Blogging with The Doctor Job

As one of the professional resume, cover letter, and personal statement writers on the staff of The Doctor Job, I have seen thousands of different physician resumes: The short, the long, the thorough, the sparse. While every physician’s resume is sure to look a little different, there are some common guidelines each doctor should follow when constructing and editing their resume.

• Keep it concise. Unlike its European counterpart (a CV), a resume should not be a lengthy document. The ideal physician resume is one page. The somewhat less than ideal (but still acceptable under certain circumstances) resume is two pages. Period. There are no circumstances that accommodate for the twenty-page resume. An easy way to edit down your document is to remove any personal interest sections or references, as these are no longer appropriate on a professional resume.
• Highlighting versus elaborating. Let’s say you are a physician with an extensive research background in your respective field. Naturally you’d like to explain each study; after all, you invested a significant amount of time researching. Fight this instinct. A resume is designed to highlight professional experience, not to explain it in detail. Put yourself in the shoes of your potential employer. You’re tired, you’re busy, and you have a stack of physicians’ resumes to flip through. Would you rather look at a simple, neat list of research studies or chunks of paragraphs describing the laboratory setting? Highlighting. It’s a beautiful word. Wow them with snapshots of your experience; do not overwhelm them with a narrated slide show.
• Reverse chronological order. In each section, begin with your most recent experience and move backwards. Not only will this aid your potential employer in creating a mental timeline of your professional history, it tends to show you in the best light. Typically the most relevant experience you have is also the most recent. For example, if you had a section on your resume for Education and Training, your fellowship (most relevant) would be listed before your residency (still relevant) which would be listed before your medical school (less relevant) which would be listed before your undergraduate school (barely relevant), according to reverse chronological order.
• If you’re a foreign medical graduate, potential employers like to see your citizenship/visa status. And it actually works toward your advantage to be upfront about this regardless of your status. If you are a U.S. citizen, you can include this information if you went to a foreign medical school - otherwise, if you did your undergrad, medical school, and residency in the US, it will be assumed. Likewise, including your visa status shows a potential employer that you are upfront and honest, ready to make the visa process as smooth as possible for them.

These are just a few tips, but they will help you make sure that your resume is cleaner, easier to read, and more likely to get you interviews. For further assistance, don’t hesitate to contact the experts at The Doctor Job!

At first glance, a phone interview sounds much less intimidating than an actual, face-to-face interview. After all, you don’t have to worry about finding that perfectly professional yet memorable interview attire. You don’t have to worry if a sneaky piece of lettuce from your lunch salad is stuck between your teeth like a glaring “don’t hire me beacon,” or if your ironing capabilities will be judged in addition to your clinical/procedural skills. It’s just a phone interview, after all.

Au contraire, mon ami. A phone interview should be taken just as seriously as its face-to-face counterpart. After all, the goal of an interview via phone—in most cases—is to secure a traditional interview. Consider the phone interview as a necessary step in the interviewing process, something to be approached with a high degree of both preparation and professionalism.

Preparation

Preparing is akin to researching. Research the hospital/clinic you’re interviewing with and know how you will be an asset to that facility. Not only will this allow you to ask well-educated questions throughout the interview process, the interviewer will be able to cover more specific areas of interest if you are already briefed on the general facts. Have your resume nearby as a reference; chances are your interviewer has it in front of them and will be asking questions about it. In addition, jot down a list of your strengths and weaknesses; employers love to ask these slightly predictable questions. Use that to your advantage and be ready with solid answers. Also, don’t be hesitant to practice a mock phone interview with a friend or family member ahead of time. Sure, you might feel slightly ridiculous, but the confidence and phone communication skills you’ll gain in the process is worth the momentary feeling of silliness.

