AAN December 2020 Career Compass

2020

LOOK INSIDE! Making a Career Change During a Pandemic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P 3 Career Networking—During a Pandemic? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

P7

Interviewing Then And Now: How Job Interviews Differ From Fellowship Interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P 10

December Issue • Job Listings • Career Articles

Neurologist Opportunities

Neurologists with expertise in Epilepsy, Movement Disorders, General Neurology, Neuromuscular and Vascular Neurology are invited to apply for open positions at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, which is the academic medical center of The Penn State College of Medicine. This search represents part of a major institutional commitment to expansion of the neurosciences. The successful candidate will join the collegial faculty of Penn State Neurology, which is in an exciting period of growth under the leadership of the Chair, Krish Sathian, MBBS, PhD. Faculty rank will be commensurate with experience. Leadership opportunities are available to those with relevant experience.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Patty Shipton, FASPR, Physician Recruiter at pshipton@pennstatehealth.psu.edu or 717-531-4703.

IDEAL CANDIDATES WILL HAVE THE FOLLOWING:

• Medical degree – MD, DO, or foreign equivalent • BC/BE in Neurology and relevant fellowship training or foreign equivalent • Relevant clinical interest and expertise • Excellent patient care abilities and interest in teaching WHAT ELSE CAN YOU EXPECT?

AS A MEMBER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF NEUROLOGY YOU WILL BE ASSOCIATED WITH:

• An outstanding Neurology program with a national reputation • A highly collaborative culture • Interaction with dynamic clinicians across all neuroscience-related departments and participation in innovative educational approaches

• Competitive compensation • Generous benefits, including relocation assistance The Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center is committed to affirmative action, equal opportunity and the diversity of its workforce. EOE-AA-M/F/D/V. All individuals (including current employees) selected for a position will undergo a background check appropriate for the position’s responsibilities.

Making a Career Change During a Pandemic Career decisions are challenging at any time, but when the world is experiencing so much upheaval, making a change to your work can seem especially difficult. And yet, you may feel you have no choice. One of the unwelcome side effects of our pandemic has been an increase in layoffs and work furloughs, even in health care settings. Homeschooling, childcare and elder care issues have also upended family schedules, while personal health conditions have forced some medical professionals to reconsider their exposure to the public. Any of these can be reasons to reassess the work you’re doing, even if you would have preferred to make decisions in a less tumultuous time.

If you feel compelled to review your career path right now—or if you’ve just wanted to imagine new horizons—it’s best to follow a logical process. While you can move quickly if needed, that’s different than acting in haste. Here are the steps to follow, as well as some tips to keep in mind.

First-level Steps: Assessing the Situation 1. Identify the problem. Why are you considering a change?

Answers could range from burnout to pandemic-based logistics pressures at home to personal health problems exacerbated by your

work. As you can imagine from the diversity of just this short list, the best solutions for your situation will vary widely, depending on the nature of the issue.

2. Go deeper. Now that you’ve identified the problem(s), you can be more specific. Is it the rotating shifts that are causing the most difficulty with your family’s pandemic schedule? Are you burned out on patient care but still excited about neurology overall? The more specific you can be, the more you can tailor your process. It may help to talk with others, to make you dig deeper or question mental habits you have formed.

3. Imagine short-term solutions first. It may well be that you need a full-on career change, into something totally non-medical in nature. But it’s just as possible that smaller changes could give you the breathing room you need right now. Even if a particular solution doesn’t seem likely, pause to envision what would make the difference. If you worked only 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. each day, for example, would that create the balance you want for your family obligations? Of course, that’s not a normal shift for a medical professional—but these aren’t normal times. You can’t know that something won’t work until you explore it further. Likewise, if you’ve been laid off with no clear return date, it might seem like

View more jobs online at careers.AAN.com

3

a good time to switch fields. Maybe so, but start by imagining a less permanent option, such as a temporary work arrangement elsewhere.

would alleviate that future impact? By projecting forward to potential challenges, you’ll be better able to judge the risks and rewards of career tweaks or full-out changes you make now.

Solutions in this short-term category could include a leave of absence, a change in duties with your current employer, an all-virtual work process, limited consulting contracts with another group, or…?

Letting your mind roam freely while you work on this step will help you discover more possibilities.

