The “ideal job” is a job that is ideal for both the applicant and for the department, school, or practice. To find the ideal job you must know what is essential and what is important for you, the skills that you can bring to the position, and the resources and expectations of the position. I would start by discussing your job search with trusted and experienced colleagues and them making three lists:
- A rank order of what is most important to you (e.g. location, salary, mentorship, protected time, community, etc.)
- The skills you bring to the position (clinical skills, research experience and support, leadership experience, etc.)
- How you hope to grow with the job (what is your ideal career development and how will this be supported).
Once you have this clarity it will be easier to identify jobs that most closely meet your ideal.
This is also a good basis for negotiation. Salary and clinical expectations might be the easiest part of negotiating as AAAP and others (AAMC, MGMA) have published salary bands for pediatric specialities by geographic location. You will want to know about benefits, moving expenses, perhaps loan forgiveness, and how the practice plan is implemented. Just as important, you need to know about “protected time” – how this is protected and what the expectations are for using thus time recognizing that protection may vanish if expectations (research grants, teaching, administration) are not effectively met. Remember that if you are being given a job offer, they want you to succeed so negotiations should be based on both your needs and those of the department and why meeting these requests will benefit you as well as the department.