Career Advisor's Background and Career Information

Background

Name: Mohammad Diab
Career Advisor for: Orhtopaedic Surgery
Title(s): Associate Professor
Undergraduate & Graduate Degrees/Institutions: Stanford - BA Classics Stanford - MD U. Washington - Residency Orthopaedics Harvard - Fellowship Pediatric Orthopaedics
Clinical Interests/Duties: Pediatric Orthopaedics Medical Language
Research Interests/Duties: Hip deformity in children Spinal deformity in children Medical Language

Career Information

1. What can students do in the 1st and 2nd years to explore and/or prepare for this career? Get to know a faculty member well. A personal recommendation may be the single best part of an application. Also, it's an intimate way to get an inside look at the profession. Get involved in a project, basic or clinical, investigative or care oriented. In addition to getting to know and getting known by people in the field, you get a deeper look at the field itself. Also, gives you a chance to demonstrate success in the field, and nothing succeeds better than success.

2. What common variations exist in the length/content of residency programs for this career? Long hours. Medium length residency. Competitive.

3. What common variations exist in this career after training? Long hours. High satisfaction. This is due to the non-terminal, "fixable" nature of the diseases we treat, the appreciation of patients, the character of colleagues, the innovativeness of the techniques which keeps the field dynamic and interesting.

4. What is a typical work day for you (or someone else representative)? Up at 5 something every morning, home by 7-8 in the evening. No way to sugar coat the long hours. Having said that, the hours I have I enjoy thoroughly. WORK IS FUN.

5. What is the "culture" of this career? Upbeat, easy going, practical, doers, to the point, unpretentious, not too much whining or angst.

6. How compatible is this career with raising a family? How is this different for men and women? Long hours stress family life. At least, overall happiness at work translates to overall hapiness at home.

7. How important, individually, are each the following for admission to a competitive program:

a.Extra-curricular/volunteer work? important
b. Research/publications? important
c. Honors in third year? less so
d. AOA? less so
e. A sub-internship? important
f. An externship? less so
g. (Other important elements to the application?)
8. What are the most important qualities or character traits for a person in this field? see 5.

9. How competitive are the residency programs in this field? Competitive like many of the surgical subspecialities. There are probably 10 fields that think they are the most competitive (I was at a meeting last week when I heard an ENT surgeon tell us that his was the most competitive field). I would appeal to you not to believe the hype. Like life in general, nothing is as good as it sounds or as bad as it sounds. Also, there are plenty of dummies in orthopaedics as there are in any of the "most competitive" fields, so if they let those people in, there's certainly a place for you (not to imply you're a dummy...).

10. How competitive is the job market after residency?

11. What programs would you consider to be in the 1st tier, 2nd tier, and 3rd tier? This is ever shifting, so come by sometime and we can chat.

12. What resources (web, books, etc, besides the AMA and AAMC sites) would you recommend for students interested in learning more about this field? The best resource is a faculty member or more whom you get to know well. Don't be shy, because that's why we're here. Make the effort - it will pay dividends.