Continued
The long run
Most experts view the ideal job search process as a well-timed marathon rather
than a last-minute sprint to grab whatever is available. As long as you prepare
and give it plenty of time, the steps are predictable and the result is
statistically in your favor.
Once prioritizing is checked off your list, the next step is to develop your
curriculum vitae. “They need to spend time on their CV, make sure it is orderly and is not
haphazardly thrown together,” says McCarthy. “If they know that writing is their weakness, they should hire a writer or use an
editor to clean it up. It is the first impression and you want it to reflect
well. I’ve seen some disasters. The CV needs to be eye appealing, but not overwhelming.”
In one sense, the job search should begin the moment residency begins. The
operative word there is networking. (See “It’s No Secret,” page 22, for networking tips.) Throughout residency, the doc-in-training is
exposed to speakers, attends conferences, and interacts with staff physicians
who, in turn, have colleagues throughout the country. Each of these contacts is
a potential source of job opportunities.
Sharon Buchbinder, RN, PhD, and the chair of the department of health science at
Towson
University in Maryland is in a unique position to comment on the job search
process. Buchbinder has researched the reasons that physicians leave a practice
and her findings shed light on the search process itself.
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“Research and anecdotal information shows that the first thing that goes wrong is
that expectations aren’t met,” says Buchbinder. “Someone is promised something and the promises aren’t sustained by the organization.” That means you must carefully vet any potential employer, interview carefully,
check concerns like on-call expectations, and finally, make sure these issues
are all in writing.
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“They should ask the age-old question of what is the physician turnover rate? I
would also include nurses in that question. Is your support staff going to be
there for you? Has there been turnover in staff? Any sign of churning in the
workplace is scary,” says Buchbinder. Churning is more prevalent when an employer’s spouse works in the physician’s practice, because if problems arise there is often an inherent conflict of
interest.
Hospital management today is like a pressure cooker, so high CEO turnover needs
to be viewed in context. However, it’s a good sign if the CEO in the hospital you are vetting has been there for at
least two or three years, a strong indication of the hospital’s bottom line.
And speaking of bottom lines, most residents are poorly prepared for evaluating
the financial stability of a practice or hospital. “I wish I had been better prepared for the business side of assessing a practice,” says DeCapite. “Our academy has a practice management course at our annual meeting and I
attended that the last two years and that was very helpful. But I relied most
heavily on my co-residents who had just gone through this process. I shared
some things with an attorney as well. I also spoke with my Dad, who’s an accountant.”
Other financial assessment tools are available online, such as Standard and Poor’s, and cost containment commission reports. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid
Services also has performance indicators for individual hospitals, although “user-friendly” is an alien concept on these government sites, so be prepared to dig.
“If a physician is going into practice in a hospital setting they should
investigate the education level of the nursing staff,” Buchbinder reminds residents, “because it’s been demonstrated conclusively that the higher the educational level of the
nurse, the better the care is, and the lower the mortality rate for patients.
Also, you want all of your teammates to be smart because that will make your
practice easier. You want them to be at the top of their game,” she says.
While a traditional interview is one way to determine if there is a good fit
with the organization, an even better way is to spend concentrated time on
site. “The site visit is crucial, it’s everything,” says Duffy. “Don’t just talk to the person who picks you up at the airport, but pull others in
the office aside and talk with them. Get a real feel for the practice. Talk to
the nurses, ask for their emails and fire them some candid questions.”
Dermatologist DeCapite went one step further. “I visited all the practices I was interested in and I spent time with them in
clinic, so I was able to talk with them and the staff. I picked their brains
about how they liked working there and how things were in the practice.”
Nailing the search
With no shortage of available practice opportunities, physicians are doubly
blessed with an abundance of search options, both traditional and new wave.
Generally, job search options fall into two broad categories; do-it-yourself and
traditional search firms. However, with the advent of computers and online
services, the options have become dizzying.
Take search firms, for example. There are still those that offer full service
searching. For those residents who cringe at the thought of flying solo through
the maze of job prospects, professional search firms may be the answer. Good
ones will still suggest the doc go through some profile assessments and will
provide organizers for self-examination in terms of geographic and practice
preferences, but they will hold the hand of the doc as he or she negotiates the
process. They will then match the resident’s desires with jobs listed in their database or in other proprietary databases
to which they have access.