Professionalism

Equally as important as preparation, approaching a phone interview with an air of professionalism is crucial. Clear the family pet and darling children from the room; you don’t need any distractions and either does your potential employer. Chewing gum or eating food also counts as an unnecessary distraction. Of course, it’s not a bad idea to have a glass of water nearby in case your mouth gets dry. Also, most people find that standing versus sitting helps achieve a more assertive tone; smiling also improves the quality/sound of your voice. When addressing your interviewer, make sure to address them with the correct title; avoid first names unless you are specifically told otherwise by the employer. When answering, use simple/concise answers. And remember, if you need a moment to think before answering then take it. You’d rather formulate a response that sounds collected and competent after a moment’s break than an immediate response that’s wondering and unsure.

Through proper attention to preparation and professionalism, your phone interview can lead to a face-to-face interview or even a job. So, while you don’t technically have to worry about double pressing your pants, you might want to get them ready just in case.

Remember your summer days growing up? Laying out beside the community pool, chasing the ice cream truck down the cul-de-sac, sleeping in, staying up late watching movies. That was the life—was being the operative word in that sentence.

Med students, go ahead and mourn those lazy summer days because you probably won’t see them again for several years. Sure, during your undergraduate studies you could take time off to relax before fall—but medical school is just a tad different. The summer between your first and second year at medical school is the last summer where you could, in theory, sleep in until noon, read the latest best-seller, or perfect your Nintendo Wii skills. The job of this article, however, is to convince you to do otherwise.

The break directly before your second year of medical school is an ideal time to further investigate which specialty you’d like to pursue professionally. It’s the question Grandma Fran asked you over Christmas, the question you ponder before falling asleep, and the question you’ve tried to answer by visiting various grand rounds. Well, consider researching various specialties your unofficial assignment during the summer in between MS-I and MS-II.

Of course, many might argue that MS-II and MS-III are designed to give you a taste of potential specialties. Well, that’s a valid point. But wouldn’t it be nice to have more than a taste of a particular specialty before uploading your residency applications? I would prefer a whole bite, or a whole piece of the cake for that matter. The summer prior to MS-II is the perfect time to get some hands-on training in different specialties. The information/experience you gather while shadowing a physician in your field of interest, will set the tone for the rest of your medical school experience. Not only will it sparkle on your resume, it will provide you with confidence and direction as you enter rotations.

There are several options when gaining real-world summer medical training. You can participate in a clinical externship, become involved in a community preceptorship, or simply volunteer at a local health clinic—to name a few. There are also national programs such as the National Health Service corps, which offers a month-long rotation practicing primary care in underserved areas. Whichever path you choose, make sure it is in the most appealing specialty to you. While training, talk to various doctors, ask them about their typical work load, scheduling flexibility—whatever questions are most likely unanswered in a text book about that specialty.

But what about your golden, summer tan? Well, there’s always spray tans. Or, you could schedule a week-long vacation at the end of the summer to celebrate all your hard work. You’ll come back refreshed, rested, and better equipped to pick the right specialty.

Imagine, if you will, the thrills and joys of being a residency/fellowship program director. Your day is long, full of countless responsibilities—and during the ERAS application process this delightful list of responsibilities grows even longer. Come mid-afternoon you feel like collapsing on a couch and watching the Office episode you Tivoed from the night before. But alas, your afternoon/evening holds no such plans. For you, my friend, are a program director and you are charged with the scintillating task of reading countless applications and personal statements from every foreign medical graduate and medical student who wants into your program.

Okay, future doctors, keep that image in mind as you sit down to write your own personal statement, staring at the blank Word document on your computer screen. You are just one of many hopeful applicants with a hefty research background, great clinical skills, and a solid foundation of medical knowledge. You need something that separates you from all the other over-achievers (probably lovely people, but competition nonetheless) vying for your slot. Do not fear. You have something they do not, something that separates you from the rest: Your story. The time your little brother, Joey, fell of his bike and you nursed him back to health, the time you brought a stethoscope to Mrs. Anderson’s class for show and tell, the time ___________ (fill in the blank).

