Blogging with The Doctor Job

Whether you’re a physician struggling to make ends meet financially, your H-1 or J-1 visa is expiring, or you simply can’t take one more second practicing at your current position, you NEED a new job and you need it now.

Many physicians have been there at one point or another in their careers, especially in those early years. And if you’ve found yourself desperate for a new job, you’ve probably thought to yourself: “If only these prospective employers knew how badly I need this, surely they would hire me!”

Unfortunately this logic will only work against you when interviewing for a medical position. As contradictory as it seems, the best way to get a new physician job when you’re desperate for one is to act like you don’t need one at all.

Take these two examples: I recently worked with a client who was a foreign medical graduate (FMG) looking for an internal medicine residency position in the U.S. She had fantastic credentials. She had been a highly respected physician in China for several years. She’d published numerous articles and was an invited lecturer at international meetings. She’d also passed all steps of the USMLE on the first attempt and received very high scores. In other words, she should have had very little trouble finding a residency position.

Unfortunately, she was desperate for a position. She had been volunteering at a hospital for a year to gain clinical experience, and therefore had no steady income. In addition, she was on a J-1 visa, which was set to expire if she didn’t find a position within a few months. These facts in and of themselves didn’t hinder her from getting into a residency program, but what did hinder her was the fact that she let her desperation show. During her interviews, she all but begged residency directors for a position, going into detail about her desperate situation. Unfortunately, although her strong credentials got her numerous interviews, her desperation during those interviews meant that she did not get accepted into a single program.

Now I also worked with another client who was in a fairly desperate situation. Although he had a steady job with a good salary, he hated it with a passion. In addition, he needed to relocate to a new area quickly in order to live near his mother, who was battling cancer. Despite the urgency behind his job search, this client managed to keep his cool during his interviews. He had nothing but good things to say about his current employer, and when asked about his desire to relocate, he simply said he wanted to settle closer to family. He made it seem as though he had all the time in the world to find the best position possible. This client ended up juggling several offers.

The bottom line is: while relating a sob story may win you some sympathy points, at the end of the day no one wants to hire someone who they don’t feel is a commodity. When you act desperate, prospective employers think: If no one else wants to hire them, why should I? No matter how badly or how quickly you need a new job, you want the employer interviewing you to feel that they need you—not the other way around.