Residents need to watch out for physician head hunters, recruitment

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So i’m just an intern yet it was funny to recieve an email from someone that was running a career fair for residents. Not including the fact that my residency in Ophthalmology hasn’t even started, it was funny to think about all of this so early in my career when i’m still having trouble learning to manage the most simplest of things such as hypertension on an clinic patient. So I decided to do some research on the internet about physician recruiting and salaries.

I talked to some friends of mine that are already out in practice and friends that are farther along in residency about their experiences in getting recruited. It is really dependent on what field you are in as well as what the market is like including where you are going to be working. There are some basic strategies that I got from the article by Doroty Pennachio about physician recruitment written in 2002

It is important limit yourself to no more than 2-3 recruiters to represent you in the marketplace. Supposedly its a commission based business and some recruiters can make a lot of money by hooking up employers with future employees especially if you talk about salaries in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. There is a industry association called the NAPR (national association of physician recruiters). Some of the basic questions to ask is: how long has the recruitment agency been in business. Pennachio writes to limit yourself to companies with a minimum 5 years experience of physician recruiting. And like any other thing, look for references. Also, your recruiter should be knowledgeable in the field that you are in.

A recruiter should never charge you. This is true in this game because physician are a “hot commodity” - some of my friends got some great stuff provided free of charge by recruiters just to get face time. it is important to know how long the physicians stay with the practices they get placed with. I guess that is the true test to see if recruiters are actually looking at a good fit for both employer and employee. Also look at how professional the recruiter is. Another big thing that was mentioned is how CVs are handled. You don’t want a company to send your CV to hundreds of places, it makes you seem desperate for a job. Also, you don’t want your CV all over the internet.

In the end though, I don’t think that any competent graduating resident will have a lot of trouble finding a job. What may be the limiting factor is location and salary. Of course, I’m just beginning on my journey to finishing residency and throughout the years, I’ll definitely share my experiences along the way.

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