Emergency physicians change jobs frequently compared with other medical specialists. The recent decrease in reimbursement and the deterioration of the medical malpractice situation will likely generate even more job placement activity throughout the year. While job opportunities often arrive in the mail or can be found in various journals and publications, the web has become an increasingly valuable resource for job seekers. The Internet's ability to consolidate job opportunities from many places is powerful, and is one of the reasons magazines, journals, and newspapers have lost ad placements to it. In addition, online listings often contain more information than those tiny print classified ads. This month's column provides resources to help EPs optimize and better understand their existing situation. The web contains several articles that address the key employment and contract topics facing emergency physicians. One of the best places to go is the American Academy of Emergency Medicine at www.aaem.org. The site features numerous articles on contract issues, contract management companies, democratic groups, and due process. There is an excellent set of contract guidelines for emergency physicians at www.aaem.org/contractissues/guidelines.html.Table: Job Opportunities on the WebEvaluating a Job The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) has an article titled “How to Evaluate a New Job and Negotiate the Contract” at www.acep.org/1,2775,0.html. The ACEP site also has an excellent collection of links to salary surveys at www.acep.org/1,4738,0.html. For those interested in academic positions, the Emergency Medicine Residents Association (EMRA) site posts a very well done publication, Emergency Medicine-An Academic Career Guide, which is more than 100 pages long, and features articles from respected emergency medicine academicians. You can download the guide at www.emra.org/resources/pdf/AcadCarGuide.pdf. Although the leader in online employment sites, Monster.com, does not offer many physician employment opportunities, it has 2,000 pages of career coaching will help define your needs, teach you how to proceed with your search, and coach you through the interview process. You will be well served, for example, by completing the site's “Interview Cheat Sheet.” Other brief yet interesting sections include “Non-Verbal Communications: Escape the Pitfalls,” “The Negotiating Dance,” “Career Research Made Easy,” “Assessing Your Skills: What Makes You Different from All the Others?” “Informational Interviewing: The Neglected Job Search Tool,” and finally, “The Second Interview.” Those interested in searching for job positions will find many sites to explore. There are several well-known web sites that specialize in emergency medicine employment opportunities, while others focus on health care in general yet still include a large number of EP positions. EMRA has maintained an emergency medicine job bank for many years. The job bank is accessible online at www.emra.org. The listings include useful information about the work location such as shift lengths, types of contracts, and wages. In addition, the contact information of the employer is provided so they can be contacted directly. Health Care Recruiting CompHealth (www.medimorphus.com) is a major player in health care recruiting and staffing. Previously known as Weatherby Health Care, the company started with locum tenens coverage, and expanded into a full-service recruitment company. It represents more than 6,000 business clients, and has an active pool of 50,000 health care professionals in its database. CompHealth has a large number of employment opportunities listed. The actual content of the listings seems sparse, however. As is typical with recruiters, you cannot contact the employer directly. You can request a personal search for the location and type of job in which you are interested. This feature is not available on many other sites. While job opportunities often arrive by mail or are in journals, the web has become a valuable resource for job seekers EmedHome (www.emedhome.com) is a site devoted to emergency medicine topics and includes a job bank. There is no length restriction on the job postings, and the positions are described in substantial detail. The listings include phone numbers and email addresses so that you do not have to work through the web site. The ads are listed by state, with the most recent listed first. MD Direct (www.mddirect.com), a product of the Physicians' Online Network, offers more than 1,000 physician positions. Of note, it includes an excellent collection of emergency medicine employment opportunities. The listings offer a large amount of detailed information about the position. The contact information for the employer also is available in the postings. MedicalWorkers.com has more than 3,000 listings covering the entire spectrum of health care, including emergency medicine and other specialties. There is also a resume-posting feature. Listings are extremely detailed, and allow you to contact the employer directly. Medjump.com has several dozen EP positions posted, many from recruiters and large groups. The listings are more scant than those at most sites, however. Of particular interest here is their resource center, which provides links to useful information such as health care salary data, tips on writing a better resume, and how to negotiate a better salary. The American Medical Association (www.ama-assn.org) has job listings in the classified sections of its affiliated journals (JAMA, American Medical News, and the Archives series). Although the AMA has a large readership, the number of emergency medicine job offerings is relatively limited. In addition, our own Employmed.com site offers many detailed health care positions, including several in emergency medicine. On a final note, for those not happy with their current jobs or any of the other available ones, there is always the option of creating your own ED group. AAEM provides a primer on how to succeed in such an endeavor at www.aaem.org/democraticgroups/index.html.