Where To Find Employment After Graduation From PA School

Although us second year PA students are busy learning and experiencing all that we can on our rotations, each of us must eventually confront the question of "Where will I work?" It is perhaps a decision that will influence the rest of our lives and should not be undertaken lightly. Our graduation date is set in December, which is a mere six months away, and for those of us who have been able to find a place of employment already the burden has been lifted. For the rest of us, including myself, the search continues.

The demand for pathologists' assistants has continued to be strong, but how long this will last is questionable. A greater and greater number of new graduates are meeting the demand to fill positions, but a disturbing new trend is emerging. I have heard that the average age of pathologists' assistants is actually decreasing year-by-year. If this continues, there will be an excess of new graduates and not enough job positions available for them. I am optimistic for the next number of years, but eventually, this potential issue must be addressed.

I look at the employment dilemmas of my friends who are making it on their own and am extremely grateful to be studying in this program. I'm grateful not just from an educational perspective, but also from an employment perspective. As far as the PA Program at West Virginia University is concerned, I am happy to say that thus far all graduates of our program have found work either before graduation or upon graduation. The field of medicine has been largely shielded from the effects of the 'economic recession.' However, nationwide, college graduates of my generation have been hit especially hard and as many as 53% are either unemployed or underemployed.
http://news.yahoo.com/1-2-graduates-jobless-underemployed-140300522.html
Being able to graduate from an accredited program will enable me to achieve my goals inside the profession and outside the profession. The recession is hitting young adults the hardest because the rest of their lives will be stunted. Their decisions to climb the career ladder, to buy a home or to raise a family will inevitably become delayed or possibly never materialize.

Fortunately, for my classmates and myself, the 50 states of our union are ours for the taking. There are job opportunities that continue to open themselves all across the country. I have seen job openings from West Coast to East Coast. The question for us is not whether we can find employment, but rather, where should we choose to work?

There are a variety of factors to consider when choosing a place of employment. Although each job position usually has a few applicants I will assume for this article that the competition nationwide is fairly constant. Also, I will not compare the working facilities themselves (small community hospital vs private high-volume lab.)

1. How close is it to family?
For myself and many of my classmates, this is actually the largest factor in choosing a place of employment. I believe that my classmates who have already found employment have found it close to home. My family is located in Clovis, California, so my hope is to find employment back in California. Fortunately for me, California is a large state and lacks a local pathologists' assistant program. The majority of the PA programs are located on the eastern side of the US and one is located in Canada. Generally speaking, this creates a greater demand for PAs in the west, mid-west and southern states.
Moving back in with family has a number of advantages and disadvantages. By moving in with family you are accepting an opportunity cost. Perhaps a different hospital would have paid more than a local hospital or perhaps the weather is nicer in a different state than your local state.
Also, if you are moving back closer to family, you might be doing so because you want to move back in! I hate to sound like a parasite, but that is what my goal is. I have always praised cultures in which there are three or perhaps even four generations all living under the same roof. American individualism and entrepreneurship are admirable qualities to have, but they are not practical when you are a new graduate and have tens-of-thousands of dollars in student loans to pay off. As soon as I am able to pay off my debts and save up enough for a house of my own, I will be happy to move out, ideally next door. My parents worked hard to care for me when I couldn't do so myself as a child and I want to repay the favor by taking care of them.
Besides, Hanako said that she doesn't want to live in any other city besides Clovis and at my parent's place. I'm stuck between a hard spot and a rock.

2. What is the cost of living?
One reason why I am not enthusiastic about accepting a position in a large metropolitan city is because of the high cost of living. Whether it be San Francisco or New York, the larger check that you receive will be taken care of by the high cost of food, energy and taxes.
There is a great website that has a list of tax burdens according to each state. Each state can entice new migrants or retain long time residents by changing their tax codes. There are some states that have no sales tax and others which have no income tax. Even among the states that do have taxes, their levels will vary. There is a great resource here: http://www.retirementliving.com/taxes-by-state, that breaks down each state and how much it costs to live in that state. Sure, we all want to live in Hawaii, but can we even afford a condo there? Which brings me to my next factor...

3. What is the climate like?
I have seen a job opening for a position in North Dakota before. I'm sure that the summers are beautiful and mild, but a cold intolerant person like myself would not be able to survive the winter. Likewise, I don't believe that I would be able to survive hot/humid weather. I much prefer hot and dry weather as in California, Nevada, Arizona, etc... We are fortunate that job positions are still available across the country because it gives us the ability to choose our weather. Believe it or not, weather plays a big role in our mood and mental health. Most people in the US don't have that luxury.

4. Is it a place that fits what you like to do or believe in?
If you are going to work in a large city, you have the immediate satisfaction of being able to go out in your free time and enjoy all that the city life has to offer. If you are looking to raise a family then perhaps a more rural or suburban area will be to your liking. Do you like surfing? If you're living in Utah then don't expect to go surfing often. If you can't live without skiing, then Colorado might fit your bill. Despite having a small part of us offered up to the pathology textbook gods, we all have our own personalities and tastes.
One shouldn't forget that we don't live in a bubble and that our neighbors can make or break our home. A liberal person might not be able to stand living in a conservative county of Texas or vice-versa. Larger states such as California have both liberal and conservative areas. Wikipedia has an informative map of blue states and red states which can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_states_and_blue_states.

5. What is your commute time going to be?
The average American spends 24.3 minutes driving to work one-way. http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/censusandstatistics/a/commutetimes.htm. That eventually adds up to over 100 hours per year! I can think of many better things to do than to spend 4 days in my car. The longest commute time, unsurprisingly, was in New York, where workers averaged 30.4 minutes. The shortest was in Montana at 16.9 minutes. If you're going to settle down, you might want to weigh the costs and benefits of living close to work. My ideal workplace would be right next door to my house, but the next best place would be a place which I could ride my bicycle to. That would take care of my exercise as well as save on gas.

I am certain that there are some other factors that one can think of. If there's anything which you would like to add, please feel free to tell me!