Advice for a new grad trying to find job in a specific location

[margaretandersonpa]

I need some advice from some PAs who have gone before me who may have encountered a similar situation in the past. I recently graduated from PA school, took my boards and am now certified and starting the job hunt. My significant other landed a job in Vail, Colorado and I have had awful luck trying to find a job in my preferred setting of primary care, ER, women's health or urgent care anywhere within a 2 hour radius of him. After searching the past 2 weeks and getting discouraged, here are some potential ways I could go in my career search until something close opens up?

 

1. Get a job, any job, regardless of pay or specialty IN the state of Colorado

2. Get a job in another state that has a flexible schedule (eg 3 days on, 4 days off) so I can have extended days off for travel purposes to visit

3. Get a well-paying job 9-10 hours away to pay loans/save money and visit when I can

4. Locum tenens positions- is this possible as a new grad?

 

What are your opinions, as a new grad in this situation? Any advice would be much appreciated (as well as job leads ;) )! Thank you!

[AZPA14]

If I were you, and really wanted to work in Vail, I would do a little research about all the medical practices in Vail/surrounding areas. Call each one you are interested in and ask to talk with the clinical manager/operations manager and simply introduce yourself. Remember to get their contact info and send a follow-up letter expressing your interest in the group. If you are in the area put your suit on, print out a CV and make a visit.

 

A lot of practices are in need of a PA but haven't taken that step to post the opening...

 

Best of luck!!!

[gbrothers98]

I am not a new grad and not looking for a job and know nothing of the Vail, CO PA job market.

That said, if your significant other is that significant, then move there and keep looking. There are plenty of instances where other couples have done exactly that. This is the same leap of faith you took when you applied and got accepted to school. There was no guarantee that you would succeed but at least you had an opportunity.

You may also have an increased ability to network and find work if you are local vs trying to accomplish something from afar whether it be your relationship or your career.

This will sound corny but if the other person in your life is special enough, do you want to be on your death bed thinking: I wish I had spent more time with _____, rather than working.

Good luck

G Brothers PA-C

[winterallsummer]

Hospital websites, call clinics, check locums (yes as new grad), consider fields such as occ med, etc. traveling 8 hours twice a week will take a big toll on your relationship IMO.

[coloradicalgirl]

I am not a PA...yet...but I lived and worked in the Vail Valley for several years in my past life as a competitive snowboarder and nanny and can tell you without reservation that small mountain towns are about who you know more than what you know so if you want to work there start networking.

 

Vail is a small town, but it's a place lots of people want to live so there is a lot of competition for relatively few jobs. When I was a patient at VVMC's ED, the only PA I saw was my surgeon's PA. To my knowledge, all of the orthopedic surgeons at Steadmans have their own PA's who have been with them for a long time.

 

Denver is 2 hours from Vail, so if that is really how far you are willing to travel there should be several jobs available.

 

Otherwise, I would look into Summit and Grand County. Silverthorne, Kremmling, Granby, and Fraser are all within 2 hrs of Vail.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Febrifuge]

The folksy wisdom that has come down from this board in the past has gone like this, for new grads:

 

1 Location

2 Specialty

3 Salary

 

You can usually make two of the three work, but basically never will all three work out. So if you're willing to work in any specialty, you should be able to find a half-decent wage in your chosen area (bearing in mind that it's a very highly desired area, so "half-decent" might simply mean "sort of competitive" within a market that doesn't pay very well in general).

 

If you're willing to take a lousy salary, you should be able to find something in your chosen location, in your preferred specialty.

 

If you're willing to have a two-hour commute to Denver, maybe you can work something out where the money is decent and you're working in a specialty you like.

 

On the other hand, bear in mind that a surprisingly high percentage of new grads do not stay in the first job they land after school. There are many reasons for this, and most of them are beyond your control. Just something else to keep in mind.

[cbrsmurf]

Ortho.  All those skiers/boarders and all those clavicles and ankles waiting to be fractured... there has to be a bunch of orthos in CO. 

[EMEDPA]

I followed my wife to CA after PA school so she could go to grad school(it was her turn). I limited myself to er, urgent care, and family practice within 2 hours of where we lived. I found a good job 63 miles away and commuted 75 min 1 way for 2 years until she was done with school then we moved. my commute then went to 5 min.

in your situation you may need to just take any pa job in any specialty within what you consider a reasonable commuting distance and keep looking for better jobs closer to home.

[arnosr190]

@moderator: I'm in a similar boat and am currently experiencing a similar "significant other" situation. I followed her to Los Angeles, CA and she is currently in grad school. Managed to land a job close by with decent salary but the specialty is not what I want...pain management and limiting IMO for what we are trained for in school. Right now I am attempting to transition but found @febrifuge dead on with the fact you can only get 2 of the three. Thinking of going locums in primary care but unsure if I'll have physician or PA support wherever I go - any locum PAs out there that can give insight into recent grads and going locums?

[BruceBanner]

 

I need some advice from some PAs who have gone before me who may have encountered a similar situation in the past. I recently graduated from PA school, took my boards and am now certified and starting the job hunt. My significant other landed a job in Vail, Colorado and I have had awful luck trying to find a job in my preferred setting of primary care, ER, women's health or urgent care anywhere within a 2 hour radius of him. After searching the past 2 weeks and getting discouraged, here are some potential ways I could go in my career search until something close opens up?

 

1. Get a job, any job, regardless of pay or specialty IN the state of Colorado

2. Get a job in another state that has a flexible schedule (eg 3 days on, 4 days off) so I can have extended days off for travel purposes to visit

3. Get a well-paying job 9-10 hours away to pay loans/save money and visit when I can

4. Locum tenens positions- is this possible as a new grad?

 

What are your opinions, as a new grad in this situation? Any advice would be much appreciated (as well as job leads ;) )! Thank you!

 

 

This I can actually speak with some authority about since my father lives/works in Vail and has some property there. 

 

I live in Denver, and the job prospects here are not much better. Especially for a new grad. I've posted about it at length in several recent threads.

 

The deal with Denver/Vail is this: They are very desirable areas to live, and as such supply and demand comes into effect with a vengeance. I'm a Colorado native, but I was on the east coast for about 8 years for college and PA school. I came back 2 years ago, and I had a HELL of a time finding work back then (took me 3+ months, had to take an occ med gig for $72k) and I'm having a hell of a time finding work now, even with 2+ years of experience.

 

Since there are more PAs in Denver and Vail than there are jobs, employers want experience, or more aptly, specificity of experience. So as a new grad you really have zero bargaining power, and zero career capital.

 

My advice to you would be to look for work outside of Denver and Vail. There are a LOT of jobs elsewhere in the state---I get emails all the time!! They just aren't in places accessible to any major city and many of them are straight up in the middle of nowhere. They tend to be less selective, and you will have better luck as a new grad with rural/underserved jobs. Easter Colorado (aka western Kansas) is full of them. Check with the major locums agencies like CompHealth, NP Now, Allied staffing, etc. I'd say at least once a week I see a posting for a gig in some remote Colorado town. Jobs in resort-style towns or mountain culture towns go FAST and wont touch a new grad unless you have a big "in". There was a job in Pagosa Springs several months back that had over 150 applicants in 48 hours!!

 

The ONLY jobs I have ever seen in Vail are ortho gigs, mostly with Steadman-Hawkins, and they have a high-ish turnover. I actually interviewed with them prior to graduating, but the doc straight up told me I would work 60+ hours a week during ski season and effectively be on call most of the time. You'd have a great ortho CV if you joined them, and you'd make good $$$, but don't expect to have a life.