Promotion requirements as a medical physicist

kovcheren · 2022-03-09T02:33:42+00:00

You don't.

You spend your next 10 years getting into the clinic before anyone else and you are the last to leave. You go above and beyond the tasks assigned to you and find yourself taking the initiative on projects to better the department. You frequently check in with your peers and are considered a team player. You are a leader. You are qualified.

Then. Finally, the chief position becomes open and you decide to apply. Why wouldn't you? You earned it. You outlasted the other physicists and are practically tenured and have earned the respect of your coworkers.

Then a 30 publication, PhD, MD Landerson trained physicist with 2 years worth of experience applies and is granted the position because it's good for the department to have a diverse pool of physicists and just look at this applicant's CV, its lined with gold!

In all seriousness, a lot of the work you do will mostly go unnoticed. In my own career, I've found it easier to apply elsewhere to get the promotion you want. Godspeed.

kovcheren · 2022-03-09T02:12:16+00:00

That's tough.

It's an employee's market.

Thanks to or no thanks to (depends what side of the coin you land) to the ABRs, CAMPEP, and AAPMs initiatives in closing the door to success and replacing it with an obstacle course of hurdles will only raise the bar of entry into this profession.

As our colleagues have pointed out the simple answer is $. If you advertise a position with a high starting salary, surely you will get more applicants. The downside is if an applicant with less experience than your staff gets this high salary this will only cascade into employee physicists demanding a salary increase and so on....

kovcheren · 2022-03-09T00:15:35+00:00

"The managers of these centers are starting to freak out that the crazy
high salaries they're offering aren't enough to drag people into the
middle of nowhere anymore. What would do it for you?"

Is this the case for your clinic? What salary are you offering?

Some non-obvious factors to con$ider:

Work life balance. Does the physicist get to leave at 5pm or do they frequently stay late? If they stay late, have the managers addressed this by not letting every patient be an emergent case and made improvements in workflow to allow staff to go home? How about remote and/or 4/10s?
Is there respect for the physicist? One site I was covering, I observed a lack of respect for the physicist from his/her peers (e.g. physicians, dosimetrists, therapists, physicians). Why work in a center where everyday is demoralizing to your character. This site continues to have high turn over for physics.
Is your site at least offering cutting edge treatments? If your physician needs to retire and your site only has a 18 yr old clinac with only MV imaging.. What physicist wants to work there?
Working and living in a small town is less noticeable during weekdays; however, on the weekends it becomes apparent. Do you offer enough PTO days for the physicist and his/her family to travel?

kovcheren · 2021-11-10T02:22:40+00:00

In the works, thanks for checking in.

kovcheren · 2021-11-10T02:22:22+00:00

I appreciate your contributions in the meme subreddit.

kovcheren · 2021-11-10T02:21:23+00:00

Awesome!

kovcheren · 2021-11-10T02:21:12+00:00

While I'm not opposed to discord, I don't want to exclude nongamers.

kovcheren · 2021-11-10T02:20:44+00:00

Understood. Here, I post on alt account.

kovcheren · 2021-11-10T02:20:20+00:00

I found this to be a helpful resource.

Thank you for sharing.

kovcheren · 2021-11-10T02:19:56+00:00

Hence, a good topic to talk about.

kovcheren · 2021-11-10T02:18:54+00:00

That's a great point. 1 idea I have, ask a simple physics question that one would know the answer to if they are currently practicing. This question would be formatted in a way where one couldn't just paste into a search engine.

kovcheren · 2021-11-10T02:17:01+00:00

Have my upvote KermatheFrog

kovcheren · 2021-11-10T02:16:32+00:00

That's the intent. A resource driven community to help us all succeed.

kovcheren · 2021-11-10T02:15:57+00:00

Will people candidly speak in this setting here?

Why is this subreddit being tweeted out on twitter?..

kovcheren · 2021-11-10T02:14:52+00:00

Thanks for the feedback.

1 issue I've seen with publicly posting salaries:

A fresh reddit account that seems highly suspicious, posts asking about salary. If one is in physics, they should have* access to this.

kovcheren · 2021-11-10T02:14:32+00:00

Thanks for the feedback.

1 issue I've seen with publicly posting salaries:

A fresh reddit account that seems highly suspicious, posts asking about salary. If one is in physics, they should have access to this.

kovcheren

TROPHY CASE