[Training Tuesday] - Weekly thread for questions about grad school, residency, and general career topics 04/18/2023

This is the place to ask questions about graduate school, training programs, or general basic career topics. If you are just learning about the field and want to know if it is something you should explore, this thread is probably the correct place for those first few questions on your mind.

Examples:

• "I majored in Surf Science and Technology in undergrad, is Medical Physics right for me?"
• "I can't decide between Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics..."
• "Do Medical Physicists get free CT scans for life?"
• "Masters vs. PhD"
• "How do I prepare for Residency interviews?"

Comments:

1. What are the experiences in having residency in a consulting organization versus hospital? Why should one prefer one? or what are the expectations that are peculiar to either?

   1. One of the users' cohort went into one of the bigger consulting (therapy) residencies, and the user went into a hospital residency. The user can't speak a lot about it since they don't talk too often, but from what the user mentioned, their cohort felt pretty overworked in comparison to their other cohort and themselves. The cohort member was working 60-70 hours a week and most weekends, apparently. At some point, the user begins to wonder if the organization is even interested in actually teaching.

   2. While the user has had periods of time where they work similar hours due to things piling up (annuals and lots of special brachy procedures, for example), but it's rare and often times great learning experiences. The user averages 45-50 hours most weeks. The user can't speak to anything beyond that, and it's a sample size of one.

      1. Thank you so much

2. How hard is it to find a good paying job after Masters? Hello, the user is a 3rd year medical physics student and they plan to pursue a masters degree but they're just wondering how difficult it would be to find a well-paying job? They mostly want to go into research but they would go into other fields if they have better potential pay and career progression opportunities. The user is in Canada for extra info.

   1. In lieu of a Canadian chiming in here (I'm sure someone will eventually), as someone in the US who regularly interacts with Canadians, it seems to be difficult to pursue a clinical career without a PhD. If academia is similar in Canada, it can be difficult to get far research-wise without a PhD as well. Not impossible for either, just an uphill battle.

   2. Again, these are not the user's personal experience, so take it with a grain of salt and all that. That said, the user feels like this has been discussed previously here, have they tried searching for a related thread?

Original URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/MedicalPhysics/comments/12qjhhq/training_tuesday_weekly_thread_for_questions/