When to apply for jobs

[HmTwoPA]

First I apologize if this question has been answered. I've been on the forums for a while, but I haven't seen it come up. 

During the clinical year, when is a good time to start applying for jobs. I'm looking to relocate to my home town of Boise upon graduation in August. I was thinking about May or April. My wife is a nurse and will probably do the same thing. I understand that there is a 2-3 month gap while waiting to actually start the job after graduation due to licensing.

On a related note, and I understand this may be area specific, would it be wise to put our house up for sale around the same time. 

[MCHAD]

Id start now especially if you have one specific market you want to get back to. At least reaching out and trying to network in the area of medicine you want to work in 

[DizzyJ]

From my experience, most jobs want you to start within 60-90 days (with a little wiggle room for new grads perhaps).  I can see on one hand networking and getting your name out there for potential employers, but this will likely only apply to private practice and those considering hiring someone in the next year.  A large healthcare organization, in my opinion, will likely not give any consideration with graduation being 10 months away.  A caveat could be a very low applicant pool.  I would say, more realistically, June would get you more consideration for positions. Would it cause you any harm to start applying now?  Probably not. 

For the house I would do some research for your area for average days on market for that time of year.  That could give you a better idea of when to list. 

[amykpac10]

I am a recent grad and started applying places in May. Most places said to apply again in a few months when it would be closer to graduation. An exception is if you've done a rotation at the particular place you are applying, then I think April/May is a good time to apply. Other than that, most places wouldn't consider me, since I wasn't graduating for another 3 months.

 

However, I started another round of applications around July, and have been applying through October, and I JUST found a job. It can be hit or miss. Doesn't hurt to apply earlier, but don't jump the gun too much unless you know the practice.

[MCHAD]

One thing that may be an option if you’re allowed to set up your own rotations would be to try to reach out to the specialties you wanna work in over in Boise and see if they’d take you as a student, would be great networking and could turn into job offers...