Personal anecdotes like this are diamonds to the tired residency program director. They shine in the heap of other personal statements, many dull and lifeless. Sure, it’s crucial to include the generic yet important information: Research experience and interests, brief overview of schooling, why you’re drawn to this particular specialty/program, future goals, etc. But there are plenty of empty crannies throughout your personal statement just waiting to be filled with personality. For example, when talking about research experience, can you recall a particular study that stood out from the others? Did it leave an impression on you? Affect the type of doctor you want to become? Why? Elaborate.

A great way for a medical student or foreign medical graduate to add a dash of personality into his or her personal statement is to choose an overall focus directly related to a personal anecdote. Like a ribbon gliding down the page, this overall focus should smoothly connect the different sections of the personal statement. For example, let’s use the show and tell stethoscope. This statement could start in the classroom with a vivid description of the pride you felt in showing the stethoscope to your classmates. Translated, this show and tell item represents your interest in medicine and your desire to share that interest with others. Throughout your personal statement, describe how your interest and desire to practice medicine continuously grew throughout your life. This affords you a structure to discuss medical school, medically related volunteer programs, research experience/interests, grand round experiences, precept activities, and future goals.

While this idea may seem obvious, many medical students and foreign medical graduates chose formality over personality, not understanding the potential that results in your personal statement from connecting the two. Such residency applicants fear that a personal story might appear unprofessional, thus decreasing the likelihood of admittance into their desired residency program. In actuality, quite the opposite is true. The busy (potentially exhausted) residence/fellowship program director wants to be engaged by a well-written, personal personal statement. Wouldn’t you?

Is your search for a doctor job failing miserably?

Are you posting resumes all over the physician job bards, and can’t understand why you’re not getting interviews?

Have you sent resumes to all of the doctors and hospitals you know personally - and not getting responses?

Take 5 minutes and a few easy steps to improve your search for a physician job!

1. Open your resume. Where is the contact information? Is it at the top of the page where it can be found easily? Your contact information should be included on your resume (not just on the cover letter) and should be very easy to find. It needs to include your phone number and email address.
2. Check the email address on your resume. Is it correct? Is it an email you check at least once a day, if not more often? Many of your potential employers are busy physicians themselves. One of the easiest ways for them to contact another doctor about a job is through email. If you are not in the habit of checking your email every day, get in the habit - at least until you find a job.
3. Check the phone number on your resume. Who will be answering that number? This is the number one mistake we see doctors make in their job search. Is the phone number correct? Is it a number that you can actually be reached on? When you leave your number on your resume, be sure you are not making these common mistakes:
   • Don’t leave your home number if your 93 year-old grandmother who barely speaks English is the person who is most likely to answer the phone during the day.
   • Don’t leave your office number if you don’t want your current employer to know you’re looking for a job.
   • Don’t leave the general number to the hospital that will the caller feeling foolish because they don’t know your personal extension.
   • Don’t leave a number that you’re only available on 1-2 hours out of the day. The goal is to make it EASY for a potential employer to call and offer you a job.
4. Check the voice mail on the number you have on your resume. Is your voice mail set up? Is it full? If a potential employer calls you and is unable to speak to you, they will want to leave a message for you to return their call. If they are unable to leave a message, chances are they’ll move on to the next doctor looking for a job. They can’t hire you if they can’t talk to you.

By doing these simple things, it will be easier for other doctors to call and offer you a job. While this advice may seem obvious, all of these are mistakes that we see physicians make on an alarmingly regular basis.

Remember, if an employer can’t reach you - they can’t hire you.

At The Doctor Job, we always suggest that a resident begins looking for a physician job about 9-12 months before they are scheduled to graduate. This is especially true for doctors that will be searching for J-1 Waiver opportunities, and we even suggest that 12-18 months might be more appropriate for a J-1.

However, it is very common that we hear from physicians in January and February who are still looking for J-1 waiver jobs for the July and August.

Is it too late for these doctors to find a position and get a J-1 waiver?

Yes and no.

