Landing Your First Otolaryngology Job

4. For those with jobs lined up for the end of residency, January of PGY-5 is the time to make sure all “your ducks are in a row,” said Andrew Murr, MD, chairman of the department of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at the University of California at San Francisco. “I think it’s really important to have a job lined up if you’re not doing a fellowship in your last year of training, because applying for hospital privileges, applying for medical licensure, if that’s necessary, takes several months,” he said. “So if you want to have a job in July, that January time period is part of the end stage of finalizing the decision.”

It is important to be sure that you have an understanding of the contract and how they run their business—and that it is a way of doing things that you’re comfortable with.

—Lawrence Simon, MD

Getting the Job

One of the keys to getting a job, in otolaryngology or any other field, is nailing the interview, and one way to do that is to follow the “Four Rs” as previously described to ENTtoday (see “Just the FAQs,” December 2012, p. 24) by Jim Stone, president of The Medicus Firm and immediate past president of the National Association of Physician Recruiters. Stone suggests performing proper research, setting up references in advance, making sure your resume is in shape, and using a roundtable to ask personal stakeholders what their needs might be.

Assuming you pass that threshold, the most difficult decisions often have to do with how to handle a job offer. John Sinacori, MD, director of the otolaryngology residency training program at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, said that looking at job offers is not as simple as taking the one that offers the most money. “You compare the details of the practice, the people in the practice,” he said, “and then you look at what the actual practice will look like. Suppose you would like to concentrate your efforts on endocrine surgery but someone is already fulfilling that role; you may want to look somewhere else if they are not willing to share those types of patients.”

Dr. Simon also urged young physicians joining a private practice to be inquisitive about the financial state of the business. It can be intimidating after years of applying for medical school, residency positions, and fellowships, where the onus is always on the candidate. “When you’re looking at jobs, you’re looking at people who have already expressed an interest in hiring someone,” he said. “They have a need, and you can meet their need. This isn’t you trying to earn an educational spot, … so instead of you trying to impress them, now both of you are trying to impress each other.”