New Grad Job Search Advice!!!

[pennyp]

Hi everyone! I’m a new grad PA who just graduated a couple months ago and I’m primarily interested in GI, Family, or Hospital Medicine. A PA who I used to shadow in Thoracic Surgery reached out to me and asked for my resume and I thought, what the hell, I’ll give it a shot and see what this job is about. I just had an interview for this Thoracic surgery job and the team is willing to give me great training as a new grad. It seems great, but I’m not crazy about surgery and don’t have much procedure experience. They haven’t given me an offer yet, but I’m concerned that I won’t know what to do if they do. Should I hold out and see if I get an opportunity in specialty that I really want?  Part of me worries that if I turn this down another opportunity won’t come along...as I’ve already applied to about 15 different places the past month but haven’t heard anything back. Also how long is appropriate time to ask for before accepting an offer? 

Edited July 9, 2019 by shanmmull
Typo

[ohiovolffemtp]

I'd recommend asking if you can shadow a PA in the surgery practice for a day or 2 so you can get a really good feel for whether you'd like it or not.  Surgery isn't for everyone (for example I lived on ibuprofen during my surgery rotation - standing that long for cases wasn't for me).  I'd say an offer deserves a Y/N response within a week.  I can't speak to your overall job hunt - it's very much location, specialty, and person dependent.

[Mmarchan4]

Hello! Just came across your posting and was wondering if you ever ended up taking the thoracic surgery position. I have an interview for a thoracic surgery position next week and they said they'll be asking clinical questions. I'm just nervous because I had very little exposure to thoracic during my clinicals (I'm a new grad). Any tips on the interview? What sort of questions did they ask? Thanks in advance!