If a physician was hoping to get a J-1 Waiver in some of the more popular states like New York, it is very likely that all of the waivers for the year have been granted by January. That’s why we recommend physicians start their search early!

However, just because an area like New York may have already granted all of their Conrad 30 waivers, does not mean that a physician is destined to return to their home country for a 2 year wait time. It is still possible to continue living and working in the United States, even if the doctor delayed search for a J-1 opportunity.

How can a resident find a J-1 waiver job as late as February or March?

Expand Your Search Geographically.

While it is true that the waiver positions in areas like New York or California fill very quickly, it is also true that areas like Wisconsin or Alabama may have positions open as late as May! If a doctor was hoping to be in a specific state that no longer offers J-1 waivers for the year, the next step is to find the states near by that will be most likely to have spots available.

Is that as good as living and working in your original first choice state or city? Of course not. That’s why we recommend physicians start their search early!

But it’s not too late to find a job if a doctor is ready to start planning smart.

Find a Job.

This may seem obvious, but I am always amazed how many calls I get from physicians who are desperate to get a J-1 waiver before their visa deadlines - and these doctors haven’t even begun their job search!

If it is February or March and a resident does not have a job lined up that qualifies for a waiver, it is time to ramp up the job hunt. Immediately. A doctor who waits for the very last minute is nearly guaranteed to wind up with a poor job and a low salary - or no job (and no visa).

Before a physician can even begin the process of applying for a waiver, they must have secured a position with an employer. If that requires the help of recruiters, networking, or a service like The Doctor Job - the doctor must be willing to do whatever it takes to secure a good job quickly.

Finding a J-1 waiver opportunity is not impossible even as late as February or March. It can be done, but it must be done wisely and quickly!

One of the most common mistakes doctors make when searching for a job is to stop looking for a physician position too soon.

After years of training and weeks (or months) of job searches, many doctors stop just short of the goal of finding a great job.

This is especially true if they are searching for a doctor job in a market like New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago or Atlanta. There are plenty of great physician jobs available in these cities, but most physician job searches quit looking too soon to find them.

When Should A Physician Keep Searching For A Doctor Job?

If A Recruiter Tells A Doctor They’ll “Get Back To You”… Keep Looking

In recruiter language, this is usually code for “I don’t have any positions you qualify for or that meet your needs.” That doesn’t mean the recruiter is mean or doing a bad job. It just means that they are limited to filling the positions they have been hired to fill - and none of those are a good fit. Sure, they’ll keep a doctor’s resume on file in case something “happens to come up” - but the odds of that are about 5%. Less than that if a physician is looking in a big city or isn’t board certified or needs a J-1 waiver.

Relying on a recruiter to “get back to you” is a recipe for failure when a doctor is looking for a job.

If A Recruiter Tells You They Have “Submitted Your Information”… Keep Looking

While this holds slightly more promise than the “I’ll get back to you” brush off, it is still a very far cry from actually getting a job.

It is a recruiter’s job to submit physician resumes to their clients (the employers who hire the recruiter). The employer then decides which candidates they will interview and which doctor they will ultimately hire.

Remember, the practice or hospital doing the hiring will have to pay the recruiter $20,000 or more once they have hired a doctor. Of course they are going to be very selective before making such an expensive buying decision!

If A Doctor Has Scheduled An Interview… Keep Looking

Interviews don’t pay the bills. Nothing is guaranteed until a physician receives a written offer and accepts that offer (and even then, things can go wrong).

While an interview for a physician job is progress, it’s no guarantee that the doctor has a job. Chances are, there will be several physicians interviewing for that position (at least, there should be if it’s a GOOD job!), all of whom are hoping their job search has finally come to an end. Most of the interviewed physicians will be disappointed.

A doctor should go into an interview optimistic and with a positive attitude, but they shouldn’t stop investigating other possibilities or scheduling other interviews.

If A Physician Receives One Job Offer… Keep Looking

One job offer does not give a physician any negotiating power or leverage. It also doesn’t give a very accurate picture of the possibilities and potential in the job market in most cases.

