I just graduated my AG-ACNP program, and have these 2 offers on the table. I am in the South.
Job 1
Pain Clinic - working 5 days/week 9-5, expected to see 15-20 patients/day, no procedures. Two other NPs in clinic who will provide training and support, clinic owned by Anesthesiologist. Job approx. 1/2 hour away and I know doctor and staff very well already due to their affiliation with hospital I previously work in.
Salary: $104,000...no benefits of any kind, paid as independent contractor so will have to pay my own taxes, insurance, DEA, etc...
Job 2
Cardiology Clinic - working 5 days/week 8-5, and one weekend/month on call to round at hospital (they said these days are 8-12 and only for rounding). Three Cardiologists and one other NP, orientation and training provided by the physicians. Job approx. 1.5 hours away. Expected to do hospital rounds in the mornings, see patients in the clinic in the afternoons, and also help with consults. In the clinic will be seeing 4-5 patients initially, and once out of orientation and comfortable will be expected to see 8-10/day. Also responsible for supervising stress tests after being trained properly (have to do 150 monitored by cardiologist before doing these alone).
Salary: $85,000
Paid Malpractice Ins.
Licensure reimbursement
CMEs $2000/yr
4 weeks PTO + 13 comp days for weekend rounds
401K with matching
Health Insurance (tier plan)
Job 1 I am in the process of negotiating, Job 2 I was told is handled by the hospital's HR and negotiation is unlikely.
Freedom, given the bad commute and taking into account that you know the people at Job 1 and are pretty sure of their strong reputation, I would recommend that you take that one. Knowing the personalities of one's coworkers is often an unknown going into a job and not liking your manager/peers makes a first job pretty stressful. And if BBCEWalters has the right read on the job it might be more of a learning opportunity than expected. Having had a 3 hour commute, it is just life-altering not to have a bad commute.
bbcewalters and MierKat, thanks so much for your advice. I agree the 3hr commute is a bit much to say the least. And I also agree that it's a plus that I know the doctor and staff at job 1 quite well. As far as procedures go he did mention an opportunity later for training to do joint injections and pump refills. I just wish there were some benefits involved with this job.
I would go with Job 1 for now. Get the experience. Its 1/2 an hour away.. You do not want to spend 3 hours on the road every day!! thats insane.. take job 1 stay there for 6 months, start looking for other jobs and after youve been there for a 18 months find another job that will give you benefits.
This is from my perspective of someone that drives all day - at least 100 miles and sometimes 200 miles. I would go with cardiology practice. Better experience and agree - ask for 4 day work week.
I think both those job offers look crappy from a compensation standpoint with the second job being less crappy, but only 4 weeks PTO? What is the growth on that? And what is the time off for the first job?
You have to factor that commute time. 3 hours a day, 15 hours a week, 60 hours a month...your time is money and they are not compensating you for the commute time or the wear and tear on your car plus all that gas you are going to be buying every week. In school I had to commute 40 minutes one way and cursed and ******* about that everytime I had to make the trip. I think i would take a job in Home Depot before I would spend 3 hours a day commuting to and from work....
As bad as the commute sounds I'd probably lean toward job 2. If nothing else for the benefit of actually being an employee instead of being considered an independent contractor. As an independent contractor you'll not only have to pay in all your own taxes you'll also need to do all the paperwork involved. Cripes, I hate doing my taxes as it is, I would never want the responsibility of calculating what needs to be taken out of my pay so you could potentially add the possibility of paying an accountant to figure it all out for you to the salary. Not to mention with the benefits they are offering their compensation package is probably overall much better than the pain clinics offer.
Thanks everyone for the feedback. I am still in negotiation with the pain management clinic about money and benefits, and the cardiology clinic for the 4 day work week. Will keep you guys posted. Again, thanks.
MierKat
112 Posts
Freedom, given the bad commute and taking into account that you know the people at Job 1 and are pretty sure of their strong reputation, I would recommend that you take that one. Knowing the personalities of one's coworkers is often an unknown going into a job and not liking your manager/peers makes a first job pretty stressful. And if BBCEWalters has the right read on the job it might be more of a learning opportunity than expected. Having had a 3 hour commute, it is just life-altering not to have a bad commute.