Career and Life Planning Guidebook for Medical Residents

Make Sure Your Requests Are Reasonable. The most popular advice candidates receive from their colleagues is, “it doesn’t hurt to ask” or “theworst thing the employer can say is no”. Unfortunately, candidates who try to negotiate a term that’s not reasonable for the specific market, type of position, and specialty may not hear from that employer again. Also, you should not request anything that is immoral, unethical, illegal, or improper. Don’t Negotiate Like Bart Bart, a third-year internal medicine resident is well-liked by his colleagues. His program director describes Bart as the ideal physician, employee, and colleague. Bart’s goal was to secure a position before the New Year to give him plenty of time to obtain his licenses and credentials and prepare for life after residency. Due to a busy rotation, studying for his exams, and figuring out whether to pursue a hospitalist position, a traditional practice, or a 100% outpatient position, Bart hadn’t begun searching for a position. As Bart headed back home to spend Thanksgiving with his family, his loved ones grilled Bart on how his job search was coming along, Bart’s anxiety heightened because he hadn’t started yet. He placed his search in high gear and started applying for positions and scheduling interviews in January and February. Bartwasoverwhelmedwith theprocessof selectinghis first position. A few weeks before Bart was scheduled for his first onsite interview, he sat down with his fellow third-year residents for a quick bite to eat. As Bart took a bite of his sandwich, his colleagues began to share the offers they received. Bart sat quietly listening to each of the offers and applied the respective offers from each of his colleagues when he tried to negotiate. We recreated Bart’s luncheon with his fellow residents and Bart’s negotiations with his ideal employer as an example of a negotiation landmine to avoid. http://md.careers/Negotiate Bart ended up securing a position; however, he lost out on the position he really wanted. By the time he went back to the two positions he was offered, both were filled. Bart had to start the process over and started his position four months after he completed his training with his third-choice employer. Position Yourself for An Offer Before You Start Interviewing Adopting a negotiating mindset starts well before the actual negotiation process. Positioning yourself for the most favorable outcome starts when you submit your CV and cover letter and continues throughout the interview process, including the phone interview, onsite interview(s), reference/background check, offer stage, contract review and negotiation. When reading our chapters on these topics, be sure to keep this positioning in mind! SECTION III: T MINUS ONE YEAR CAREER AND LIFE PLANNING GUIDEBOOK FOR MEDICAL RESIDENTS 292