If a physician receives an offer for their dream job that far exceeds their expectations, of course they should take the job! But more often than not, we see doctors take the first job that comes along because they are so grateful to be employed. These physicians don’t realize that there are usually SEVERAL great jobs available in every job market in the country.

Don’t settle for just A job. The doctor job search isn’t over until you’ve found the BEST job.

There is a common misconception among residents, fellows and doctors looking for jobs that physician recruiters are free. They’re not.

While it’s true that a recruiter will not charge an initial up-front fee to the doctor for the job search, there are many hidden costs that need to be considered before trusting a recruiter to find you a job.

Lower Salary - recruiters charge, on average, a recruiting fee of $25,000 to the hiring group or practice. That is money that can’t be spent on things like equipment and supplies. It is also money that must come out of the physician staffing budget, often money that would normally be paid to the newly hired doctor in the form of a higher salary, moving expenses, loan reimbursement or sign on bonuses.

Even if the new physician only earns $5,000 a year less than what they would have been able to negotiate without a recruiter, over the course of 2-3 years spent working in that physician job at a lower salary, that’s a loss of over $10,000.

Higher commuting and living expenses - recruiters notoriously place physicians in jobs that are in remote locations, miles from amenities and conveniences like night life and major airports. Often times a physician is forced to work miles from where they choose to live, resulting in lost time and money spent commuting each day.

Even if a physician only commutes 1 hour each way, on a weekly basis that’s more than 10 hours spent driving to and from work. That represents not only a potential loss of income, but quality of life. Do you have any colleagues who have to work miles and miles away from their spouse because a recruiter told them that there were no jobs close to home?

Not Working. The biggest financial cost of relying on a physician recruiter is the high likelihood of never finding a job. According to the American College of Physicians, at least 80% of physician jobs are found without the help of a recruiter. Physicians recruiters only have access to approximately 5% of the total physician job market!

How long can a doctor afford to go without working? Can a new doctor afford to wait 6 months to start earning a salary? What about 1-2 years? Relying on a recruiter for your physician job search can literally end up costing a new doctor hundreds of thousands of dollars in unearned income.

The savvy physician understands that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Everything in life has intrinsic costs, and whether it’s a direct cost to you or an indirect cost over a few years, it is important to see the big picture and make choices that will affect you positively for the whole of your career.

The beginning of a physician job search is usually filled with promise and high expectations. Doctors, whether soon to be graduated residents or physicians who have practiced for years, imagine that they will simply choose the location and desired hours and be payed a handsome salary for years of medical training, hard work and experience.

When a physician posts a resume online, this fantasy is often perpetuated by dozens of calls from medical recruiters. With hundreds of phone calls and emails coming in daily, the doctor is confident they will find the perfect job quickly. Clearly, they are in demand!

Then weeks go by, and the requests for interviews with hospitals and practices are far outnumbered by the calls to find out “more about what kind of physician job you’re looking for”.

The only openings seem to be in remote locations, far away from where the physician actually wants to live.

As a doctor, how can you tell when your job search is headed down a dead end road? What are the signs that a physician needs to take a different approach to their job search?

1. When a doctor has been looking for more than 2 months, it’s time to try something new. The Doctor Job clients typically find jobs within 6-8 weeks in some of the top markets in the country, including New York and Chicago. If a physician has been looking for a job in an area like LA or Atlanta for more than 8 weeks - it’s because there are no ADVERTISED medical jobs available.

2. If a doctor is hearing the same objections or excuses from recruiters over and over again, it’s time to try something new. If a physician has licensing issues - they are going to get the same negative response no matter how many recruiters they talk to. Whether it’s older age, years without practice, H1-B and J-1 visa problems - every recruiter a doctor talks to is going to have the same results: none. If ten recruiters have told a doctor they can’t help, it’s a waste of time for that physician to talk to ten more recruiters.

