Career Resources

Creating a Five-Year PA Career Plan

Creating a five-year plan for your PA career is an empowering way to take charge of your career development. Read on for the PA Career Coach’s advice on how to identify your career goals and translate those goals into an actionable plan.

Maintaining Professional Records Checklist

Although every PA’s path to clinical practice is unique, practicing PAs (and PA students) are responsible for collecting and retaining a standard set of documents as they progress in their careers. We’ve compiled these documents into the handy checklist below so you can make sure you have the professional records you need.

Contract Assessment and Negotiation Checklist

It’s important to negotiate a contract that empowers you, fits your needs, and protects you. The checklist can help you assess an employer’s contract and identify areas for negotiation.

Finding Your Dream Job

There is no perfect job. Career satisfaction is highly individualized. PAs can find the right job for them by carefully considering variables like work-life balance, compensation, and work setting, and prioritizing the variables that align with their passions, values, and morals.

Tips for Contract Negotiation, Using the AAPA Salary Report

Every day, PA Career Coach Jennifer Hohman uses the AAPA Salary Report to help her clients negotiate their employment contracts. In this article, Jennifer shares how she leverages the Salary Report for her client’s benefit.

Three Steps for Bouncing Back from Career Setbacks

Career disappointments and setbacks are parts of the professional journey that will happen to almost every PA at some point—and they can feel devastating. In this article I’d like to explore some ideas and approaches for responding to career setbacks so that you not only rebound but return to your practice with greater zest and confidence.

Contract and Salary Negotiations

: You’ve landed your first PA job – now it’s time get the salary and perks you want! PA educator James R. Kilgore, DMSc, PhD, PA-C, DFAAPA, shares tips and tricks for negotiating the terms of your contract.

Smiling PA in blue scrubs

Your Top 5 Career Questions Answered by the PA Career Coach

Jennifer Anne Hohman, the PA Career Coach, answers the top five questions we heard from PAs this year. She offers her expert advice on asking for a raise, negotiating (and renegotiating) your salary, how to land a job as a new grad, and more.

Allyson Hamacher

Tips for New PAs on How to Grow Your Role at Work

Are you a new PA who is ready to grow your role and increase responsibilities at work? Two members of the Early Career PA Commission, Allyson Hamacher, PA-C, and Jack Ward, PA-C, share tips for other early career PAs.

Image of a PA talking to her colleagues.

4 Non-Salary Negotiations PAs Need to Consider

For most professionals, the words “negotiate” and “salary” often go hand-in-hand. But when employers can’t increase your salary offer, you may find them willing to increase or improve other areas of the benefits package to entice you to work for them.

Your Step-by-Step Guide for Starting a New Job

Use our checklist to be prepared to start practicing strong on day one.

Anatomy of a Contract icon

Anatomy of a Contract

Use our interactive tool to familiarize yourself with a contract. We’ve outlined the key elements typically found in PA employment contracts and offered some advice on what to expect, ask for, and be wary of in each section.

Strategies for PAs to Prevent Burnout

While work/life balance will always be provisional and imperfect, it is worth seeking; it is essential PAs take care of themselves to prevent professional and personal burnout.

PA Student to PA: Navigating the Transition

While the transition from program to practice may seem overwhelming and nerve-wracking, PA students can set themselves up for a successful career start with these tips.

Career Experts Offer PAs Advice on Contract Negotiation

Three career experts offer their advice on AAPA member-submitted contract negotiation questions.