In this Guidebook, you will find exercises, assessments, and advice to acquire the knowledge and skills you need to navigate your way through: - Identifying Benchmarks and Creating Timelines - Preparing for an Interview - Negotiating Your Compensation Package - Understanding the Business Side of Medicine - Budgeting and Planning your Financial Future - Writing CVs and Cover Letters - Distinguishing Yourself from Other Candidates - Obtaining and Evaluating Employment Offers - Working with Your Spouse/Partner on Life-Decisions - Ensuring Personal, Professional, and Life-Style Values We invite you to make the most of this comprehensive resource by reading and completing all the exercises and activities. We've included all the tools and information you need to give yourself the competitive edge and launch yourself to a fulfilling and rewarding career in medicine.
Todd Skertich is a 23-year veteran of national physician placement and a leading authority in physician recruitment. To date he has facilitated more than 2,000 permanent physician placements and helped negotiate over $500,000,000 in physician starting compensation.
Founder and Director of Content Strategies, Adventures in Medicine (AIM), an innovative online media platform designed to present medical residents and job-seeking physicians with high quality career and life planning content and resources. By utilizing the interactive AIM guidebook, lessons, and extensive resources physicians can learn how to:
-Define their "Life's Purpose"
-Define and acquire their "Dream Job"
-Achieve and maintain a successful work-life balance
-Develop a positive legacy that lives on through their family, friends, and patients
Author & Keynote Speaker
Todd's pioneering approach to career and life planning for medical residents brings together medical residency program directors, residents and fellows, practicing physicians, healthcare executives, and other subject matter experts to provide educational tools that teach residents how to align their values with their future employers.
The Adventures in Medicine program includes:
- Career and Life Planning Guidebook for Medical Residents
- Career and Life Planning Tracker for Medical Residents
- PhysicianCareerPlanning.com
Over the past ten years, Todd has assembled a team of subject matter experts to create and co-author the guidebook with over 150,000 hard copies distributed to residents nationwide. He has developed and provides more than 100 career and life planning resources through PhysicianCareerPlanning.com with tens of thousands of physicians accessing this valuable resource so far.
As a keynote speaker, Todd takes his experience, expertise, and guidebook directly to residency programs and employers. He has delivered over 150 residency presentations on topics such as Physician Compensation, the Art of Negotiation, Successful Interviewing, and many other topics,
Whether he is placing a candidate or providing tools, education and coaching, Todd is dedicated to making a positive impact in the lives of the physicians with whom he works. Pediatrician and Director of the Pediatric Residency Program at Maimonides Children's Hospital of Brooklyn
For the past decade, Dr. Walker-Descartes has prepared hundreds of residents and fellows for a meaningful career and life post training. She's been instrumental developing residents clinically and preparing her trainees to secure desired fellowships and positions across the country.
Dr. Walker-Descartes serves as the Vice Chair of Education where she has impacted the learning community on several levels, including, resident wellness, work life balance and transitional planning for both trainees and faculty. She has identified and implemented innovative strategies of serving the needs of trainees and faculty across the GME spectrum through her involvement with the Association for Pediatric Program Directors.
As an author of this chapter and advisor to Career and Life Planning Guidebook for Medical Residents, Dr. Walker-Descartes believes this book will serve as a spring board to fill a much-needed gap to help trainees successfully transition into their career and life post training and create a platform for mentees (trainees) and their mentors to work through the non-clinical, business of medicine and identify the trainees' purpose beyond medicine. She is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Ambulatory Pediatric Association. Associate Program Director, Family Medicine Residency Program, Rowan University School of Medicine
Meagan Vermeulen has practiced family medicine for 20 years and is now the Associate Program Director of the Rowan University SOM Family Medicine Residency Program in Stratford, NJ. In her leadership role, she has pioneered the Family Medicine Resident Wellness Initiative, a full spectrum curriculum embedded in the residency program didactic to teach residents the skills of self-assessment, effective interpersonal communication, financial literacy, and self-care.
Dr. Vermeulen's academic research focuses on resident wellness, including a recent study on rates of burnout among allopathic and osteopathic medical residents in the state of New Jersey. In addition to her research, she also serves as a mentor for the AAFP Emerging Leader Institute: Family Medicine Leads program. As a mentor, she supported a young physician in the creation of drpiggybank.org, a truly innovative source for resident and medical student financial literacy.
Dr. Vermeulen truly believes that the tenets of wellness include self-awareness, effective communication, self-care, mentorship, and advocacy for those looking to grow and move forward in their career. President, Kentucky Foundation for Medical Care, Past-President, Kentucky Medical Association (KMA).
Dr. Jones serves on KMA's AMA delegation. He is a passionate public health advocate. Dr. Jones shared his personal journey with burnout in his book, Finding Heart in Art: A Surgeon's Renaissance Approach to Healing Modern Medical Burnout. He speaks on burnout to medical students, residents, physicians, hospital groups and systems. He has served on medical mission trips to Romania, Honduras and Kenya. Dr. Jones is an avid reader enjoying biographies, history, and books on spirituality. Ms. Selah is Director of Physician Recruitment Services at Tower Health - a strong, regional, integrated healthcare provider/payer system that offers leading-edge, compassionate healthcare and wellness services to a population of 2.5 million people.
