Advice: transitioning from MilMed to civ fellowship

[tweaked17]

I'll be separating from the military next summer and am applying for an IM subspecialty fellowship. I'm looking for general advice/lessons learned/pearls about this process from those who have followed a similar path within the past several years. A couple of more specific questions follow:

Transition timing - My separation request is in, and I'm asking for a solid 2 week terminal leave cushion, but did anyone have difficulties with commitment bleeding into the start of fellowship? If so, how did you navigate this?

GI bill stipend - I know that the institution you train at needs to be certified, but not much else about the process. Does anyone have a thorough guide on this? Best I could find on the forum was here.

Thanks for sharing your experiences.

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[IlDestriero]

I did a post Navy fellowship in pediatric anesthesia. I knew where I was going in December and got the ball rolling to make sure the program was certified. I don’t remember all of the details, but it was several calls and sending paperwork to be filed with the VA and then all was well by the time I got there.
It still took 3 months to get start getting paid.
The timing of things may be different now, but I didn’t accept my final year specialty bonus in the last year because I wanted to get out in July so I would be able to go wherever I wanted. I ended up taking 2 months off before starting. 2 weeks of “terminal leave” and 6 more weeks unpaid. I spent 2 weeks on the beach, unloaded the household goods and travelled some more. I just told them I couldn’t start until September, willing to negotiate to start in August, but they didn’t ask and I didn’t tell. Flexibility will be program dependent.
You’ll probably be very solid at interview time because you’ll already be board certified, etc. The admin leaderhsip stuff you’ve been forced to do will likely be more than most of the faculty at the fellowship have done, so play that up.
In my case many academic faculty were also very impressed that I was competent and experienced working alone and unafraid for routine cases through GSW to the chest, and everything in between, etc.
Have a good answer to “How do you feel about leaving your practice where you were a big dog, head of XYZ, etc. and coming back to a training role, possibly taking direction from faculty who are younger and less experienced than you?” They all asked a variety of that question.

 

[Gastrapathy]

@tweaked17
Make sure you know when you are actually free to separate. It’s often a month later than you expect and your command can keep you to the end of the month. It may not line up how you think it should

 

[WernickeDO]

I'll be separating from the military next summer and am applying for an IM subspecialty fellowship. I'm looking for general advice/lessons learned/pearls about this process from those who have followed a similar path within the past several years. A couple of more specific questions follow:

Transition timing - My separation request is in, and I'm asking for a solid 2 week terminal leave cushion, but did anyone have difficulties with commitment bleeding into the start of fellowship? If so, how did you navigate this?

GI bill stipend - I know that the institution you train at needs to be certified, but not much else about the process. Does anyone have a thorough guide on this? Best I could find on the forum was here.

Thanks for sharing your experiences.

1. Verify your through dates with HRC, and affirm that you are separating when you think you are. Save some leave for terminal to give yourself a buffer. If you are separating when you think you are...
2. Talk to your S1 now, get the resignation packet, fill it out, and have it submitted by 1 August. You will have to bird dog this packet all the way through to HRC because your S1 will lose it, need you to make edits, forget about it, PCS and leave it on their desk, etc.
3. Get into a SFL class, or whatever your branch calls it.
4. You have to apply for GIB online here: Apply for Benefits - Education and Training. You should easily qualify. When they award you benefits, you need to take that letter to your GME coordinator. They should know what to do with it at that point, but if they don't then you may have to work together to figure it out. I was lucky in that my GME coordinator knew exactly what to do. I got paid within 6 weeks (seriously).
5. Get your separation orders. That should have your last day as active duty, and minus your leave is the last day in uniform.
6. Outprocess your unit, battalion, brigade, division, hospital, and installation.
7. Grow out your beard and your hair.

Good luck.

