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Where Are (And Aren't) The Jobs?


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Recently I spoke to two physicians who told me there are no jobs in Cardiology which totally crushed me. I've been trying to find more information about what specialties actually have jobs and will be in demand vs. those with not-so-great prospects. Anyone have some insights or know where I can find more information?

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Given that it is 2015 and your expected graduation from a cardiology program would be 2025, with possibility of fellowship afterwards, I think the validity of any job market forecasts a decade plus into the future has its limits. Unless there are major changes in a field causing an overall decline, the job market usually moves in a cycle - as the market tightens up, fewer people go into a field, which eventually leads to a favourable market, which leads more people to enter again...

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There's a few resources on the current state which have some good insights, but as Lactic Folly says, what's true today isn't necessarily what's true tomorrow. The Royal College report on unemployed specialists is a good place to start.

 

There are also a few efforts to project physician job markets into the future. These have some merit when looked at in a very broad context, but I wouldn't start with them - they're fairly inaccurate on their own.

 

Notably, while it's true there are some definite cyclical elements in physician job markets, those cycles don't come about too quickly. For example, while there are shifts in the number of people interested in a particular specialty based on job markets, the shits are slow to appear, taking the better part of a decade to see a sustained shift in interest in most cases. Furthermore, because virtually every residency spot in Canada is filled one way or another, lower interest doesn't translate into a reduced number of practitioners unless the number of residency positions change. There are some shifts in residency positions as well, but those numbers change even more slowly than student interest in specialties. In addition, the number of graduates in each specialty gets locked in fairly far in advance - while you may not be in practice until 2025 if you went into Cardiology and that seems far away, the number of new practitioners in most specialties in 2020 (and every year before that) is already set. The individuals finishing up residency in 2020 just started their residencies this year.

 

Basically, while the argument that job markets are most often cyclical is true, they shouldn't be taken to mean that specialties with rough job markets currently will have good job markets in the future.

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Also, you have to consider geographic location as well. There are jobs available, just not in large academic centers like Toronto. If you like Cardiology, I would say go for it, a program director I spoke to said "if you are a stellar resident and there are no jobs, people will make jobs for you"

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Also, you have to consider geographic location as well. There are jobs available, just not in large academic centers like Toronto. If you like Cardiology, I would say go for it, a program director I spoke to said "if you are a stellar resident and there are no jobs, people will make jobs for you"

 

True :)

 

although you do have to be careful - be definition any particular person that gets into cardiology will be statistically speaking average in that field. It is hard to base advice on people being extremely skilled in their particular pool of already extremely skilled people. We are all generally used to be much better academically than most other people - that's how you get into medicine in part. That effect will vanish for the majority of people as you go along. I know a lot of very very smart hard working people that are having real problems in getting a job right now. There are overall pressures on the market.

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Yes, ralk makes a good point that in medicine, the job market often depends more on factors on the demand side, rather than the supply side. 

With regards to the concept of "making a job," first ask yourself how the position is created, if there are currently no jobs? Will it involve taking something away from someone? How feasible will this be?

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Yes, ralk makes a good point that in medicine, the job market often depends more on factors on the demand side, rather than the supply side. 

With regards to the concept of "making a job," first ask yourself how the position is created, if there are currently no jobs? Will it involve taking something away from someone? How feasible will this be?

Currently based on demand, anything to do with geriatric populations should see lots of jobs. I don't really understand why med students aren't too interested in working with this population though...maybe it's not as exciting as surgery?

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My preceptor said the same thing a several times lol

I think because in geriatrics or in ward experience, you see a lot of patients who are 90 year old with dementia, with 15 diseases and 30 Rx active and 10 Rx PRN. It is pretty demanding in term of medical knowledge and often, you could not do much in terms of prognosis, it is often prolonging lives or discussing palliative care. It is not as rewarding psychologically as saving a 30 year old from TBI. 

As medical students, we are used to the interventional medicine mentality and we all hope to having patients with good prognosis.

There will be a lot of demand in geriatrics medicine, I hope that the interest will grow in the near future! :P

Currently based on demand, anything to do with geriatric populations should see lots of jobs. I don't really understand why med students aren't too interested in working with this population though...maybe it's not as exciting as surgery?

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