Ms. Selah served as co-chair of the Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment (AAPPR) Chapter and Regional Relations Committee as well as president and ex-officio of MAPRA, the mid-Atlantic regional chapter of AAPPR.
Ms. Selah developed "Assessing Practice Opportunities in the Marketplace" for final year residents to develop the tools and skills required when initiating a successful practice opportunity search. Recognizing that medical training is rigorous and extensive, it often neglects to provide practical training for life after residency. Ms. Selah believes these skills just as important as medical training. Physicians who are well adjusted in their professional and personal lives are better equipped to provide the best patient care possible. Amy Rakowczyk is a mother, writer, medical, and prior military spouse who holds a master's degree in vocal performance. She is a staff writer for Student Doctor Network, authoring the monthly column, "The Medical Spouse Survival Guide." Her joy is helping others navigate the world of medicine from the spouse perspective, and she aims to help couples find contentment in their lives together no matter the stage of their medical journey. Throughout her husband's demanding careers, in the military and in medicine, she has learned the importance of community support, mutual respect, and upholding one's own voice in the process. Ms. Rakowczyk lives in Texas with her husband, a family physician, and their two daughters. Managing editor of The Governance Institute (TGI)
As managing editor, Kathryn oversees TGI's resource library, develops the education agenda and programs for TGI conferences, webinars, and E-learning, and researches recommended board practices and key governance issues for U.S. healthcare organizations. She has authored articles in Health Affairs, Journal of Health & Life Sciences Law, Prescriptions for Excellence in Health Care, and Healthcare Executive, as well as numerous publications for TGI. Most recently she authored the chapter "Governance for Quality" in the 4th edition of The Health Care Quality Book: Vision, Strategy, and Tools (April 2019; ed. Nash, Joshi, Ransom and Ransom). She has a bachelor's degree in communications from UCLA and a master's degree from Boston University. Clinical Assistant Professor of Business Economics at Kelley School of Business, Indiana University; The Business of Medicine MBA at the Kelley School of Business
Kyle Anderson joined the faculty at the Kelley School of Business in 2008, and has taught Economics, Statistics, Strategy, and Marketing at the undergraduate and MBA level. He teaches in Kelley's Business of Medicine MBA program, one of few physician-only MBA program at a top-ranked business school in the US. In addition, Kyle is the program chair for the Kelley Evening MBA program in Indianapolis. Prior to his academic career, Kyle spent several years as the administrator of an orthopedic practice.
The Kelley Physician MBA is designed for physician leaders and is tailored to the physician learning style. Their one-of-a-kind curriculum, focused at the intersection of business and medicine, combines business and leadership fundamentals with specialized, strategic healthcare courses. Author, Founder of Prescription for Financial Success,
Dr. Fawcett practiced general surgery for 20 years in a small-town single-specialty group in Southern Oregon. His last three years in practice were spent as a part-time locum tenens surgeon giving call relief to lone surgeons in small towns in the Pacific Northwest. He now devotes his time to writing and coaching physicians about personal finance and lifestyle. He authored The Doctors Guide book series.
His desire is for every physician to live a great life, without financial worries, including you. speaker, business and career coach, founder of CHOICES Worldwide
Ms. Austin is a graduate of Arizona State University and holds an Executive Master of Global Management from Thunderbird School of Management.
Vickie founded CHOICES Worldwide in 1997 to offer strategic planning to entrepreneurs, executives and individuals in career transition. Prior to establishing her firm, Vickie covered the health beat for a daily newspaper, worked for Modern Healthcaremagazine and served in a variety of marketing roles for hospital systems including American Medical International (AMI), Scottsdale Memorial Health Systems, Inc., Humana, Inc. and Wheaton Franciscan Services, Inc. Her articles have appeared in the National Business Employment Weekly, New Perspectives and career sites of the Wall Street Journal.
She is the author of the book Circles of Gold: Honoring Your Network for Business and Career Success. When Vickie isn't writing, speaking or coaching, she loves to read, sing and spend time with family and friends. Residency Education Lead Director for Community Health Systems, Inc.
Tanja Getter is an expert on career planning for medical residents. Since 2010, Tanja has presented 60-minute workshops to more than 300 residency programs across the US, educating more than 6,000 residents and fellows on best practices on how write an effective CV and cover letter.
In addition, Tanja is a frequent speaker at national conference meetings and including, American Academy of Family Physicians, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American College of Physicians to name a few. At these conferences, Tanja provides one-on-one CV consultations with physicians to provide an employer's perspective on what they are looking for in a CV.
