Perhaps no other aspect of a job search induces more fear than the all-important interview. “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” and “Why should we hire you?” are just two of the stress-inducing questions often posed. There’s no shortage of advice on how to answer queries like these, so we’ll leave that well-trodden ground to your Internet search skills.

But the fact is, interviewing for your first job shouldn’t be an interrogation focused solely on what you bring to the practice. Instead, much like a first date, it should be a conversation — and a friendly one at that — in which you learn as much about your potential new employer as they learn about you.

To that end, here are a few of the questions you should be asking, courtesy of a few retina “veterans” who remember what it was like to interview for their first “real job.”

1. What do we have in common?

As much as possible, job candidates should try to identify how well they and the practice they’re considering “click,” says Daniel Kiernan, MD, a retina specialist with the multispecialty practice Ophthalmic Consultants of Long Island, who completed his fellowship in 2011.

“One of the most important things I did on the interview trail was figuring out who I was going to be working with and how their personalities would mesh with mine,” says Dr. Kiernan. “What were their own goals and aspirations? What did they do for fun in their spare time?”

Far from being irrelevant, how closely your own values and interests align with the people you work with are important components to overall job satisfaction and professional growth, Dr. Kiernan says. “You’re going to be really unhappy in your first job if you don’t mesh well with the people you work with,” he says.

Sunir J. Garg, MD, agrees, advising new retina specialists to look especially critically at the people whom would be their direct partners and colleagues.

“You want to find people you respect, whom you would trust to take care of your own patients,” says Dr. Garg, a retina specialist at Mid-Atlantic Retina and Wills Eye Hospital, both in Philadelphia. Although such information is difficult to suss out during a typical interview process, he says, your gut feeling can be a valuable aid.

“If you go to an interview and don’t get a good feeling about the practice or the people, that means a lot,” he says.

2. Do people really enjoy working here?

Another important area to consider before you tie the knot is how much or how little your potential coworkers enjoy their work and workplace.

“During my interviews here, I noticed that everyone looked pretty happy; they were smiling, greeting patients, and saying ‘hi’ to everyone when I walked in,” says Dr. Kiernan, who also notes the importance of intuition. “I went around to a few different [satellite] offices and got a really good vibe.” That wasn’t necessarily true, he says, of some other practices he had visited.

“Comparing notes later with my wife, we definitely came up with a few yellow flags here and there, and even a couple of red ones,” says Dr. Kiernan.

Detective work such as this is vital — even if it means talking to former employees and feeling out current ones.

“It’s very important to ask honest questions, such as, ‘Have any associates left recently, and, if so, why?’ And ask for their names,” Dr. Kiernan says. “It’s also a good idea to speak candidly, but perhaps privately, with current associates to ask if they’re happy.”

Although getting honest answers may be difficult, “If you ask enough people, I think you’ll get at least an inkling of what’s going on,” Dr. Kiernan says, who once interviewed at a practice where, he later learned, a physician left in the wake of a “nightmare situation.”

“I’m really glad that I didn’t go into that,” he said.

3. What specifically will I be doing on a daily basis?

A third important question to get answered relates to the specific extent of your daily work responsibilities, as well as the support staff who will work with you to complete them.

“You might have one idea of what’s busy, and your prospective employer might have another idea of how busy you should be,” says Dr. Kiernan. He recommends reaching out to other practices, even competing ones, to get an idea of what constitutes a reasonable workload.

“Obviously, you’re going to be balancing what one person says against another,” he says, “but, if your prospective employer says one thing, and somebody you trust says the complete opposite, you know you’ve got to do a little more digging,” he says.

4. Is there a chance this practice will be acquired in the near future?

Go into every interview with an awareness of the potential for private equity to acquire the practice, and be sure to ask about the possibility, especially if you have your eyes set on partnership.

“You don’t want to go in expecting to become a partner in a couple of years and learn later that your practice is being bought by private equity,” Dr. Kiernan says, acknowledging an answer may be hard to get. “Ask around. If there’s a huge retina group nearby, you could even call them and ask if they’re thinking of buying the practice you’re considering. Information is power, and at least you won’t be surprised later because you didn’t ask.”

Hey, What About the Money?

New retina specialists, like all professionals, are wise to enter their job search with as much knowledge as possible of the fair market value for their education and services. Nevertheless, it’s important not to focus solely on salary while interviewing. Instead, be sure to consider other perks, such as productivity bonuses and the potential for attaining partnership, as well as your own individual priorities.

“Base salary can be one of the least important things to consider, compared with such things as production bonus, time to partnership, or how busy the doctors are,” says Dr. Kiernan. “A lower starting base salary, combined with a guaranteed 2 years to partnership with a buy-in of ‘x’ amount, could be a much better deal than a huge starting salary with an unclear production bonus and working for a large healthcare provider for the rest of your life.”

Indeed, while there is a “rough, fair market value” for retina specialists that depends largely on geography, productivity bonuses, and other factors, it varies by practice.

“Those are unique nuances that can be challenging to ascertain, but are still important,” he says. Asking detailed questions about these items (at the appropriate time in the interviewing process, of course) is vital making an informed decision.

Michael Seider, MD, a retina specialist and ocular oncologist at Kaiser Permanente of Northern California, agrees.

“Consider all of your options, and think about what a given job will offer you and how that will translate in your real life,” says Dr. Seider. “I would say a flexible schedule and work-life balance is very important to many people. Many young physicians don’t want the status symbols, and they don’t need to drive a Maserati — they want to be home with their kids. Make sure you know what your priorities are.”

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5. Is this opportunity right for my family?

Perhaps most important of all: Involve your family and/or significant other in your deliberations. In fact, bringing your significant other with you on interviewing trips is a good idea.

Given that your focus likely will be on the job opportunity and the people you’d be working with, you may not see the forest for the trees, while your spouse, on the other hand, may have insights that can influence your happiness in the long run.

“[Say] you’re interviewing in a really small town with just three restaurants that’s 3 hours from the closest big city,” Dr. Kiernan says. “You might not think much about it at the time, but your spouse might notice and say, ‘Wait a minute, this might not be right for us.’”

Some prospective employers are happy to front the cost of a spouse coming on an interview trip, he adds, noting that sometimes the potential employer’s own family may also want to get acquainted with your significant other.

“I’ve heard from fellow ophthalmologists that their spouse definitely helped to sway a decision one way or the other in many circumstances. It’s important to get them involved,” he says.

DO YOUR HOMEWORK

Ultimately, looking for the right job really is similar to looking for a romantic partner, and the chances of a good “match” often depend on having good, accurate information about your potential “mate.”

“I might not have seen everything as clearly if I hadn’t done my homework and interviewed at such a wide gamut of places and got a feel for different personalities,” says Dr. Kiernan.

Nevertheless, nothing is guaranteed, and it helps to be aware that circumstances change. “The business of ophthalmology is always changing; never stay completely comfortable in one spot, because change is always happening,” Dr. Kiernan says.

“Some of the things that are frustrating about a first job might be frustrating because of that particular situation. But some things are frustrating because that’s the way jobs are,” Dr. Garg adds.

“First job, first spouse. There’s a 50% divorce rate for both — it’s just the way it is. We don’t plan for these things to happen, but it can still work out pretty well.” ■