Start your physician job search early
With residency or fellowship ending in 2027, you are deciding how to choose a first job after residency. Begin with the parts of practice you want to understand better before offers arrive, while there is still time to explore them. Identify the settings you are willing to consider and the places where you could see yourself living. Leave room for those preferences to become more precise as you learn.
AMA’s September 2026 career guidance recommends starting early and building professional connections beyond your immediate training network1. Contact physicians from your program who have joined practices that interest you. Ask about the working day and what surprised them after training. Use the conversation to develop your own questions rather than assuming their choice should become yours.
Set aside time for visits while you still have several options to compare. Ask each practice about its decision timeline and proposed start, then compare those dates with the end of training and any planned move. Keep an opportunity open only if its timing is workable for both sides. A clear timeline lets you pursue the role seriously without confusing enthusiasm with a commitment you have yet to make.
See the ordinary day in the practice
Ask to spend time where you would actually work, with appropriate permission and privacy arrangements. Look at the clinical setting and discuss the patient population you would initially take on. Request an explanation of how the practice builds a new physician’s schedule. The relevant comparison is the work you would do during the opening months, not only the work established partners do now.
Explore how responsibilities are divided across the practice group. Discuss any teaching or administrative work that accompanies the clinical role. AMA’s September transition guidance recommends considering these duties, including call, alongside specialty and practice setting2. Keep the conversation specific enough that you can picture a full week.
Pay attention to how decisions are made when the usual day changes. Ask who can adjust a schedule that is not working and how physicians raise a concern about the practice. Seek time with someone who joined recently, as well as someone established there. Their accounts may help you identify the questions that need a further conversation with the clinical leader before you can assess the role.
Make first-year support specific
Ask how the group supports a physician moving from training into independent practice. Get clear about who is available for consultation and how to reach that person during clinic or call. Discuss whether there is planned time to review the first months. A named colleague and an agreed way to connect give you something concrete to evaluate.
Review call with the same attention you give the daytime role. Ask which service you would cover and how backup works when you need another physician involved. Discuss when new physicians join the call rotation and how preparation for it is arranged. Keep the practice’s actual expectations separate from assumptions drawn from your training program or another employer.
Consider where you want to grow clinically during the first year. Bring those interests into the conversation without treating mentorship as an unlimited resource. Ask whether the practice can support the particular work you hope to develop and how that would fit its service needs. If support is described only in broad terms, request another discussion with the person who would provide it before deciding that the arrangement meets your needs.
Let the location enter the decision
Spend part of a practice visit outside the interview schedule. Test the commute at the time you would travel and look at the neighborhoods you would realistically consider. If you are moving with others, give their work or family needs a place in the decision. The clinical opportunity has to sit inside a life you can sustain.
Compare the role with the priorities you wrote down at the beginning of the search. Some may have changed after seeing different practices, and that is useful information to examine. Identify the compromise you are making in each option and decide whether it is acceptable for this stage of your career. Avoid asking a single role to settle every preference for the rest of your working life.
The clinical opportunity has to sit inside a life you can sustain.
Before making the decision, return to the unresolved questions that could materially change it. Arrange the final conversation about the schedule or first-year support, rather than allowing a pleasant visit to stand in for an answer. Review the proposed timing with anyone whose life will change alongside yours. Then choose the practice you can describe clearly, beginning with what your first ordinary week there is expected to involve.