Tanja has written several CV and Cover Letter articles for a variety of professional organizations, including, the American College of Physician and the American Academy of Family Medicine. Will is faculty in the College of Education at the University of Iowa. He, along with Rebecca Anthony, is the author of the CV Handbook(PhD Books), the PhD Handbook for the Academic Job Search (PhD Books) and Getting Hired (2nd Edition Kendall Hunt). Prior to his faculty appointment, he coordinated and led several programs at the University of Iowa on academic and professional job seeking for people with professional graduate degrees. Director of Healthcare Consulting Katz, Sapper & Miller
With over 20 years of healthcare and business experience, Brad has provided fair market value opinions and commercial reasonableness assessments for hospitals and health systems, medical groups, academic institutions, and other healthcare entities to ensure physician compensation arrangements are compliant with regulatory requirements. He received a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Kelley School of Business Indiana University. Senior Vice President, Ambulatory Services & Chief Care Network Development Officer
Mr. Schaefer has been with Southern Illinois Hospital as Vice President since 2000 and was previously Director of Corporate Planning since 1996. He became a Senior Vice President in 2017. Earlier in 2000, he was employed as Vice President of Planning and Marketing with Centegra Health Systems, McHenry, Illinois before rejoining SIHS later that same year.
Mr. Schaefer received an Associate in Applied Science in Respiratory Therapy from Parkland College, a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with honors from Millikin University, and a Master of Science in Healthcare Planning and Administration from University of Cincinnati. Mr. Schaefer is board certified in Healthcare Management as a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives ("ACHE") and is a registered respiratory therapist. Vice President, SwedishAmerican Medical Group BA, University of Wisconsin-Madison
As a member of the leadership team of SwedishAmerican Health System, Julia directs physician recruitment and retention and serves as administrator of employed physician services. In 1993, she led the development of SwedishAmerican Medical Group (SAMG) with the acquisition of 23 local physicians. With a focus on physician leadership, SAMG has grown to over 190 employed providers and is the most-preferred group in northern Illinois.
According to Julia, "After an intense and comprehensive interview process, our physicians become members of the SwedishAmerican family, not just new employees. We foster long-term relationships with comprehensive orientation and mentoring programs, on-site child care and sick-child care, and even a concierge service. These unique benefits help us attract and retain great candidates and help them balance success at work and at home." Professor Reilly co-authored Making Hard Decisions with Decision Tools, the leading textbook in the field of Decision Analysis, used at more than 60 colleges and universities. Since earning his doctorate from the University of Oregon, he has been teaching at Babson College in city and state. He teaches the art and science of decision making to graduate students and to company executives at Babson's Center for Executive Education. Attorney and Partner at MPSLAW Author, Founder of The White Coat Investor, Practicing Emergency Physician
James M. Dahle, MD is a practicing emergency physician and the founder of The White Coat Investor, the most widely-read physician-specific personal finance and investing website in the world with over 1.2 million pageviews a month. He is also a podcaster, runs a Yo uTubechannel, and the published author of two financial books aimed at high income professionals. He speaks nationwide and started the Physician Wellness and Financial Literacy Conference.
Dr. Dahle is married with four children and lives in Utah where he enjoys climbing, canyoneering, skiing, boating, ice hockey, and mountain biking. Mr. Denniston is an author and authority on financial issues specific to physicians and serves as an advocate to help them make good financial decisions. He is the author of 5 Steps to Get out of Debt for Physicians, The Insurance Guide for Doctors, The Tax Reduction Prescription Workbook, The Freedom Formula for Physicians, and his latest book The Young Physician's Guide to Money & Life. He also hosts a podcast for physicians and the financial issues they face at www.DoctorFreedomPodcast.com.
In working with physicians for over ten years, he has seen most every financial situation imaginable. His drive and passion is to see every physician's financial situation improve by eliminating debt and reducing their tremendous tax burden.
His desire to help doctors came from the birth of his youngest child, Evangeline. As his family's "little miracle", she was born four months early, weighing only 12.5 ounces. In gratitude for the care provided by his daughter's physician, he dedicated his mission to helping physicians with their financial health. Associate Dean and Professor of Management, Babson College; Author and Keynote Speaker
Ms. Murphy holds dual AB degrees in Psychology and Studio Art along with an MS and PhD in Organization Studies from Boston College.
She conducts research, speaks, and teaches internationally in the areas of leadership and mentoring. She is currently the associate dean for the undergraduate school and director of several leadership open-enrollment and customized programs in executive education at Babson.
Murphy's research has been published in several academic journals. Her book with coauthor Kathy Kram, Strategic Relationships At Work: Creating Your Circle Of Mentors, Sponsors, And Peers For Success In Business And Life, applies the scholarship of mentoring to help everyone become an entrepreneurial protégé. In 2014, she was recognized by Poets & Quants as one of the "40 Most Outstanding B-School Profs Under 40 in the World." Associate Professor of OB, HRM and Service Management, University of Victoria; Speaker and Consultant
Mr. Cotton holds dual BS degrees in Management Information Systems and Marketing from Syracuse University and MS and PhD degrees in Organization Studies from Boston College.
His experience in maximizing human and social capital spans more than 25 years. Cotton is a professor, consultant, and speaker on subjects such as success networks (a.k.a. developmental networks, personal advisory boards); talent management; SHRM; and team chemistry, coaching, and resilience. He began his career as a change management consultant providing organizational transformation and people strategy guidance to clients including Aetna, General Electric, Pepsi, United Technologies, and others.
Cotton's research has appeared in Harvard Business Review, Sloan/MIT Management Review, Inc. and several academic, business and HR journals.
