Blogging with The Doctor Job

Today, we’ll take the time to answer two questions out of the many that we’ve received from physicians and medical students. If you too have questions related in any way to finding a job, getting into a program, or specializing in an specific field, please email them to blog AT thedoctorjob DOT com!

Q: I am a Psychiatrist who had my license suspended for inappropriate conduct with a patient. I now have a restricted license where I can practice, but only under supervision for a year, and then I get my full license back. Recruiters won’t return my calls. Am I out of luck?

A: Unfortunately for your situation, most groups and hospitals are going to steer clear of you until you have a free and clear license, and even then you’re going to hit some speedbumps. However, I said “most”, not all. Let’s assume there are 2000 psychiatric groups in a state. Maybe 1400 of them wouldn’t give your resume more than a cursory glance. But this means that there are probably 600 out there that would, and maybe once they met you and talked to you face-to-face, they’d be willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. When you are in a situation like this, and you’re looking for a job, you’re not looking for what the majority of employers will think, say and do. You’re looking for the minority. And in the end, all you need is 1 group out of 2000 to give you a chance.

Now, the difficult part is finding these groups. Chances are, they’re pretty well-hidden. They’re less likely to use recruiters, and they probably don’t advertise online or in journals. So what you need to do is find them. At this point, I could just recommend that you let The Doctor Job work for you, but that’s only if you want to. If you have the time and want to put forth the effort, you can try to do this on your own.

Using your PDR or state directory of Psychiatrists, enter every single one of them into an Excel spreadsheet. Get their first name, last name, and address, all in different columns. Then, create a brief cover letter. Don’t go into too much detail - this is just an introductory letter, not an autobiography - and do a mail merge with all 2,000 names. Print them out, with your resume (shouldn’t be more than one, maybe two pages) and envelopes for each one. It’s okay to use a #10 envelope - folding the letter will not hurt anything.

Sign all of your cover letters, stuff the envelopes, put stamps on them and stick them in the mail. Don’t do 100 or 200 at a time - try to get them all out there at once. This will give you a smaller window of highly concentrated responses, which will let you make the best decision and the best choices.

And voila! Even if only .1% of the letters you send out results in a job for you, that’s 2 job offers. If your response rate is higher, you could have 20-40 or more positive responses! And when you have an unencumbered license again, you’ll realize that this approach gives you the ability to choose the best job available in the job market, not just the best job advertised. That’s a huge difference that most physicians miss. Good luck!

Q: I’m an Internist who is single with no family. Right now, my only desire is to earn as much as I can, pay off my student loans, and set aside some significant savings. However, since I’m single, I don’t want to work anywhere that recruiters suggest because everything’s in the middle of nowhere. I’d like to be in a big city where I can maintain an active social life. How can I maximize my income in this type of area?

A: Well, since you want an active social life, we’re assuming that you don’t want to move around from city to city for a year or six months at a time. That leaves out locum tenens work. So, if you’re looking for a relatively long-term position that will earn you the most income in a major city, there are a couple of things you can do.

Many physicians in your situation will say they’re completely open to any big city in the country. This seems like it would be the best way to do it, but it actually increases their chances of taking a lower paying job. Because who do you think she’s announcing it to? That’s right: physician recruiters. And the recruiters’ only goal is to convince that physician to take a job in their city. This means that even if the physician gets offers through recruiters from every major city, she isn’t taking the highest-paying job in the country. All she’s getting is the highest paying job through a recruiter. This means, for those of you new to the reality of the job market, is that most jobs in bigger cities that are unavailable through recruiters pay up to $20,000-$25,000 more than those advertised with recruiters! So even if she thinks she’s taken the perfect job, she’s just missed out on quite a bit more money.

So, how do you make sure you maximize your income? Well, first, figure out which city you’re the most interested in. Are you a warm weather person? Los Angeles or Miami might do the trick. Do you like the coast but don’t mind the cold? Maybe DC or New York City would be the best. Whatever decision you make can help you make the most of your job search.

Then, contact every physician recruiter that covers that city. Make it explicit that you’re only interested in that city and the surrounding area. Get all available options from them.

Next, use all of your personal contacts - friends from medical school, residents and attendings, your program director, family members - whoever you can gather, and see if any of them have any ties to groups in that area. Anything that is the smallest thread can be exploited for at least an introduction to the group.

Finally, get your name out there. Whether you use a service like The Doctor Job or not, send your resume out to everyone that you possibly can. You should be sending out at least 1000 resumes or more. Plan on getting about 25-40 phone calls or more of interest.

Once you’ve got everyone who’s actually interested in you, start your interviewing. Don’t eliminate any group until you’ve had a chance to investigate them or talk to them in depth. The more interviewing you can do, the more confident you’ll be, which means the better chances you’ll have of getting more offers.

After the interviewing period, if you did this correctly, you should have at least 5 and maybe as many as 25 offers for positions. The salaries offered will vary widely, too. We’ve seen ranges of between $100,000 - $240,000 for the same physician looking in one city! It all depends on the size of the group, how lucrative their practice is, how much they need someone, the level of responsibility you’ll get, etc.

Now here’s the important part. This is the part that 90% of physicians forget or ignore. They might be worried about it, or maybe they don’t think it’s necessary. But they’re missing out. Negotiate.

With even the simplest of negotiations, salaries and benefits can vary as much as $10,000-$15,000. If you’re in great demand, you have even more power, which means that you should be able to increase your salary, bonus, and other benefits by as much as $30,000-$40,000. However, be careful. Negotiation doesn’t mean being angry, uncooperative, and unprofessional. It requires some subtlety - letting a group know that you like them the best, but that another group is offering you more money, so you’re in a tough place, and you were hoping that the first group might be able to make it easier for you to make your decision. That’s what works, and if you follow these guidelines, you should be making good money and enjoying your social life in no time!