Waiting for your #1 physiatry practice choice is frustrating and anxiety-provoking. Oftentimes, you feel powerless as to what to do. Many questions come to your mind. What is taking so long for the practice/hospital to get back to you? Has the practice/hospital made an offer to another physiatry candidate and is putting you on hold waiting for the outcome?
As Murphy’s Law would have it, sometimes all but your #1 choice for a new job has offered you a position. I have advised physiatrists to set their own dateline to obtain a job offer to protect themselves from a prolonged, unproductive and unsuccessful practice search. Actually, you might want to set several deadlines along the way in the job search process such as how long to wait for a phone call, for an interview and for a contract.
What can you do when your #1 choice is delaying to respond to you? I haven’t written on this topic before because much of what’s required is a perfect alignment of many factors. There is no one right answer to this question.
However, you should hesitate to pressure your #1 choice. It might cause you to not receive further consideration. However, you should offer some motivation to your #1 choice. One physiatrist that I was working with told his #1 practice choice, “I’m very interested in this practice opportunity and I feel confident that we would have a good working relationship. That said, I’m considering other practice opportunities some of which have offered me positions. Please let me know if I can provide any additional information to the end of a job offer from you.” A final interview was quickly forthcoming and the physiatrist received the job offer