3. Integrate your family members’ life plans. In addition to considering potential elder care responsibilities, it’s important to incorporate goals being set by your other family members. For example, has your spouse been imagining a relocation in 10 years to be closer to anticipated grandchildren? Of course, that needs to be added to your planning. Has there been conversation about your partner adding a degree or changing careers? When would that happen, and how would it impact your life together down the road? Would the new career involve travel, or delay your partner’s projected retirement? As always, nothing is certain, so basing your own plans on someone else’s potential actions can be tricky. But not considering their plans at all is even trickier, so it makes sense to create as holistic a picture as possible in this stage of your process.

Second-level Steps: Telescoping Out 1. Envision your post-work life. If you’re at mid-career, it’s time to get serious about what your post-career life would look like.

When you close your eyes and imagine that time, how old are you, and what are you doing? In this vision, do you work until you can’t anymore and switch immediately into a home-centered life of gardening and golf? Do you stop “early” in order to enact some other plan for travel or selfemployment? How exactly do you make the transition from work to post-work in the picture you imagine?

By filling in this picture more carefully, you can answer the questions related to your current career decision: What will you be retiring from? What level or type of work is needed in order to lay the foundation for the post-work picture? For example, if you’ve been planning to travel and teach, you’ll probably need to stay close to health care during the years preceding your retirement to maintain your network and credibility. But if you’ve been planning to open a coffee shop, the exact work you do before then doesn’t need to be health-related at all—and in fact, it could make sense to start transitioning now into learning more about business operations. If you knew where you wanted this coffee shop to be, your current decisions might be impacted even more: What if you worked now for a health system with locations in that city, making a future relocation easier to coordinate?

2. Identify possible snags to your post-work ideal. The big three—health, finances and family—usually loom large on this list. If your health fails, some of your plans may not be possible.

Likewise, a downturn in finances or a pressing issue with family members can change the situation. While no one can know the future, it still makes sense to assess the risks and work toward diminishing them. As an easy example: Everyone knows that less debt is better. But when you run the numbers, does the trajectory of your current debt load actually endanger the possibility of achieving your post-work goals? This fact could (and perhaps should) impact your career choices now. For example, what if you discovered that an intense period of debt repayment over the next two years would buy you the freedom of less lucrative and perhaps more enjoyable career choices later? In a similar vein, you might see elder care in your future, given your family dynamics and the age of your parents. Without planning, this situation could negatively impact your later-life goals—is there anything you can implement now that

4

Third-level Steps: Moving Forward 1. Explore your career ideas. If you already have an idea about your next work, it’s time to find out what it would take to make the move. On the other hand, if you don’t have solid ideas yet, or any ideas at all, you’ll need to start with that step instead. Luckily, you don’t need to go it alone, as there is an entire career counseling industry built for just this purpose. Even a single meeting with a career counselor can provide the needed direction for discovering or researching your career ideas.

2. Decide about training. Unless your next work will be licensed, training won’t be strictly necessary.

That doesn’t mean, however, that it wouldn’t be helpful. Classes, certificates, apprenticeships, degrees—there are any number of options available as you gain mastery and confidence in a different line of work. While you can always add training to your regimen later, making this decision earlier in your process may let you start preparing for new work while continuing to maintain your current profession, which in turn can lead to a smoother-feeling transition.

3. Make a plan. At some point, you need to make the go/nogo decision. If you do choose to adjust or change your career, then putting the plan on a timeline will help ensure you stay on track. While solid transitions can be made in as little as three to six months, a window of six months or longer is much more common, particularly if you’ll be working at the same time. Or you might decide to make a slow ramp-up over a few years while simultaneously ramping down in your current work.

The key to planning a career move isn’t the length of the timeline so much as the steady pace of forward movement, at whatever speed you’ve chosen. When the steps become too attenuated, it’s easy for other life issues to crowd in and overshadow your career change.

For that reason, be sure your plan includes a projected end date, as well as tangible steps that incorporate networking meetings and job search processes. This will help ensure your transition stays on the front burner until you’ve reached your goal.

Tips for a successful mid-career transition Don’t be daunted by your age. Remember that old “Dear Abby” column, when a reader asked, “Should I go to medical school now that I’m 30? I’ll be almost 40 when I start working!” And Abby’s famous answer: “How old will you be in 10 years if you don’t go to medical school?” In other words, your age is your age, and it’s not something you can change. But you can use your years wisely and with intention. If you hesitate to change careers because you won’t have as much time in the new pursuit, remember that you’ll have even less time in it if you delay starting. People make successful and fulfilling career transitions even in their 60s and 70s. As for age bias from employers—if that’s a realistic prospect given the field you’re considering, then feed your plans, not your fears. That is, rather than being scared away from the work, start planning a strategic entrance to it through networking, training, self-employment, contracting or any number of solutions that don’t require you to compete directly with younger candidates.

