Interviewing for post-residency job...

Hi everybody! My husband is a PGY3 resident and he will be applying for his post residency job in the next few months. I have so many questions about this process, I don't know where to begin!

1. For those of you who have been through this process, do you remember about how many interviews your husband went on? I want my husband to interview at as many places as possible so that we can leave our options open, but he doesn't want to "bother" with so many interviews. I guess he's confident he can get any job he wants

2. Do you have to cover your own travel expenses during the interviewing process or do the hospitals usually pick up the tab? I'm expecting that we need to cover everything.

3. I've noticed a lot of you have been through the relocation process. My husband and I live in Southern California and desperately want to relocate...mainly because So Cal is way overpopulated and way, way, way, way, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay overpriced and everyone and their brother seems to have had some type of plastic surgery.... ! Not to mention So Cal is a largely materialistic place! I hope I'm not offending anyone! We are born and raised Southern Californians and have never left the area so although we want to relocate, I have mixed emotions...I don't want to leave our families (especially since we are thinking about starting a family soon) and whenever I tell someone we want to move, they look at me like I'm out of my mind for wanting to leave California! Right now we're pretty much open to any place that is a good place to raise a family...we're leaning towards OR, TX, NC. Does anyone have any thoughts, advice, good stories, horror stories, regrets about relocating?

4. Are there any towns or cities that you would recommend as a good place to raise a family? Since my DH is still in residency, we haven't really had the luxury of traveling to many different areas of the country, so I'm rather "uneducated" about places outside of California!

Sorry for such a long post! My husband and I have been together since high school and for the 1st time in well...ever, we actually have a choice (well, for the most part) about where we want to live, settle down, start a family. This next chapter in our lives is so exciting and it is also overwhelming! I would love to hear advice from anyone who has "been there".

(Sorry again for the long post!!)

El

[Phoebe]

Hi El. I will chime in here with our experience with interviewing and relocating since we have just been through it. I will say that I can't comment on California or on Emergency Medicine as my husband just completed a fellowship in another specialty.

We are living in the midwest and I haven't lived west of Indiana where we just moved a month ago. My husband started looking for positions approximately nine months ahead of time at my urgency. I wanted to know where we were going to end up post-training! He started the first round of interviews in November for a position he planned to start in July. He made a final decision at the end of January after interviewing about 7 places. We knew we wanted to stay close to family in the midwest so he focused his search in those states while looking for a clinical position as opposed to academic (although he interviewed for both types of jobs).

Travel expenses and accommodations for interviews for provided by the hospital or practice doing the hiring. The hopsitals paid for plane tickets or mileage if the interview was close enough to drive. Once arriving, transportation was provided through a rental car or someone driving him where he needed to be. Lodging was also paid for by the hospital. However, often he would have to pay for the hotel or rental car up front, but they always reimbursed him. During the interview meals were provided and he was normally taken out to dinner for a more social gathering the evening following the interview. The following day it was customary for a realtor or someone to show him around the city.

I accompanied him on the first two interviews and the hospital did pay for my travel, as well. Since we had a small child, I decided not to go on subsequent interviews unless it was a place my husband was truly interested in working. It turns out that my husband ended up taking the job where he first interviewed. I had came on the first interview and I came back a second time to get a feel for the city once we were pretty sure he would sign a contract. The hospital paid for all our trips including house hunting. Our expenses included meals which wasn't bad.

How many interviews your husband goes on is an individual preference influenced by the location and competitiveness of the field. If there is a specific area you are looking, you may not need to interview lots of places. On the other hand, it may be good to travel to several interviews just to get experience and get a feel for what it is like working in different environments.

Does your husband want to work in a Level 1 trauma center? Then you are probably looking in bigger cities, etc. My husband is a neonatologist and knew he wanted to work in a larger hospital so that influenced where he looked for a job. However, he interviewed in smaller locations which confirmed where he would be happiest. Since the expenses were ultimately not our responsibility, my husband found it worthwhile to interview at several locations.

If possible and paid for, I would encourage you to attend as many interviews as possible so you both get a feel for the city, people he would work with and lifestyle you would have. One person my husband interviewed with said, if your wife isn't happy, you will not be happy here. You both need to like where you end up. I found that hospitals welcomed me to travel with my husband to the interview location. I enjoyed having the day to explore the city on my own while he sat in meetings all day.

Job searching is exciting and nervewracking at the same time!

Good luck with your search!

Jennifer

Although my DH is an ED attending, I can't truly comment on the post residency interview process. DH had signed a contract at the end of his 3rd year, (he did a 4 yr program in Columbus). We are from Texas and I was truly hoping to go back, but I don't always get what I want. Now that he is partner with his group he goes out with the other senior partners when they interview new applicants. I would say travel reimbursement truly depends on how badly they want to fill a spot. At the Level 1 trauma center they basically have their pick over a lot of applicants. Usually they take the person to dinner and that's it. If you get to that stage they are pretty much interested in you.

Even though you deny materialistic things, here's a thought. ED pay is higher in Texas than in OR, CA, and NC. Why? Lack of EM residencies in Texas. Another plus, no State tax in Texas. Big deal you may ask? The difference in our State tax in Ohio could pay for a major chunk of our Mortgage payment each month. Keep in mind also that property is cheaper in Texas. For what we pay in Ohio, we could have a near mansion in Texas. Once again I am asking myself what the heck we are doing here???

Texas is great for raising kids depending on if you decide large city or smaller town. Here in Ohio, DH works in Columbus while we live about 45 min away from all the crime and pollution. Best of both worlds.

Other things for your DH to consider is Malpractice, licensing, partnership,ie. with each place to factor in your decision as they can vary immensly from state to state and group to group. It takes longer to get your license in Texas so if this is truly one of your considerations then you need to plan 3 months in advance at least to get that license.

