job market during COVID-19

[Smallmelon]

I'm finishing up my 2nd year hem/onc fellowship at a mid-tier academic program, supposed to be getting ready to look for a job. No visa issue. Interested in general oncology, hospital-based practice. God knows how long the COVID-19 crisis will last. How's hem/onc job market during this mess? How can I land on a job without proper interview...

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[MD46]

Not a good time for hiring, many places actually have hiring freezes. If you are a 2nd year fellow, likely not graduating until July 2021.

Specially if you don't require visa or a waiver, you can likely wait for now and see how this pan out in the next few months.

If you start looking by Sep 2020 , I think you will have ample time to interview

also likely the offers you get right now are going to be very low given the financial restraints on hospitals that rely heavily on outpatient, elective procedures to make most of their cash.

Good luck.

 

[beyondbethany]

Finishing third year here. Going into general practice with a hospital system. I started reaching out to most hospital systems in my area late second year. Your best approach is to leverage connections in these systems. You can email their physician recruiters with your CV and interest but I got back several "we're not looking" emails. It makes a lot of difference if you have a physician friend/colleague speaking up on your behalf. Ultimately, that push got my foot in the door for the interviews.

I would agree that right now is not the best time, but your prime time for interviews is still probably 6 months away. However, if your institution has a travel ban in place (now or in the fall), that would really complicate this. Right now, my institution places everyone on unpaid leave for 14 days of quarantine if they leave the state right now. If travel opens up over the summer and you have places of interest willing to bring you in, I would try to get some of those done while you can.