Residency Insight -- A PRESENT Podiatry eZine

by John Steinberg, DPM
PRESENT Editor
Assistant Professor,
Department of Plastic Surgery
Georgetown University
School of Medicine

Graduation Approaches...
Do you have the PERFECT Job?

In addition to tomorrow being April Fool's Day, the beginning of April means there is no turning back from the fact that Residency Graduation is rapidly approaching. There is much to do and much to wrap up before closing out this chapter in life and moving on to the rest of your professional life. This likely means searching for, applying for, interviewing for, and hopefully securing your first job as a DPM.

In general, I find that most graduating residents get way too anxious about finding the 'perfect' job. Chances are good that you will not be working at the same place 1-2 years after you graduate, so I encourage you to not over-think this decision. Obviously, you should find a reasonable job that is located in an area that you likely would be happy to live, but how are you to really know the answer to these two concerns before you try it out? Partly for this reason, I think that some of the best initial jobs can be in places that many don't initially think of; such as the VA System, Kaiser Permanente and public health system positions. These jobs usually offer the support of a large provider network and do most if not all of the practice management tasks for you, while you still have the chance to do some 'on the job training' in these essential skills for a possible move to private practice setting. There are no huge loans to take out in order to set up or purchase a practice, there is no staff to hire and fire, and there is no waiting for medicare checks to arrive in order to pay your bills and your salary.

So, in summary, when you set out to look for your first DPM job position, don't over-think it. Find yourself a good job in a good location, but be realistic that you will very likely be moving (jobs and/or locations) within just a few short years. There is nothing wrong with taking a job that isn't PERFECT if it is in the town that you KNOW you want to live in. You will get to know the community and will almost certainly end up moving in to the 'right' practice setting shortly after you figure out what it is that you are really looking for!

###