Relocating for Residency & Specialty Competitiveness

[88rising]

Hi,

I am a MS1 from an Eastern Canadian med school. I'm interested in moving in the future, and I'm wondering what my future chances are of matching to a relatively competitive specialty in Ontario or Western Canada? I'm specifically curious about radiology. 

I took a look at the CaRMS stats available online (https://www.carms.ca/pdfs/2019-CaRMS-Forum-data.pdf) and on slide 37 it is evident that 79/192 Dal & MUN grads relocated from Eastern Canada. However, this does not break down what specialties these graduates match to... imo there's a big diff if 90% of them match to fam med vs. a competitive surg specialty. I'd appreciate anecdotal evidence or better stats if there are any. Thanks!

[1D7]

Anecdote but I knew two people who wanted to leave. They're now in a surg specialty & radiology. If you search up programs that list their residents, you can see that there are residents from the East coast across various programs in Western Canada/Ontario. Honestly it's not any different from a BC student wanting to come to Ontario, or Ontario to BC, which happens all the time.

For radiology (and most specialties), do an elective at places where you want to go and do well. Assuming no red flags and you look reasonable on paper, historically that has been sufficient express interest in a program outside your region to obtain an interview. If you have a good reason for wanting to move, even better, as it'll be easier to convince programs that you're being honest about being open to relocating (not that they should be asking... but some may indirectly ask/hint about it).

[88rising]

22 minutes ago, 1D7 said:

Anecdote but I knew two people who wanted to leave. They're now in a surg specialty & radiology. If you search up programs that list their residents, you can see that there are residents from the East coast across various programs in Western Canada/Ontario. Honestly it's not any different from a BC student wanting to come to Ontario, or Ontario to BC, which happens all the time.

For radiology (and most specialties), do an elective at places where you want to go and do well. Assuming no red flags, historically that has been often sufficient express interest in a program outside your region to obtain an interview. If you have a good reason for wanting to move, even better, as it'll be easier to convince programs that you're being honest about being open to relocating (not that they should be asking... but some may indirectly ask/hint about it).

Thanks for sharing! That's a good idea re looking at the list of residents if available, I'll check some of them out. And thanks for the tips. I know I am only in med 1, but I'll definitely take every opportunity I can to learn in bigger cities, especially if that will help my end-goal of moving. Appreciate it!