Dermatologist Career Guide,
Salary, Licence & Jobs 2026

Dermatology is perennially among the two or three most competitive specialties in the Match: small residency classes, high applicant volume and successful candidates who combine top USMLE Step 2 scores, honored rotations, research output and often a dedicated research year. The training itself — an intern year plus three years of residency after medical school — is standard physician length; it is the selection filter, not the duration, that makes dermatology hard.

The BLS OEWS May 2025 median for dermatologists (SOC 29-1213) is $328,730 a year, or $158.04 an hour. The 10th percentile of $102,810 largely reflects part-time and academic arrangements, while the 75th percentile reaches $452,450 and the 90th $578,560 — the highest top decile among the specialties in this series. Practice owners with Mohs, pathology and cosmetic revenue commonly sit above the published distribution.

You set your career intent, target role, location, salary, credentials, and timeline, in 3 minutes. Our recruiters benchmark your pay against BLS data and live employer requirements, then bring matching permanent job opportunities directly to you. No applications. No job boards. We verify your credentials so employers see a complete, credible profile. After placement, we pay your licence renewal fees. Permanent, full-time, direct-hire only.

Yes — dermatology is a procedural specialty. Every general dermatologist performs biopsies, excisions with margin control, cryosurgery and electrodesiccation daily. Fellowship-trained Mohs surgeons go further, performing staged micrographic surgery for high-risk skin cancers with same-day frozen-section margin mapping and reconstructive closures, including flaps and grafts on the face. Cosmetic procedures — lasers, neurotoxins, fillers — form a third surgical-adjacent tier.

Mohs micrographic surgery removes skin cancers in stages, mapping and reading frozen-section margins the same day so the tumor is fully cleared while sparing the most normal tissue — cure rates for common skin cancers exceed those of standard excision. Becoming one requires dermatology residency followed by a one-year ACGME micrographic surgery and dermatologic oncology fellowship, itself a competitive match. It is the specialty's most reliably high-earning path.

Most dermatologists blend both. Medical dermatology — skin cancer, psoriasis, acne, eczema — is insurance-billed, mission-driven volume; cosmetic work — injectables, lasers, peels — is cash-pay with better margins and no prior authorizations. A typical private practice runs a medical base with a growing aesthetic line, and the ratio is a business decision each owner tunes. Purely cosmetic practices exist but forgo the referral engine that medical dermatology provides.

Strong and structurally undersupplied: residency classes are small, roughly 400 openings a year are projected through 2034, and wait times for appointments run months in much of the country. New graduates weigh employed positions (hospital systems and, increasingly, private-equity-owned groups) against partnerships and startups. Rural and mid-size markets pay recruiting premiums, while saturated coastal metros trade income for location — the classic dermatology bargain.