By Terry Lane, Staff Writer, Pinnacle Health Group
Ask any physician what their experiences have been with search firm recruiters and you will hear everything from glowing accolades to words of frustration. Unfortunately, recruiters and their firms are not often privy to this feedback. Several physicians who completed residency between 1998 and 2000 were interviewed for this article, and their experiences, candid feedback, and advice for recruiters are detailed below.
Physicians have preconceived ideas about recruiters and search firms.
All of the physicians were aware of recruiters while still in their residency. Many residency programs provided a class on practice management, which covered everything from job searching techniques to salary negotiation. When asked if taking the course helped in deciding whether or not to utilize recruiters, a pediatrician in Georgia responded: “Well, it made me a little more cautious. They warned us not to let them (the recruiters) send our resume out to anyone without our permission. They told us that recruiters send out your resume to every potential client and that when you are hired, someone is stuck paying a finders fee.”
Physicians want you to pay attention to the details.
All of the physicians interviewed said they were contacted by recruiters more while they were in residency than afterward. When asked why they decided to work with one recruiter over another, the unanimous reply was that the recruiter who found the best match was the one they selected. They didn’t care about personality-they cared about the recruiter’s attention to detail and their ability to give consideration to the physician’s specifications. An Ob/Gyn stated: “I told all of the recruiters who contacted me what I wanted, and the first one who came back meeting my requirements was the one I chose to work with. The other opportunities that weren’t a match, I just told them I wasn’t interested. I talked to a few recruiters on the phone, but I only went on one interview and that is the recruiter I chose to work with.” Another physician gave a similar reply: “I was very specific regarding the location I wanted, and I had many recruiters calling me with positions in other locations. Only one recruiter came back with an opportunity in the right location, and that is why I chose to work with her.”
Physicians prefer to communicate by phone.
Most physicians were contacted by the recruiter first. “Recruiters got my phone number, they even got my beeper number-I would like to know how they did that!” said one physician practicing in California. When asked if it offended him that they called him on his beeper, he answered: “No, because I look to them as friendly resources and none of them were so pushy that I couldn’t say ‘now isn’t a good time.’ However, I know a lot of people who really didn’t like it.” All of the physicians preferred telephone communication over email. “I know that it is a pain for recruiters to try to get a doctor on the phone,” says one nephrologist, “but I hate sorting through all the junk I have on email, and I prefer the telephone because I can have someone screen my calls for me.” Another physician admitted that he doesn’t check his email that often and that physicians are inundated with junk mail on a regular basis.
For physicians, the Internet hasn’t “caught on” as powerfully as we may like.
Surprisingly, few of the physicians interviewed used the Internet for job hunting. They said they simply did not have the time. It is easier for them to simply give the recruiter a list of what they are looking for and let the recruiter do the work of finding the opportunities. Additionally, the only physician interviewee who accessed the Internet in relation to job hunting, said he did so in order to find out who replaced a “disappearing recruiter.” “Of all the business cards I collected within the course of only a year, half of those recruiters had moved on to other companies, so I had to look on the company website to see who to contact. One even changed on me in mid-deal! The turnover rate seems incredibly high for recruiters.” While Internet usage continues to increase as physicians become more accustomed to using it, it is apparent that the majority of physicians still rely primarily on human contact.
The advantages of using a search firm recruiter.
The foremost advantage of using a recruiter, according to several physicians, was that they save the physician time. “They do the legwork for you,” said one gastroenterologist. A few physicians commented that they felt recruiters had the “inside scoop” on opportunities, and that they had better contacts. Overall, they felt that using a recruiter increased their chances of finding more jobs and getting through the red tape. Said one cardiologist: “I think recruiters have a more thorough list of opportunities to draw from-I felt I had a limited selection-they just know where the jobs are.”
The disadvantages of using a search firm recruiter.
Overall, physicians felt that the recruiter was more concerned with pleasing the client than the physician, and they expressed a need to feel that both the client’s and the physician’s needs are equally important to the recruiter. One physician explained: “They are working more for the employer than for you. I would like to feel that it is important to them that I’m happy in my new job and won’t leave after a year, but I felt their first commitment was to meeting the client’s requirements.”
Physicians would like more sensitivity when being asked personal questions.
Most physicians felt that the recruiter presented a realistic picture of the job. When asked if the recruiter questioned the physician about likes and dislikes, religious needs, hobbies, interests, etc., the replies were varied. “No, recruiters are more interested in pleasing the client. I think the more they know about you, the better match they can make. But, you need to tell them, because they don’t ask. You have to volunteer it. They look at these things solely from the client’s perspective.” An ob/gyn adds: “He didn’t ask me about religion or interests or anything like that, but he did ask me how I felt about abortion, which is a reasonable question to ask an ob/gyn. I think it’s practical to ask about religion, but I’m not sure it’s legal. I understand that recruiters need to ask questions that they aren’t supposed to ask in order to get a good match, but there are sensitive questions that aren’t supposed to be asked. So, what do you do? For instance, someone asked me if I intended to have more children. The only thing you can do is offer the information yourself.”
When asked to provide advice, a similar theme was voiced.
Overall, physicians seemed most displeased when recruiters talked to them about jobs that didn’t fit their requirements. “It’s as if they think we don’t know what we want,” explains a general surgeon in Alabama. “We are perfectly aware of what we want. I just didn’t have the time to listen to all of these opportunities that I knew I would not even consider.” Another physician added: “Say ‘this is what I want’ – the most important thing is to know what you want-cut to the chase, be realistic, reject what you don’t want. That’s important. Don’t waste your time.”
And when asked what advice these physicians would like to pass on to recruiters, the replies were unified. “Recruiters need to listen to the physician’s criteria a little closer,” and “they need to make sure the person they are working for knows exactly what they want, don’t send them on interviews that aren’t a match,” and “try to think of the physician’s needs as well as the clients.”
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Terry Lane is a freelance writer and staff writer for Pinnacle Health Group, Atlanta, GA (www.phg.com). Ms. Lane can be reached at terrylane@earthlink.net or 717-625-0595.
Published in Recruiting Physicians Today, New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 9, No. 5, Sept./Oct. 2001