Don’t let assumptions drive the process. Do you know that your current team couldn’t abide a change in your schedule, or do you just assume it? Likewise, are you certain that your family budget requires no less than your current income, or have you actually run different financial scenarios to check the outcome of a lesser-paying career? Anytime you find yourself thinking, “That doesn’t seem likely,” shift to “How could I make that work? Who can I ask to help?”

work in a public-facing way—consider first those organizations that would benefit from your medical background. Your experience is a definable plus at health-related companies, even if the work is quite different from your current duties—such as technical writing for a bio-med manufacturer, for example, or consulting on policy for a medical lobbying group.

Keep doors open when possible. Maintain your license if it’s feasible, work locums occasionally if you’re comfortable, attend virtual team meetings if you’re invited—unless or until you feel certain that you’re moving away from this chapter of your career, it’s best to protect the investment you’ve already made by keeping up both your skills and your connections.

Don’t rush, but don’t dawdle either. In some ways, this strange pandemic environment provides the perfect backdrop for making career transitions, large and small. With so many parts of our world undergoing change, one more from you is not likely to cause ripples or backlash. Indeed, you may find more opportunities than you could have expected, with organizations re-evaluating how they operate and what they even do.

Bottom line? Follow your process, to be sure you’re making the right decisions for yourself, but don’t wait to get started. If you’re going to stay put, you deserve the confidence of having made that decision whole-heartedly. And if you’re going to make a change, you need to get moving so you don’t regret a slow start later. n

Where possible, leverage your medical career or knowledge.

If, for example, you know you want to leave patient care and help manage a business instead—or perhaps write for a living, or maybe

Adult Neurologist Needed for Sunny Southwest Florida!

Fin d y o u r fu tu re h e re . Join a well-established, collegial group of eight neurologists in a fully supported practice free from administrative tasks. Physicianfriendly environment allows you to focus on patient care, not paperwork. Career development opportunities abound including an affordable partnership track option with this financially strong practice.

With no stroke call, you will have plenty of time available to enjoy this desirable Florida Gulf Coast location featuring year-round sunshine. Experience first-class beaches, award-winning golf and an abundance of water sports. An excellent location to raise a family with small town charm pairing with easy access to largecity amenities in nearby Tampa and Miami.

Lucrative benefits package for the right candidate.

Contact DeAnna Zeigler for more information dzeigler@fngmd.com 239.210.0073

View more jobs online at careers.AAN.com

5

GENERAL NEUROLOGIST OPPORTUNITY Penn State Health St. Joseph in Berks County, Pennsylvania is seeking a general neurologist to join our existing practice. The selected candidate will have both inpatient and outpatient responsibilities. This is an excellent opportunity for a neurologist who wishes to enjoy a high-quality of life while providing care within a community of approximately 400,000.

What We’re Seeking • Medical degree – MD, DO • BC/BE in Neurology • Candidates with subspecialty training encouraged to apply What We’re Offering: • A competitive salary and generous benefits • Outstanding program and highly collaborative culture • Interaction with dynamic clinicians • Routinely ranked among the Top 50 Heart Hospitals in the country in quality metrics • Nationally certified as a Center of Excellence in Chest Pain, Stroke and Heart Failure • Nursing care that has also earned the distinction as a “Pathways to Excellence” accredited facility

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Patty Shipton, FASPR, Physician Recruiter at pshipton@pennstatehealth.psu.edu or 717-531-4703.

Penn State Health is committed to affirmative action, equal opportunity and the diversity of its workforce.

EOE-AA-M/F/D/V. All individuals (including current employees) selected for a position will undergo a background check appropriate for the position’s responsibilities.

Career Networking— During a Pandemic?

For health care providers, the practice of networking can frequently become an afterthought. If you attend professional get-togethers regularly, such as the AAN’s Annual Meeting, a certain amount of networking is going to happen naturally. You only need to talk to the person sitting next to you and you’ll likely have a new acquaintance.

But what happens when attendance for in-person meetings is limited or events are moved to only online?