3. If a physician is getting lots of calls, but no interviews - it’s time to try something new. Many doctors confuse “opportunities” from a recruiter for actual job openings from a hospital or practice. Just because a recruiter calls to get a doctor’s information does not mean they can get you a job. If a doctor has been working with a medical recruiter for weeks and the recruiter has not produced viable interviews, waiting several weeks more is unlikely to change that.

4. If your physician recruiter has stopped returning your calls, it’s time to try something new - immediately. A recruiter who does not actively follow up with a doctor is sending one clear message: they don’t have jobs for you. And they won’t magically have jobs for you in 2 weeks or 6 months.

It is often said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, while expecting different results. If what a physician is doing is not producing the job they want in the city or state of their choice, it is time to change tactics.

I think Baseball might be in trouble. It seems the classic sport that has long been hailed as America’s Past Time is quickly being overshadowed by a new past time:

Surfing Job Boards.

For fun.

How do we know it’s for fun, you might ask? Well, every day, we here at The Doctor Job receive phone calls and emails from physicians telling us that “they aren’t really looking for a new job”, they just “like to check out the job boards”. Apparently there are masses of working doctors and residents in the United States who enjoy spending the precious free time they have looking through physician work boards online, just to “see what’s out there”. These doctors aren’t really looking for a new job, they just like to look. Some of the physicians are hoping that unlike the past 100 times they looked at the job board and saw nothing but recruiters and jobs in places they didn’t want to be, this time there might magically be an amazing position that pays a lot more money right where they want to live! And even though every successful physician knows that (a) if you’re spending your free time searching job boards, you clearly dislike your current position, and (b) the better jobs are never going to be advertised - they’re all word-of-mouth, physicians still casually browse the job boards hoping that a beautiful wonderful new job will fall into their lap.

Casually surfing a physician job board for a perfect position is as productive as ordering four cheeseburgers, two french fries, and then deciding to get a Diet Coke instead of a regular Coke, to cut back on calories.

Instead of deciding to pro-actively find a job that will make you happy, wealthy, and wise, if you are a doctor who is spending your evenings and weekends and lunch breaks searching internet job boards for physician jobs, here are some other activities that you can do that will be equally as productive.

10 Hobbies More Useful And Rewarding Than Searching Job Boards:

1. Fence painting. Your neighbors will also find this hobby useful. It’s a win-win. And if your neighbor happens to run a hospital, maybe he’ll hire you!

2. Jogging. You might jog by a practice that puts a “Help Wanted” sign in their window!

3. Dog walking. What if your teacup chihuahua finds another teacup chihuahua on a walk that just happens to belong to the hiring coordinator for an HMO?

4. Online poker. While you run the risk of losing money, you’ll still probably make more money than you will by browsing through physician job boards.

5. Kite flying. If you tape your resume to the kite while you’re flying, it might fly off and land on an employer’s desk!

6. Start an ant farm. Watch your ants build tunnels, then shake up the farm and watch them start all over again! It’s futility, just like casually looking at a job board!

7. Spider Solitaire. If you insist on being on the computer, at least this will give you a sense of accomplishment if you can beat the game.

8. Underwater basket weaving. Maybe your underwater basket weaving coach’s hairdresser’s sister’s uncle’s roommate’s father runs a private practice and he needs a physician just like you!

9. Recycling. Well, if you’re not going to help your career, you might as well help save the environment.

10. Clipping Coupons. This hobby, while almost as time consuming as surfing job sites, can be much more financially rewarding.

Now, if you’re a physician reading this who thinks, “Well, I do casually surf job boards, just to see if there are new openings,” it’s not too late for you. Examine your desire to surf the job boards. Are you unhappy? Do you want more money? A better environment? Better staff? An easier commute? If your answer to any of these questions is yes, consider being pro-active. The perfect job is not going to fall in your lap - sometimes, you have to make the effort (and yes, spend the time and money) to find that amazing job. It is out there, as long as you know how to find it.