UO Magazine > Mistakes Physicians Make

Oops, Did I Do That?

Learn from the mistakes of others so you don’t ruin the perfect practice opportunity. To deal effectively with in-house physician recruiters, mind your manners, pay attention to your communications, and don’t forget that you’re always being evaluated.

by Therese Karsten, MBa

Unique Opportunities The Physician’s Resource Jan/Feb 2008

Ob/Gyn chief resident Mark Jones* was ecstatic. He and his wife had just decided to switch their job search focus from Dallas (where her family is) to Denver (where his family is), and an on-line search turned up a job description he thought was nearly perfect for him. He hit “reply” and wrote an e-mail explaining his reasons for wanting to settle in Denver. He attached his generic cover letter and his CV. A response that should have catapulted him to the top of Denver’s “hot” candidate list instead almost wrecked his chances with the employer, the largest hospital system in the metro area. Why? His generic cover letter said, “My wife and I have a strong desire to stay in the North Texas area due to family that are long-time residents of the Plano area.” Database notes indicated that he had told a Dallas recruiter that his wife’s large extended family, the low cost of living, lack of income tax, and extensive network of friends were part of the choice.

It took Mark several months to convince hospital recruiters and practice administrators in Denver that he was not simply looking to leverage Dallas negotiations with a few all-expense-paid visits to his folks in Denver. He finally got some interview invitations in May, but the attractive groups had long since signed their top-choice residents. This story ended well with the family settling happily in Texas, but he will always wonder “what if?”

A quick review of the most common mistakes candidates make when working directly with the in-house staff can make a difference in your own job search. The “in-house” recruiters are employed by the hospital system or medical group. Unlike agency recruiters who are external vendors paid for a service, in house recruiters consult on every phase of the hiring process. It pays to know how we think

Be careful with the “send” button

E-mail is forever. In 2006, a Merritt Hawkins and Associates survey of final-year residents found that 77 percent considered the Internet one of their best resources for finding job opportunities—a 66 percent increase over the same question posed to residents in 1999. Hospital in-house recruiters responding to a 2007 survey on MedicalStaffRecruiters.com, the in-house recruiters’ network, report that 76 percent of their physician hires originate with e-mail or an on-line posting of some sort. Your candidacy now starts with the first e-mail you send.

The old saying “you only have one opportunity to make a first impression” has an added nuance today. That first impression is permanently documented in recruiting databases and can be read by many recruiters and forwarded—intact—to interested hospital departments or medical groups on staff. Your e-mail communication shapes not only one recruiter’s impression of you, but it provides an indelible record of your history as a candidate with that system. “Hospital systems are moving to relational databases for physician recruiting because these products boost the productivity of highly compensated, highly experienced employees,” says Bruce Pershke, the president of Pershke Business Development, Inc. in Goodlettesville, Tennessee. Pershke is the author of RecruiterLogix, a database program that tracks all recruiting activities from the first conversations to a physician recruit’s first day at work. “It’s more efficient from every perspective if recruiters and candidates don’t have to start from scratch with every conversation.” The information is then available to every practice or hospital within the system.

Be polite, be prudent. Does it really need to be said that rude, threatening, or inflammatory e-mails are a bad idea? Every recruiter has received e-mails dashed off by frustrated, exhausted residents at 2 am. A message that might have merited a file notation in your father’s job search is a different story today. The e-mail is saved letter for letter as a permanent and unflattering reflection of your judgment and temperament.

I got one such e-mail from a resident who threatened to report me to my professional organization because he received information about Denver jobs when he only wanted to hear about a specific town in our region. He used all caps, all bold—the Internet equivalent of screaming. I explained to his residency program director how the resident could correct his apparent profile typo that had triggered regional responses when he posted his CV on a national on-line recruiting site. The correction probably took three minutes, but the original threatening letter paints an ugly picture of how this physician deals with frustration. “The way a candidate treats our recruiter and other administrative professionals during the recruiting process is a mirror of the physician’s style with administrative staff in general,” says Matt English, the director of business development at Presbyterian St. Luke’s Medical Center in Denver. “The polite, patient, and friendly candidate today is the physician that my staff and nurses adore five years from now.”

Another blistering e-mail from a sports medicine fellowship-trained family physician was directed not at the recruiter, but at the short-sightedness and shallowness of physicians in the community who chose not to invite him for an interview. A recruiter within the same health-care system but in another state was contacted by this physician seven months later about a job that appeared to be a great fit. The recruiter entered the name in the hospital system database and pulled up the history. He decided to pass—the tone of the physician’s correspondence just didn’t sound like the kind of personality his facility would welcome.

Money shouldn’t lead. Cass Greene moderates an industry list-serve for in-house recruiters representing more than 22,000 hospitals, clinics, and medical groups nationwide. Although the Boone, North Carolina-based Medical Staff Recruiters Network is primarily a forum for in-house recruiters to share information and ideas, physicians often contact Greene asking to be put in touch with in-house recruiters in their target areas. “It’s uncomfortable when a physician tells me he only wants to hear about jobs where he can make at least $XXX,000. I’m obligated to convey their criteria along with the CV, but many in-house recruiters have expressed the feeling that focusing on money in an introduction e-mail may present a candidate in an unflattering light.”

Greene recommends you follow the recruiter’s lead and wait until compensation comes up in the natural flow of the conversation. “In talking about how the compensation system works, it’s perfectly okay to ask what the base+bonus compensation range is expected to look like. But money talk will come naturally after you exchange some preliminary information to confirm that the practice scope and structure may be a fit,” she says.

Be consistent. In today’s on-line world, a job search has a “footprint.” You may have been interviewed by several profiling organizations before you enter your last year of training. They ask you what types of jobs you want, where you would like to live, and why. Hospital systems subscribe to these databases.

If last year you told PracticeMatch, PracticeLink, or Profiles that you will only look at coastal areas, you may be greeted by polite skepticism when you call a midwestern city about a posted job. If you have said all along that you won’t do obstetrics in your family practice and you suddenly change your mind when a job requiring obstetrics opens in your dream location, recruiters notice. Historically, a match based on a fundamental compromise by either the employer or the recruit is more likely to fail in the long run.

Preferences do change, however. If yours do, include an explanation in cover e-mails about what has prompted the 180-degree turn. A recent engagement or an immediate family member’s terminal illness will explain an otherwise concern-producing change in direction.

Tailor your geographic target. “When asked to specify geographic preferences on line, pick a region or a few states rather than just one city,” says Tony Stajduhar, the senior vice president of sales and marketing for HEALTHeCAREERS.com. The stated preferences help a recruiter gauge whether its hospital’s opportunity might be a fit for you. Many physicians make a careful decision to settle where family lives, but a large number fixate on one place without any real reason, and without due diligence. “If you get tunnel vision and don’t visit several areas that meet your basic criteria, you might miss out on an ideal location that will give you an even better mix of lifestyle, work environment, and community than you expected,” Stajduhar says.

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