A National, Virtual Job Search Series for Neonatal-perinatal Medicine Fellows

Background: No standard approach exists on how to best prepare trainees for finding and transitioning to their first non-training jobs. To our knowledge, an attempt at a national strategy to prepare trainees for their first, non-training job search has not been described in graduate medical education literature. This abstract describes a national, virtual job search series for Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine (NPM) fellows, a joint effort by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Organization of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Training Program Directors (ONTPD) and Trainees and Early Career Neonatologist (TECaN).

Methods: The second year of the series was comprised of six one-hour virtual sessions (Table 1) hosted on Zoom in the spring of 2021 and one in the fall of 2021. Sessions were advertised through social media platforms, the TECaN listserv, and the AAP Section of NPM listserv. A REDCap survey was created for trainees to register for the sessions and submit questions for the panelists. Additionally, demographic information and baseline job search knowledge were assessed. Questions submitted by registrants were answered either during the live session or in written format which was sent out to each registrant upon session completion. Each session was moderated by two NPM fellow members of TECaN and one member of ONTPD. Each session was recorded and a link was sent out to registrants.

Results: 250 people registered for the series. 53% of registrants are undergoing a job search during the 2021-22 academic year. Registrants spanned 33 states and two countries. 77% of respondents were female, 90% were neonatology fellows and 49% were second year fellows. Respondents were most interested in applying to Academic jobs though private practice and mixed job types were also frequently sited. Of those interested in academics, 61% preferred clinician-educator roles. A large group of respondents did not feel competent writing a cover letter (48%) or marketing themselves (52%). 80% did not know the difference between “claims made-” and “occurrence-” liability insurance. Figure 1 demonstrates NPM fellows’ knowledge gap related to the job search with less than 25% of respondents stating that they were “very knowledgeable” or “knowledgeable” for each question.

Conclusion: We identified a knowledge gap in NPM fellows’ understanding of how to find their first job and describe a national, more structured approach to preparing trainees for their first, non-training job search. We implemented a virtual job search series for NPM fellows and describe the demographic characteristics and baseline job search knowledge of registrants. We aim to have current and future fellows benefit from the experiences of recently graduated fellows, early career neonatologists, and later career neonatologists who comprise the series’ career panels. Ongoing analysis of post-session survey data from registrants will help guide the development and improvement of future job search series.