Joel Schofer's Career Planning Podcast

Joel Schofer, MD, MBA, CPE

A podcast discussing important career planning issues for Navy medical officers.

  1. 10/21/2018

    How to Evaluate the Promotion Potential of a Billet/Position

    Recently I advertised the USUHS Commandant position. A reader asked: Any thoughts on whether you think this is a position that would make an O5 competitive for O6? This is a common issue. A position is advertised, but you want to know if it will help get your promoted to O5 or O6 if you […]

    3 min

  2. 07/09/2018

    What Should You Do If You Didn’t Promote?

    If you are particularly interested in this post, I’m sorry. You or someone you care about probably failed to promote. In reality, nowadays it is normal and expected to fail to promote to O5 and O6, so you have company. Here are my suggestions for those that fail to promote. First, try to figure out […]

    12 min

  3. 04/09/2018

    You Should Care About Promotion Board Precepts and Convening Orders

    Whenever a promotion board starts, the members are provided two items to guide them as they decide who to promote, the board precept and the convening order. These documents are available on-line and should be used to figure out how to promote and write your fitrep.   The Board Precept The precept is released in […]

    4 min

  4. 01/14/2018

    How I Write My Fitrep

    O5 fitreps are due soon, so it is time for me to write my fitrep. How do I do it? Here are the steps I go through: I get the Surgeon General’s priorities and the convening order for last year’s O6 board. (If you were an O4, you’d want the O5 convening order. If you […]

    3 min

  5. 01/09/2018

    Do You Still Need to Send the Above Zone Letter?

    The standard advice has always gone something like this: “If you are above zone, you need to send a letter to the promotion board so that they know you are still trying to promote. Otherwise they won’t pick you.” Now that they no longer stamp officer records with “AZ” (above zone) and they look exactly […]

    3 min

  6. 01/07/2018

    New Addition to the Promo Prep – Check Your Security Clearance

    During the last Specialty Leader Business Meeting, the Detailing Update mentioned that there were about 10 cases of officers who lost their promotion due to a security clearance issue. As a result, I added a new section to the Promo Prep document. In it you can find out how to check your security clearance. Here’s […]

    3 min

  7. 12/11/2017

    How to Prepare for Important Navy Interviews

    A reader recently asked me for help preparing for a big interview that I had done in the past (the interview to become a Specialty Leader). We both thought that interview prep would be a good blog post, so here is my advice after 10+ interviews for significant leadership positions: Be prepared for an in-depth […]

    5 min

  8. 07/30/2017

    What Should You Do If You Didn’t Promote?

    If you are particularly interested in this post, I’m sorry. You or someone you care about probably failed to promote. In reality, nowadays it is normal and expected to fail to promote to O5 and O6, so you have company. Here are my suggestions for those that fail to promote. First, try to figure out […]

    12 min
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A podcast discussing important career planning issues for Navy medical officers.

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