Negotiations

[RandomD]

This is my first time negotiating contracts and could use some help. Without going into too much detail, I have one preliminary offer on the table and it looks like I may get a second offer that is very similar in base pay. The difference is that the second offer is in an underserved area and are offering pretty nice sign on bonus, relocation, production bonus, and loan repayment (but loan repayment is not very much). Would it be bad form to pit the two against each other to try to get a better deal? How would you approach that? Everything else is similar in terms of training, expected patient volume, and benefits.

[rev ronin]

There are courses in negotiating that I think every PA ought to take--not just for our own contract benefits, but also for patient communications.

 

It's generally OK to tell each place you have another offer you're considering.  Realize that there's a chance that each job might take that as a reason to not continue negotiating further with you, but that's not usually how good employers behave.

 

As a new grad, I would focus on time to learn (vs. being deluged with ridiculous numbers of patients), good mentoring environment, and getting as broad an approach to medicine as possible.  In my mind, these are all more important than base pay. I highly recommend family medicine for any new grad, as long as you aren't getting the fire hose of patients shoved at you.

[RandomD]

Thanks, rev ronin. I agree fully about training and made it clear that was a priority. I believe it was received well and they want to teach. Patient numbers were very manageable - 30 mins to 1hr per patient. Both are in the same IM specialty.