 

[tweaked17]

I did a post Navy fellowship in pediatric anesthesia. I knew where I was going in December and got the ball rolling to make sure the program was certified. I don’t remember all of the details, but it was several calls and sending paperwork to be filed with the VA and then all was well by the time I got there.
It still took 3 months to get start getting paid.
The timing of things may be different now, but I didn’t accept my final year specialty bonus in the last year because I wanted to get out in July so I would be able to go wherever I wanted. I ended up taking 2 months off before starting. 2 weeks of “terminal leave” and 6 more weeks unpaid. I spent 2 weeks on the beach, unloaded the household goods and travelled some more. I just told them I couldn’t start until September, willing to negotiate to start in August, but they didn’t ask and I didn’t tell. Flexibility will be program dependent.
You’ll probably be very solid at interview time because you’ll already be board certified, etc. The admin leaderhsip stuff you’ve been forced to do will likely be more than most of the faculty at the fellowship have done, so play that up.
In my case many academic faculty were also very impressed that I was competent and experienced working alone and unafraid for routine cases through GSW to the chest, and everything in between, etc.
Have a good answer to “How do you feel about leaving your practice where you were a big dog, head of XYZ, etc. and coming back to a training role, possibly taking direction from faculty who are younger and less experienced than you?” They all asked a variety of that question.

@IlDestriero Thank you for sharing your experience.

Things are different since the advent of the "CSP" (Combined Specialty Pay) - it was a PAIN during the transition (I didn't get paid for 9 months), but now special pays are delivered in monthly installments that can stop at any time.

Thanks for the interview advice. If anyone else skimming this thread has wisdom to drop, I'm all ears.

 

[tweaked17]

@tweaked17
Make sure you know when you are actually free to separate. It’s often a month later than you expect and your command can keep you to the end of the month. It may not line up how you think it should

@Gastrapathy
This has caused some consternation (and seems to every year). I based my dates on the completion of residency and used the last day of June (rather than Jul 1st, which some people have done and may result in what you warned about above). The process is electronic now, and my request has been accepted so far without being kicked back to me.

If anyone else has a similar question I'd be happy to report back on how this goes..

1. Verify your through dates with HRC, and affirm that you are separating when you think you are. Save some leave for terminal to give yourself a buffer. If you are separating when you think you are...
2. Talk to your S1 now, get the resignation packet, fill it out, and have it submitted by 1 August. You will have to bird dog this packet all the way through to HRC because your S1 will lose it, need you to make edits, forget about it, PCS and leave it on their desk, etc.
3. Get into a SFL class, or whatever your branch calls it.
4. You have to apply for GIB online here: Apply for Benefits - Education and Training. You should easily qualify. When they award you benefits, you need to take that letter to your GME coordinator. They should know what to do with it at that point, but if they don't then you may have to work together to figure it out. I was lucky in that my GME coordinator knew exactly what to do. I got paid within 6 weeks (seriously).
5. Get your separation orders. That should have your last day as active duty, and minus your leave is the last day in uniform.
6. Outprocess your unit, battalion, brigade, division, hospital, and installation.
7. Grow out your beard and your hair.

Good luck.

Thank you @WernickeDO

As I mentioned above, the resignation/separation process is now electronic. This is the first year this is being rolled out, so I'm sure there will be issues, but this theoretically should reduce the risk of packages being lost. At a minimum, I can electronically bird dog.

Looking forward to facial hair (wife, not so much), but I'm afraid the ship has sailed for anything north of the eyebrows

 

[Gastrapathy]

@tweaked17 its not that simple on the Navy side. Glad it looks promising for you

 

[tweaked17]

@tweaked17 its not that simple on the Navy side. Glad it looks promising for you

Perhaps not(?): https://www.public.navy.mil/bupers-npc/reference/messages/Documents/NAVADMINS/NAV2017/NAV17273.txt

RMKS/1. This NAVADMIN announces a self-service function for Retirements and
Separations (RnS) within Navy Standard Integrated Personnel System (NSIPS).
This functionality allows members to initiate requests electronically via
NSIPS self-service, route them through their chain of command for review and
recommendation, and then electronically route the request to Navy Personnel
Command for a decision. This improvement provides transparency for our
service members on the status of their requests, an integrated waiver process
when needed, and electronic notification of the final disposition of requests
for both the member and the command. This new capability is another interim
enhancement to our legacy systems, while the new systems and processes of
Sailor 2025 are finalized.

 

[Gastrapathy]

That’s not the issue, it’s with the calculation of obligation.

 

[tweaked17]

That’s not the issue, it’s with the calculation of obligation.

Ah, got it. I missed your meaning.

A buddy of mine is on the same "schedule" (but with a 3y HPSP), though does not have to worry about starting a fellowship on time - if I pick up any pearls from our experiences with the current process, I'll leave them here.

 

[d2305]

I learned to always expect the worst in dealing with personnel, but there were no unexpected glitches when I escaped.