u/InevitableProgram597

I am an MD-PhD in the earlier stages of residency and want to pursue a career in academic medicine doing both patient care and basic biomedical scientific research. My resume is pretty good (Ivy League schools, H index > 25, some small grants acquired, multiple national & international research-related awards) and my advisors have told me I would be competitive for physician-scientist positions and grants like K99/R00.

The issue that I have is that my spouse is currently a tenure track professor of history at a university in a state with no medical schools and no major hospitals. The history job market is truly awful with single digit positions available for her nationwide each year and, thus, huge competition for each job.

A colleague of my spouse’s in her department just got a spousal hire at an top-tier
university on the east coast when her husband got a position at the law school. Her husband was fresh out of his JD-PhD and while very smart/qualified, isn’t some kind of wunderkind or major hot shot, so I was quite surprised he was able to negotiate a spousal like this. This had me thinking: given medical schools, like law schools, generally have far more money than history departments, would it be possible for a physician-scientist to negotiate a tenure track spousal hire in the humanities? I have never heard of a cross-school spousal before this law school-history situation. Another potential consideration would be that my spouse will go up for tenure at her university before I complete residency and she is extremely likely to get it, so I am not sure if her being tenured would affect the likelihood of this happening (positively or negatively). My primary goal would be to simply live in the same place as my spouse and I would have no other real “asks” for a potential job, so I guess I am asking how possible a spousal hire across schools would be and if anyone has experience with the process?

Thank you for any advice or insight you may be able to provide!

I am an MD-PhD in the earlier stages of residency and want to pursue a career in academic medicine doing both patient care and basic biomedical scientific research. My resume is pretty good (Ivy League schools, H index > 25) and my advisors have told me I would be competitive for physician-scientist positions and grants like K99/R00.

The issue that I have is that my spouse is currently a tenure track professor of history at a university in a state with no medical schools and no major hospitals. The history job market is truly awful with single digit positions available nationwide each year and, thus, huge competition for each job—even in highly undesirable locations.

A colleague of my spouse’s in her department just got a spousal hire at an excellent university in NYC when her husband got a position at the law school. This had me thinking: given medical schools have far more money than history departments, would it be possible for a physician-scientist to negotiate a tenure track spousal hire? I have never heard of a cross-school spousal before this law school-history situation. Another potential consideration would be that my spouse will go up for tenure at her university before I complete residency and she is extremely likely to get it, so I am not sure if her being tenured would affect the likelihood of this happening (positively or negatively). My primary goal would be to simply live in the same place as my spouse and I would have no other real “asks” for a potential job, so I guess I am asking how possible a spousal hire across schools would be and if anyone has experience with the process.

Thank you for any advice or insight you may be able to provide!