Welcome to the pandemic. The need to maintain social distancing has challenged our abilities to travel, attend events, and even work.

Depending on your specialty and job situation, it may already have been months since you’ve seen a colleague—or patient—in the flesh. Is this really a good time to consider networking? Oddly enough, the answer is yes. This may actually be an excellent time to initiate or rekindle relationships with colleagues. Read on for some of the reasons why, as well as tips for making the most of the unique circumstances presented by the pandemic.

Reasons to network now While it’s true that some health care professionals are incredibly busy right now, it’s also true that others have been furloughed or reduced in their hours. If you belong to the latter category, making good use of your “extra” time should be front of mind. Not only will you be better able to schedule these contacts right now, but it’s also possible that others may welcome them more than usual. In a time

of isolation from colleagues, being remembered by someone in your professional circle can carry extra impact.

That said, random contact without an evident purpose would feel strange at any time. You need to know why you’re networking, and so will the person you contact. Here are some ideas to help you determine your reason for reaching out to someone:

§ To reactivate a relationship that has gone dormant—perhaps with a fellow student or professor from an earlier training program, for example.

§ To stay in touch with a more recent colleague, perhaps to stay informed on what’s happening in a shared workplace.

§ To compliment someone on a published article or other achievement.

§ To create or build relationships with potential partners for future work or research projects.

View more jobs online at careers.AAN.com

7

§ To seek advice or initiate a mentoring relationship. § To initiate contact that could later lead to job opportunities or career advancement.

Getting started: Methods and tools While connecting with others at a conference or meeting is more challenging during the pandemic, you have a number of other networking options to choose from. Probably the most reliable process is to reach out with an email. This might contain a simple “thinking of you” message, or it could present an invitation for a real-time conversation by phone or video call. If you’re connecting with someone local, you might even offer a socially-distanced walk in the park or cup of coffee at an outdoor café.

Social media presents another opportunity for connection, ranging from sending a LinkedIn message to following someone on their Twitter or Facebook accounts, to sharing posts via another platform.

And of course, there’s always the direct and handy connection you can make by simply dialing someone’s phone number. In the end, your method of outreach might be determined by the contact information you have for your colleagues.

Once you’ve made your lists, the question of what to say in your outreach needs to be resolved. As a starting point, go back to the beginning of this article where various reasons for networking are noted. Are you reconnecting with someone you’ve lost touch with?

Perhaps you’d like to compliment someone on their article or further the conversation they’ve started in a blog. When you’ve identified your topic or reason, now it’s a matter of tone and wording. For example, with someone you haven’t seen for awhile, you might go with a warm and sincere reintroduction, combined with a brief reference to the pandemic and an invitation for further contact.

Here’s an example:

By now you might be wondering how you’re going to come up with people to network with, and what you’ll say. Both are good questions, and each is more easily solved than you might expect.

“Joe, it’s been at least four years since we were together in residency, but I think about you often. I finished with my epilepsy fellowship and began working in a clinic, which was an excellent start for my career. Luckily, I’m still able to do some of my work remotely.

How about you? I’d love to know more about how you’ve been faring, especially over the past few months. Here’s my contact data; just reach out when you have a few minutes and we can catch up.”

To choose others to contact, start by making two lists: People you already know, and people you’d like to have in your circle. In the

As for the people on the other list—those you don’t know yet but would like to know—the message will likely be a bit more

Choosing who to contact and crafting your message

8

first case, you just need to populate the list of current and former colleagues with some form of contact information and you’re ready to go. To identify people for the second list, you’ll find that your AAN membership provides you with an excellent starting point.

The AAN’s SynapseSM online communities, committees, and task forces are on tap with just a little exploration of the Academy’s web site. You’re also likely to discover articles, webinars, and blogs of interest to you, with authors and presenters who might be available for networking.

formal. Without a previous connection to rely on, there’s no point in “catching them up” on your circumstances. Instead, focus on what you’re requesting (a conversation, for instance?) and look for a shared interest or other experience to reference. For example, you might have gone to the same university, which can make an entrance point for your request to video chat. Or, perhaps you share the same specialty, as in this example: “Professor Jackson, we haven’t met but I wanted to compliment you on your recently published article on epileptic seizures. The points you made were of special interest to me and I would like very much to ask a few follow-up questions if you have time. Would you feel comfortable with a brief video or phone chat in the next few weeks?

