Your Physician Employment Contract - Seven Deadly Mistakes

1. A poor physician employment contract choice will destroy career and family relationships. Failing to make partner, a year of transition, and starting your career again at the bottom rung mean a loss to you of at least $500,000. This is the largest financial decision you will ever make.

2. Representing yourself is like surgery on yourself… very bad idea. You must know everything that is fair, ask for it all at once, know the nuances. That’s impossible as you are transitioning in your career.

3. Representing yourself also puts the spotlight on you personally. This shouldn’t be a process illustrating your ego – it is about what is fair. That can only be done by a skilled third party.

4. Failing to plan: Not getting enough offers, bargaining in a piecemeal fashion with inexperienced advisors, stringing along employers or saying no prematurely.

5. Focusing too much on the starting salary, instead of what you are required to do for the pay, your job security, and the ultimate value of earning a secure and stable partnership.

6. Failing to take the contract seriously enough. It is a legal document drafted wholly by the employer. A good contract should have your input too.

7. Underestimating that all physician employment contracts are negotiable, especially if you prudently have opened up career options elsewhere, and have a skilled negotiator to pave the way.