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.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Bob Eskridge, CPC, CTS, PRC // Jan 16, 2008 at 9:43 pm// View all comments by Bob Eskridge, CPC, CTS, PRC//
Britt,
Seems to me you are not looking at the “Big” picture of what a recruiter does and does not do.
1. Lower Salary. True, we do get paid very well for what we do. But keep in mind the majority of the searches we do are on a contingency basis. If we do not find a physician interested in the position then we do not get paid anything. The $25,000 you quote covers the cost of not only the one successful search but also the one that the client decided to go with another candidate, the second one where the physician decided at the last moment not to accept, the third one where the physician decided not to show up because he found a better deal and did not tell his recruiter. This is the most difficult sales scenario I know of. not only do I have to sell my service to the client and again to the candidate but also on each of you on the other. At an point in the process the deal can go south for any reason. That is one of the reason I enjoy what I do…never two days the same.
If your implying that the physician would get a increase of $25,000 in salary because he did not go through a recruiter, you are sorely mistaken. I have found generally most positions follow the MGMA guidelines wether or not a recruiter is used or not. Many of my clients depend on my services WHEN they have needs, knowing that they do not have to pay a staff recruiter regardless if there are needs or not. They are saving tens of thousands of dollars of not only salaries but support costs as well.
2. Higher commuting and living expenses. I am not sure where your comments are coming from on this one. I do not force anyone to accept an assignment anywhere. Because of Equal Employment Opportunity laws, I am required to present every opportunity that the physician is qualified for. It is not my fault that they accepted a position that ends up being a hardship on the family. I go to great lengths to ensure the physician is definitely motivated to take the position. the worst thing for my reputation with my clients is to place physicians into positions that end up leaving in four to six months. It seems that your implying that a physician candidate is counting on the recruiter as their sole source of a good job. If that is the case, then that is the physician error, not the recruiter. Using a recruiter is only one tool in a physician’s arsenal to use in locating a position. the physician need sto use all the tools available to find that ideal position relying on noe of them solely.
3. Not Working. This one point where I do agree with you . We do not have a corner of the job market by any steach. If that is true they why would any physician rely solely on a recruiter then. Perhaps because they are so busy in their residiency that they do not have time to do the search themself.
There is nothing wrong about utilizing the services of a board certified physician recruiter as one of the tools a physician can use to find an excellent opportunity, again it is only ONE tool of many to achieve a successful search.
2 Britt // Jan 17, 2008 at 10:43 am// View all comments by Britt//
Bob,
Please don’t misunderstand - I don’t blame the flaw in the recruiting model on the recruiters. What you guys do is very difficult! And in some cases, a recruiter is a good fit. I’ve referred clients to recruiters before who have very limited preferences as far as location, job type, etc. - they just want something ‘if it comes up’.
I absolutely believe that a recruiter should get paid for what they do.
I just think it’s important for the physicians themselves to understand how the system works - and that SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE is paying for that work to be done on their behalf.
In regards to the location of jobs - again, I did not mean to imply that you forced doctors to take jobs in remote locations. I tell my clients all the time that it is NOT the recruiters’ fault that the jobs aren’t located in major metro cities. You can only present them with opportunities you’ve been hired (on a contingency basis) to represent.
I completely understand that. It’s not your fault that 80-95% of employers don’t choose to hire recruiters. It’s not the fault of the recruiter that you don’t have access to unadvertised jobs.
It’s just something that again, doctors should be aware of.
You’re right - recruiters are ONE tool.
Sadly, so many physicians don’t realize that it is only ONE tool. And for the hundreds of physicians that you are NOT able to help, I think it’s important for them to know they have other resources available to them too.
I hope that clarifies things for you!
3 obgynthoughts // Jan 26, 2008 at 1:54 pm// View all comments by obgynthoughts//
Good post, Britt. The biggest cost of getting a job through a recruiter is one that is not readily visible. It is the fact that you will end up in a less desirable job, in a less desirable location, in a job that could not be filled through word of mouth, in a job where the employer had to pay to have it filled, in a job where there was nobody waiting for it to finally become available, in a job that others have looked at and rejected.
In general, you will end up in a second rate job. That is the real price you pay. There is no free lunch!
4 Alan Franklin // Mar 11, 2008 at 9:00 am// View all comments by Alan Franklin//
I found my job through a recruitment firm and didn’t have any costs (even during my interviews - flights, meals, etc.).
I had a hefty sign-on bonus and didn’t have to pay anything out of pocket other than my time.
My previous job was also through a recruiter and didn’t have any cause for alarm that I was being cheated.
The two firms I worked with were Cejka (http://www.cejka.com) and Delta Medical Group (http://www.deltamedcon.com).
5 Nimish // Mar 11, 2008 at 9:49 am// View all comments by Nimish//
Dr. Franklin,
Thank you for your input. We definitely don’t want to say that recruiters are cheating you - that’s not the situation. We’re also making it explicitly clear that there are no out-of-pocket expenses - you’re not paying a recruiter directly. All of the costs are indirect.
In our experience, if you compare two equal jobs in the exact same location, the one that is available without recruiters will pay more, almost every time, simply because there is no recruiter’s fee.
This means that while you’re not paying out of pocket for anything, you will be paying for it indirectly with a lower salary and a lower sign-on bonus.
Recruiters can be helpful, especially with desperate employers who live in remote locations. But by limiting yourself only to recruiters, you’re eliminating 90% of the jobs in your area, and that’s shortsighted.
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