I’ll watch for your response and, in the meantime, I hope you are managing well with our current circumstances.”

Final Tips How much networking to do naturally depends on your situation.

If you are seeking work, connecting with a number of people is an excellent idea. If, instead, you are already working but realize that you’ve lost touch with those in your past, your networking might be confined to just a handful of individuals. Whatever your reasons or process, these final tips might be helpful:

invitation, perhaps a few weeks after the initial outreach, and then let it go if you don’t hear back.

§ Master at least one video tool, if you haven’t already. Zoom,

Webex, Google Hangouts, Skype—having an account already set up in one of these tools will make it easy to extend the invitation if someone agrees to “meet” with you.

§ Update your online identity if you have the time. Establishing

or revising a LinkedIn profile is an excellent place to start. By letting a new (or renewed) contact see what you’ve been doing professionally, you’ll make it easy for them to feel connected before they agree to actually connect.

One last thought as you prepare to refresh or initiate your networking practice: There’s literally no geographic barrier to the meetings you can join right now. You can network with people anywhere in the world as easily as you can with someone down the street. That’s at least one silver lining from our pandemic coping mechanisms that might create benefits for years to come. n

§ Challenge yourself by setting a pace. Perhaps one outreach a

week, or more if you are job seeking. This will help you set a networking habit, which will benefit you for your entire career.

§ Be patient and kind-hearted when others don’t get back to

you. These are very challenging times and you may not know which of your contacts is struggling to cope. Simply renew your

The University of Toledo Department of Neurology is recruiting neurologists and subspecialists to join their expanding department in an exciting new educational affiliation with Promedica, a comprehensive health care network of specialized hospitals and outpatient facilities in Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan. Nationally recognized for excellence, the department has a 4-week required third year clerkship for medical students, a growing Neurology residency program and several competitive fellowship programs.

The flagship academic medical center is a 794-bed hospital offering brand new state of the art inpatient facilities and is the largest acute care facility in the area. It has been named on of Healthgrades’ 100 Best Hospitals in America. Outpatient services are offered in the newly built Neurosciences Center, conveniently located across from the Toledo Hospital.

Multiple faculty positions for clinicians and clinician scientists are available in a variety of Neurology subspecialties, with most having an established practice including:

•NEUROMUSCULAR DISORDERS •HEADACHE MEDICINE •BEHAVIORAL NEUROLOGY •MOVEMENT DISORDERS •PEDIATRIC NEUROLOGY •GENERAL NEUROLOGY

Assistant or Associate Professor Rank commensurate with experience.

Applicants should be board eligible or board certified in Neurology, with fellowship training preferred for specialty positions.

Please submit a letter of interest, CV, and references to:

Imran I. Ali, MD Professor and Clair Martig Endowed Chair, Department of Neurology, University of Toledo 2130 W. Central Avenue, Suite 201, Toledo, OH 43606 Imran.ali@utoledo.edu or ann.murphy@utoledo.edu

View more jobs online at careers.AAN.com

9

Interviewing Then and Now: How Job Interviews Differ from Fellowship Interviews If you’re a medical resident or fellow, you may have wondered if your future job interviews will be any different than the interviews you participated in for your current role. After all, both situations use roughly the same cast of characters: the candidate (you), a department chair or other management-team member, and possibly someone from a recruiting or HR capacity. And it’s still a medical setting, of course. So how different could it be to interview for a job than it was for your postgraduate training?

Not only is the process different, but so are the stakes. Consider this: When you interview for a fellowship, it’s only for a year or two.

Everyone involved tries to make the best match possible, but even so, it’s understood that the time will pass quickly. So it’s not the end of the world if the fit isn’t just right between the candidate and the organization. But when you interview for a permanent position, your future employer is taking the long view. Suddenly it matters very much if he or she likes you as a person, believes you’ll fit with the team, and trusts your ability to move forward with the organization’s goals. And sometimes those goals won’t even be clearly defined.

That’s quite different from a fellowship, where the structure is evident from the outset.

Here’s what Judy Rosman, president and CEO of Rosman Search, says about the two processes: “When you’re interviewing for a

10

fellowship, it’s very clear what your job is. And the people are there to train you. In some ways, they’re there to serve you. But when you’re interviewing for a job, you have to demonstrate that you’re ready and eager to serve them. And it’s often less clear what they want you to do.”