If you have any other questions feel free to PM me or email me at pwood1@columbus.rr.com.

Trisha

Probably the most important thing we did was to sit down together and brainstorm a list of the things we were looking for, both in the practice for him and personal considerations for both of us. He liked an experience he had during med school doing a rotation in rural Iowa, and had loved living in North Carolina, so we began looking at small towns in the South. (If you'd like to see the list we put together, PM me with an email address and I'll send it to you.)

After we had that list, we were able to evaluate every opportunity we found against it, and managed to rule a LOT of opportunities out without going on a ton of fruitless interviews.

Malpractice rates were also a big consideration. I did a lot of research into the "crisis" states, and we scratched them off our list, even though some were really appealing. And I'll second Trisha's comments about licensing and partnership--both very important considerations. Also, does your husband have a ton of loans hanging out there? A lot of opportunities, particularly in "underserved" areas offer loan repayment benefits. Definitely worth checking into.

The hospitals paid for all our travel, accomodations, meals, etc. I'm told that's pretty much standard practice.

I was always a big city girl (grew up in downtown Denver), but I'm finding there are a lot of good things about living in a small town--the main one being you would not believe the house we have here, for the same mortgage payment we were making on our little starter house in Wisconsin during residency. And I've also been able to stop working day jobs and concentrate on my writing, because the cost of living is so much lower here.

What I'm really trying to say is to figure out exactly what you want and pick the opportunity that comes closest to it. Please let me know if you have questions!

[PrincessFiona]

1. For those of you who have been through this process, do you remember about how many interviews your husband went on?

He went on about 15...I just went to 2...the ones he was most interested in at the very end.

2. Do you have to cover your own travel expenses during the interviewing process or do the hospitals usually pick up the tab?

Unlike residency or fellowship, all expenses tended to be covered for us....they also not only flew out my husband, but flew me out as well. They put us up in nice hotels, paid for our flights and rental cars, meals, etc.

3. I've noticed a lot of you have been through the relocation process. My husband and I live in Southern California and desperately want to relocate... Does anyone have any thoughts, advice, good stories, horror stories, regrets about relocating?

In my opinion...get out and see some other areas of the country....You can always come back after training! Of course, my husband did residency/fellowship in germany, N. ireland, PA and FL. Every place that we lived was a unique and rewarding experience that we got a lot out of. He was able to see how people do medicine in other places and we were able to explore the different 'cultures' in America. I also speak as a military brat though who has moved more times than she cares to mention....but I think there are a lot of benefits to seeing other systems at work. Here in Central MN, most people were born and raised here. They went to med school at the U of MN, did residency at the U of MN or an outlying hospital and then came back to Central Minnesota to practice. The result is an extraordinarily homogenous group of docs who have really only seen one way of doing things and think that all change is B-A-D. This is also a problem for me socially because many people that I know have never been outside of the state of MN....even for vacation...unless maybe they have traveled to Wisconsin.

4. Are there any towns or cities that you would recommend as a good place to raise a family?

I agree that you guys should sit down and decide what you are looking for in a community..whether or not you want to live very close to a metropolitan area or in a more rural location. You'll want to consider schools for children (schools in the south still do rank towards the bottom of the 50 states, while schools in the north tend to fill out the upper 1/2), crime, cost-of-living, etc. There are some good websites that could be useful: http://www.homefair.com is one that allows you to check some of these statistics out.....but there are many other good ones as well.

Also, remember....if you move somewhere and it isn't a good match for you both....it doesn't have to be permanent...Enjoy the adventure!

Kris

Jennifer, Trisha, and Kris...I greatly appreciate your feedback. All of the information you have provided me has helped me greatly! I am so nervous about my husband finding a post residency job, but your advice has calmed my nerves quite a bit! It has been so great to hear your input since you are the experts....having been through this process already. Kris, I loved your advice about discovering other parts of the country. I definitely think that if we stay in California for the rest of our lives, we would eventually regret not experiencing life in other regions. Thanks again for taking the time to respond to me. I can't wait to share your input and advice with my husband!!

El

I also wanted to add my thanks to those who responded here and to El for posting this. We will be in the same situation next year. I especially found the part about the hospitals paying for interview expenses interesting. Do practices also pay? That's great news if so since I was already worrying about saving enough money to cover the interviews.

Hi all,
I don't have much to offer re: post-residency interviews...other than to say that friends who have gone through that have indeed had their interview expenses paid for by the practice/hospital/university. And have done several trips for the interview and house hunting. A nice change from the residency interviews!

As we looked at places we wanted to live and would rank highly, I found the following websites helpful:
1. http://www.bestplaces.net -- a very general source of information but can start you thinking about your priorities and expectations for a place to live.
2. http://www.greatschools.net -- if schools factor into your decision-making, this site can be helpful. We have used it to narrow our housing search by zip codes (we do real estate searches based on the zip code of the schools we like -- imperfect but better than nothing).

I also found it helpful to list the things I really like and will miss about our current location. One example is the community center near our house, another would be farmer's markets or access to fresh locally-grown produce. (I know these may seem odd....). Another could be a type of industry you work in/want to work in. We compared that list to the locations we were looking at.

Good luck! And thanks for starting the topic -- we will all be in your shoes at some point *fingers crossed*.

I also found it helpful to list the things I really like and will miss about our current location. One example is the community center near our house, another would be farmer's markets or access to fresh locally-grown produce. (I know these may seem odd....).

Not odd at all! My list had farmer's markets or access to fresh local produce, a photo place that prints out digital pictures, and a great library--preferably a university. I got all!