Top Ten Tips for Candidates

1. Keep in touch!  We realize that your schedule can be brutally demanding, so we will attempt to contact you only when it is crucial to your job search.  Please stay in touch, as your ability to land a job depends on your willingness to remain promptly communicative.
2. Return calls!  If an employer calls you—please promptly return their call!  If you have concluded that you are not interested in the opportunity and do not wish to communicate this directly to the employer, then let us know and we will do that for you.  It is never appropriate to neglect returning employer’s phone calls and can damage your reputation.
3. Keep us informed about any changes in status, such as shift in geographical preference or offers of other employment.
4. Avoid the Five D’s!  Limit the amount of recruitment agencies you utilize.  Working with numerous recruiters can result in multiple CV submissions to a single employer. 
   1. Dispute.  For the employer, multiple CV submissions leads to confusion over which recruitment firm submitted your CV first.  Employers usually choose to walk away from the candidate because they do not want to risk a fee Dispute between agencies.  (Contingency recruitment agencies receive a fee based upon which agency submits a candidate’s CV first, not upon who worked harder for you!)
   2. Disorganized.  Employers believe that receiving 3-4 copies of your CV from different firms indicates that you are Disorganized.  If you must work with more than one recruitment firm, then it is your responsibility to maintain a log of where your CV was submitted and which firm submitted it.  Be sure to make it clear to the other recruitment firms that your CV must not be submitted without your prior authorization.
   3. Desperate.  Employers often mistakenly get the impression from receiving multiple copies of your CV that you are Desperate for a job.
   4. Discouraged.  When your recruiter finds out that your CV has already been submitted to many openings, he/she becomes Discouraged, and may choose not to work very hard for you.
   5. The Deluge.  Avoid at all costs submitting your CV to job boards or to large hospital corporations.  The reason for this is that you then lose control of your CV.  The in-house recruiter or outside retained recruiter who receives it will be free to distribute to all the hospitals or practices nationwide within their network.  You may find yourself unwittingly Deluged with calls from practices you never heard of!
5. Be open and honest.  Be ready to candidly discuss any gaps in employment or education history, blemishes on your career or academic record, or malpractice and disciplinary actions.  All of the above comes to light eventually, and placement is much more effective when all your cards are on the table at the outset.
6. Be as open-minded as possible about job locations.  Remember—the wider the search, the more likely you will find the ideal job.  For every job, there will be a trade-off of some sort.  For example, taking a position in a large city like NYC means trading income for cultural amenities.  Physicians leave jobs for all kinds of reasons, location included, but we have never had a physician stay in a job he/she is unhappy with because of the location.  You can take a job in Hawaii with the waves lapping at your feet, but if all the doctors in the group are fighting, or you’re not getting any referrals, or you can’t make any money, or you have to spend hours commuting between hospitals every day—the location will not make you happy enough to stay. 
7. Involve your spouse as much as possible in your job search and try to bring him/her along for interviews.  Remember—your spouse is 50% of the decision-making process.
8. Sign up at our website and check it frequently.  We fill and add opportunities regularly.
9. Make sure your CV is legible and that the font is at least 11 point for fax purposes.  Preferably email your CV so that we have a clean copy—MS Word format is best. 
10. Have at least 3 references on hand.  One of them must be from your residency or fellowship program’s Department Chair, or from your current employer.

Why Do Physicians Change Jobs?

In descending order:

1. Compensation Is Too Low
   1. Low Reimbursements
   2. High Managed Care Penetration
   3. Insufficient Referrals

2. Time Issues
   1. Excessively Long Hours
   2. Excessive Call Schedule
   3. Long Commute
   4. Covering Too Many Hospitals

3. Politics/Chemistry/Personality Issues
   1. Other Doctors In The Practice
   2. Other Neurologists or Neurosurgeons in the Community
   3. Hospital / Clinic Administration

4. Professional Issues
   1. Underutilized Medical Skills
   2. No Advancement Available
   3. No Autonomy
   4. Practice Declines to Offer Partnership
   5. Lack of Hospital Support
   6. Declining Practice / Restructuring

5. Malpractice Issues
   1. High Premiums
   2. High Malpractice Lawsuits Filed

6. Quality of Life / Family Issues
   1. Lack of Affordable Housing
   2. Starting a Family
   3. Lack of Good Schools for Children
   4. Need to Live Near Aging Parents
   5. Climate
   6. Cultural / Recreational Amenities
   7. Divorce

When Do Most Physicians Change Jobs?

The most common time that physicians change jobs is two to five years out of residency or fellowship. New graduates often choose a place to work based primarily on location. Then they start working and find that other issues are more central to their happiness. They may find that there is not enough need in the community for their specialty, and subsequently have to work the same long hours as residency to earn the low end of the compensation scale for their specialty. As a result, their family life suffers. They may find themselves in competition with other junior members of the practice or other specialists in the community. They may practice medicine in a different way or have different values than their colleagues do. They may find themselves in an environment with skyrocketing malpractice premiums. They may find cost of housing is so out of control that they cannot afford to purchase a home. 

The reasons for job change are as individual as the doctors. Careful planning and consideration of multiple priorities (beyond location) can prevent early job dissatisfaction.