"I hope our interviews allow candidates to look into their hearts and define how they want to spend their working days, and we try to match this by making them aware of exactly how our practice works. The last thing we would ever want is a surprised employee when he or she arrives for work."

Stephen M. Sergay, MB BCh, FAAN

Stephen M. Sergay, MB BCh, FAAN, managing partner of Tampa Neurology Associates and former president of the American Academy of Neurology (2007–2009), agrees that at least some fellowship hiring strategies differ from those for a job. For one thing, both parties in the conversation know what the candidates’ interests are before interviews are even scheduled. “With a fellowship,” he notes, “you’ve already declared your hand: ‘I want to work with seizure disorders.’ So you might expect to be asked, ‘What attracts you about seizure disorders?’”

By contrast, Sergay says interview conversations for permanent positions are necessarily more layered, at least when he conducts them for Tampa Neurology Associates. “We have a general neurology practice with some subspecialists,” he explains, “and I believe that being a clinician is a calling, not a trade. It’s challenging to be with patients all day if you don’t enjoy being with people.”

With that in mind, Sergay says that he is watching for a combination of skills, approach, personality, and chemistry. Each criterion can be difficult to discern from a single point of reference so he relies on a number of steps: phone interviews, followed by conversations with the references the candidate provides, followed by conversations with his partners to confirm their comfort, and finally, daylong interviews for a final few. It’s an intensive and expensive process with a high stakes outcome: The chosen candidate is employed with the group’s understanding that there is a high likelihood that this candidate will continue to partnership. “We all do better with continuity than with continual change” he said.

With so much on the line, Sergay and his partners are highly invested in finding the right fit, on all levels. For him, that means conducting conversations with candidates that reveal as much as possible about the individuals and their goals. “First, I talk to somebody on the phone when I get their name,” he says. “I try to spend an hour or so to get to know them: what they’re interested in, if they have family needs and how they see spending their time going forward. I’d like to know about the relationships they have had with patients, referring docs and with the nurses on the floor, and other ‘human stuff.’ I hope our interviews allow candidates to look into their hearts and define how they want to spend their working days, and we try to match this by making them aware of exactly how our practice works. The last thing we would ever want is a surprised employee when he or she arrives for work. Our hope is that our candidates will be able to look into themselves and articulate their hoped-for future while we talk, so that we can ensure a high likelihood that our goals match.”

you’re able, eager, and willing to meet their needs,” she says, “first you have to determine what their needs are.” With this research, Rosman is hopeful that the candidate can avoid common pitfalls of interviewing, such as answering “What’s your perfect job?” with an over-abundance of idealism. “I had one person answer, ‘Well, ideally I’d like 12 weeks off so I can do mission work in Africa,’” she recalls.

While that response might lead to an interesting conversation, it could also scare off an employer who perceives that the candidate would prefer the mission work over the daily tasks of the position.

“Before you answer the question of what would be the ideal job,” Rosman advises, “you need to understand what the employer thinks would be an ideal candidate. If you don’t take the time to do this, you might rule yourself out the first time you open your mouth.”

Which, of course, is Sergay’s point: He’d prefer that candidates rule themselves out rather than try to win a job that might not fit them well. Coming from a slightly different perspective, Rosman holds a similar philosophy when it comes to “fit”: “I think it’s very important for candidates to understand the job for which they are applying. I don’t coach candidates but I do make it clear to them: The job that we’re representing is the job.

If the employer wants an EMG specialist, they don’t want someone who will just do a little EMG.” So to recap: Do interviews for permanent jobs differ from those for fellowships? By now, you’re probably convinced that they do. But you may also be a little intimidated.

No need, according to both Rosman and Sergay. According to Rosman, “Once people really understand the job, they generally don’t have a problem with the phone interview,” which is the entrance point for later in-person meetings.

And, from Sergay, this word of confidence in neurology candidates everywhere: “I believe that people coming out of medical school and neurology residencies and fellowships are highly trained and resilient. They have embraced remarkable challenges at a young age. I believe if you’re lucky enough to be a neurologist, you will shoulder unbelievable responsibilities and will be on the brink of a life of deep relationships with your patients and understanding of mankind. I believe that people know what they want really; they just have to express it.” n

While Judy Rosman dislikes stock answers as well, she’s careful to advise candidates she’s recruiting for open positions that they need to thoroughly research potential employers so they can better frame the answers they give. “In order to demonstrate that

View more jobs online at careers.AAN.com

11