to the senior partner(s). I am sure there are similar analogies in the subspecialties. In other practices, the senior partner may make sure the new associate never reaches the bonus threshold. These are examples that happened with people I know, but I am sure there are many other forms of “overpromising”. I agree the new associate shouldn’t expect to get all the benefits without putting in the time and effort. S/he shouldn’t expect to just be on par with the senior partner who built the practice and grew it over 15-20 years and sometimes more. I just think that as professionals, we should be honest and upfront.

 

[dantt]

Call responsibilities, specifics about partnership buy in if it's a partnership track position, non competes.

 

[schistosomiasis]

Here is my list:

How to evaluate an ophthalmology job associate position

By Howie Chen- important factors to consider when evaluating a ophthalmology job offer

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