Applying to jobs without having rotation in the specialty

[nmc5108]

Hello all,

 

I'm a second year PA student and will be graduating in December. I really enjoy the OR and am looking into surgical jobs. I have some interest in ortho and as I look at job listings I see a lot of ortho positions and a lot seem open to training new grads. I have shadowed in ortho surgery but did not have a rotation in it (we only had one elective and I chose CT surg), so I was wondering if a rotation in the specialty, especially something like ortho is usually required to be considered or hired.

Thanks

[rev ronin]

Is a rotation in the specialty mandatory to land a job in that specialty as a new grad? No.  Will one help you land a job in that specialty? Yes.  How much of a difference would having a rotation make? Hard to say.

[CAAdmission]

If you really like surgery and are fairly dexterous, look at CT or neurosurgery.

 

If you have stubby little sausage fingers and like to lift weights and you often sport a blank expression, ortho is the way to go.

[newton9686]

Come on CJ Admin, don't be hateful. Orthos are people too.

[crystaltide]

Ortho practices definitely had the most plentiful positions that were open to new grads in my neck of the woods, so I applied to a few without doing a rotation in ortho surg. I got interviews for two of them. During the phone interviews they didn't seem to care much about the lack of an ortho surg rotation . I didn't do in-person interviews since I was offered a position I infinitely preferred to ortho surg, so I can't say if an ortho surg rotation would have made a difference in the final stages.