Blogging with The Doctor Job

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.