Hello, my name is Jean-Pierre Maubasser and I'm the current president of Goodman Campbell Brain and Spine. It's very important to remember that your relationship starts with the interview and in fact even starts before that with your first email communications and correspondence with the group. It's really important to remember to be professional. It's become very common to be casual in emails without correct punctuation and remember that that will reflect on you and that will be something that is noticed by the people. So you want to start this interview process professionally and have a point of contact and somebody who can help you through this process. Sometimes you may know an individual in the group and you want to lean on that individual and ask questions along the way and sometimes you may develop somebody you identify with in the group, either physician or administrator who's somebody you can go to with questions as well. So we'll do a little bit about the interview but then we'll go more into the contract negotiation itself. Remember when you go for an interview what it typically will happen is you'll meet with the partners in the group and the administration. This is an opportunity for you to learn as much as you can about the group but also for them to assess you. You'll likely tour the facilities where you'd be working, there'll be some sort of dinner and then you have to figure out what to do afterwards. Typically the group will reach out to you. However, you have to understand sometimes a group can be understaffed, they can be extremely busy. If you don't hear from them it doesn't necessarily mean that they are not interested. A polite email reminder expressing your interest and desire to know what the next steps could be is a simple thing to do in order to prompt and move this relationship forward. Then typically there will be a second interview. That's more of a getting to know you on a personal basis. Find out what your interests are, your likes, your hobbies, things outside of the hospital. You have to remember that this is somewhat of a marriage between you and all the other partners and they want to make sure that this is going to be a good cultural fit not just for them but for you as well. The last thing our group wants is to bring somebody who's not happy because that doesn't work for them or for us. Remember bringing a new partner is an incredible amount of work for the hospital, the group and everybody on their side administratively speaking so they want it to work just as much as you do. Most of the time a group will have you bring your significant other or your spouse to the second interview so they can meet that individual and a lot of times that dinner will be with spouses or significant others so that they have an opportunity to interact and get to know you as a person and your family as well. If you don't understand things during this process or you have questions about the group, the structure, make sure you ask. Number one you want to look inquisitive and interested and you want to understand the details but they will also judge you to some degree by the types of questions you're asking. They want to know that you're asking the right things and that you're asking questions that are important to know about. If you haven't developed a point of contact it's really important that you find somebody who can advocate for you within the group. A lot of times these relationships start because you have a partner, a former resident or a mentor who may know somebody there who's recommended this relationship so go to that individual first. It is really important to do your due diligence. You want to check into the group's local reputation. Obviously a lot of groups may have a national reputation but a local reputation can be entirely different. You want to make sure that the hospital administrators in the community, the physicians in the community have a very good review of the group that you're interested in. If you get neutral to negative responses about that group then you really need to be aware and try and understand more why that is. It was probably 20 years ago when I joined our group and I remember calling two individuals who had recently left the group. They were orthopedic spine surgeons and I called them to ask about the group and they both said that the individuals, the neurosurgeons of the group were great physicians, caring, good at patient care, great partners. They just didn't have the same financial structure and goals that these two individuals had. So knowing that was very important to me because I knew that financial issues and structure can always be changed but if the individuals aren't the right individual or it was a bad culture that's something that you're not going to fix when you come in there. When you're going through this process it's important to be transparent and honest. Obviously you don't have to tell them everything but when they know that you're transparent, for example you could be interviewing at several other groups, that's okay. They expect that. In fact, I want somebody to interview at several places so they can really judge and see the pros and cons of what our group offers versus what another group offers. So by being transparent and honest you establish trust and it's important to figure out what the group culture is as well. You also have to understand why they're bringing you into this group. How are you going to get your patients when you start? When you ask these questions understand that they are judging you by the questions you're asking and they're also trying to figure out are you going to be a good fit for our group. So when it gets to the negotiation stage it's very important that you understand that this is a really fine line between appearing selfish but also looking out for yourself and you have to walk that tightrope very carefully. You need to try and find out where the flexibility is within their model and their system in the negotiation and where there isn't going to be any flexibility. So you want to talk about maybe the important and major issues to you that are going to materially impact you and maybe not focus on the minor issues that can actually just create more of a headache than anything else. Try and understand their contract and if you don't understand it, get legal help. It's okay to get a lawyer and have them look through the contract with you but I would make sure the lawyer understands their job is to help you understand the agreement, to understand the pros and cons and understand the pitfall of the agreement. It's not necessarily to rewrite the contract. Also understand the group's perspective on this negotiation. What they're looking for is this person a team player. That's probably the most important thing. Is this somebody who's going to be hardworking, affable, good for our brand locally and somebody that projects us well or is this going to be somebody who's an egocentric individual who cares about themselves and tends to be a complainer. These are things that are really important to a group because if it's the former, somebody who's a team player, affable, gets along and works hard, that's going to be a huge success for the practice and that's going to be somebody they're very excited about. If it tends to be somebody who's egocentric or a complainer, that person becomes a headache for the group and somebody that requires a lot of attention and time and they would see that individual as a mistake honestly. So obviously we all need to know ourselves. We all have shortcomings and it's important to be honest with yourself about what your shortcomings are. It is okay to care about money. That's a part of the job and it's important. You're doing this for a living. You're doing this to support your family, your retirement, your children. You should not be embarrassed to ask about money and to understand their financial structure. But again, it should be one of many factors when you're looking to identify the best job for you. Understand these types of details. Understand the structure of the agreement when you're negotiating and if you don't understand these things, get somebody to help you who can so that you're asking the right questions. More than anything, it's important to make sure that you know what you're getting into. There is no perfect job. There is no perfect contract. So when you're walking through this negotiation, there's a lot of nuances. You're walking a very fine line. You do want to value yourself, but you don't want to overvalue yourself. This is not an emotional process. It's a business arrangement. Be respectful. Don't get emotional about it and be professional. That's very important to them because that's how you will conduct yourself when you're a part of that group. What they see in this negotiation process can pretend for what they're going to have as a partner in the future and that's how they are viewing this. Understanding that is really important. So remember, once you're going through a negotiation process, remember what you're presenting to these people. Come out as a hard worker. Your first impression is going to be made through this negotiation process, but also when you first show up to work. I tell all of our new graduates who then come to work for us, work as hard in your first year of practice as you did as a resident because that will impress everybody and that'll set the tone and the impression everybody has of you.

professionalism

communication

interview

contract negotiation

cultural fit