On the surface this sounds good and most docs seem, in fact, satisfied with the
results. Duffy, who works in the community health center in Idaho and who found
his long-term practice on his own, cautions colleagues to understand the
process and to be prepared to make it work for them.
“You’re giving your info to an entire organization, who may then work with another
agency. Their goal is to get you signed so they can get paid. You may specify
exactly what and where you want, but the next day the phone starts ringing from
all sorts of places. You end up getting bombarded and pressured by irrelevant
offers.” Duffy suggests that the answer is to spend time up front prioritizing so you
are not swayed by jobs that are even slightly off the mark.
Some search firms offer a smorgasbord of options, from full search to just
helping with CV and cover letter prep, to providing databases to which
residents do their own mailings.
With the advent of the Internet, more and more physicians are going the DIY
route and the options there are nearly unlimited. If you are a National Health
Service scholarship recipient, for example, you have an online database of
communities that meet its four-year payback requirement. That was Duffy’s route, and after setting his priorities, he interviewed in communities of his
choosing that were NHS-certified.
In-house recruiters are a jobs goldmine, so long as the resident has a clear
idea of his or her preferences, geographic and otherwise. Residents typically
become aware of this pipeline through referrals, word of mouth, or exposure at
meetings and conferences. Arguably the best place to start an in-house search
is with the Association of Staff Physician Recruiters (www.aspr.org), a collective of nearly 1,200 in-house recruiters in the United States and
Canada.
The ASPR website lists jobs available through its members and provides a link
directly to that recruiter and, if available, the health institution’s website. The advantage to working with an in-house recruiter is that person
knows the community intimately. Another thing to note is that in-house and
search firm recruiting work hand-in-hand. In-house recruiters regularly hire
search firms to help with hard to fill positions.
The key driver of success working with a recruiter, whether in-house or through
a search firm, is to be completely candid about yourself and your want list. To
make the best career fit, the recruiter needs to understand who you are and
what are your goals.
“Be forthcoming,” Butterfield says. “Tell the recruiter exactly what you want right from the get-go, whether you want
to work full-time, take calls, prefer a rural or urban setting, if you want to
make your bonus. Be honest, so you don’t waste time. You may not get everything you want, but the recruiter will try to
get you most of what you want. They know that if you are not happy in the
setting, you won’t stay.”
The Internet also offers residents a treasure trove of job search information.
Some of the larger physician search firms, such as Cejka Search (www.cejkasearch.com), list jobs that can be searched for free, as well as helpful articles loaded
with tips for conducting a job search.
Doing a Google search for physician jobs brings up hundreds of articles, blogs,
organizers, and sources that offer real value for the overwhelmed resident.
Websites such as JibberJobber (www.jibberjobber.com) bill themselves as career management sites. Although not physician specific,
JibberJobber offers a way to place your CV online and organize your search.
Other generic but helpful sites include Indeed (www.indeed.com) and the information-packed Job Hunter’s Bible (www.jobhuntersbible.com). The National Institutes of Health Virtual Career Center (www.training.nih.gov/careers) is another excellent source of information, including how to develop a CV,
comprehensive articles on job searching, interviewing and negotiating a job
offer. PhysicianCV.com is another good resource for help creating, managing, saving, and distributing
your CV. No one has access to your CV on this site without your permission.
Whatever method you choose—and most residents employ several options—start early, prioritize and be patient. In today’s physician marketplace, you are in the driver’s seat.
“There is a physician shortage across most specialties right now, and it’s expected to get worse, placing residents as a commodity in even higher demand,” Director of Physician Services, Hill, says. “Ultimately, as the challenges increase for us in the healthcare field, the team
approach to delivering the highest quality of care to our friends, families,
and those that live and visit in our communities is our opportunity to
progress.” END
Les Picker is a Baltimore-based freelance writer. He is a regular contributor to
UO.
Thanks to his early start in the job search, Tim DeCapite, a third-year
dermatology resident, already has his career lined up: He will join a small practice in northeast Maryland, near where he and his wife,
Megan, a pediatric resident, grew up. The position was his first choice among
jobs, and allows the couple to live close to their extended families.
