Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Who needs a physician recruiter? (3)

Recruiters fill about 10-15% of all physician jobs.

What 10-15% are those? The most attractive, the top ten or the least attractive, the bottom 10?
Who do you think needs to pay someone $20,000 to find candidates - the employers with the attractive jobs or the employers with the not so attractive jobs??

As a former recruiter said:
The function of recruiters in medicine is to fill the less desirable jobs!
And therefore: The next time a recruiter calls, ask yourself: Do I want a less desirable job?

The Internet should over time make recruiters unnecessary. Employers post jobs on several well known job boards, candidates post their CVs on those boards as well, they find each other. Happy end.

I do not see any reason to introduce a third party into this quite simple process, especially when the third party are non-physicians with modest understanding of our work and especially when the third party consists of salespeople that all too often behave like a cross between a used-car salesman and a telemarketer.

The Internet "happened" to the travel agents, Zillow may do it to the realtors, and where is the software, website or job board that is going to do it to the physician recruiters?

My very first experience with recruiters was enlightening: I was invited to a "job fair" where "ObGyn departments" would be "looking for candidates". Even though I was sceptical (at the time ObGyn was very popular and they would certainly not need to show up on job fairs), the recruiter confirmed repeatedly on the phone and by mail, that yes, there would be ObGyn job offers. After taking a day off and traveling by train for several hours - no ObGyn jobs, just peds and internal medicine. I had the distinct impression the recruiter just wanted me to show up to impress the employers with the number of candidates her could mobilize.

And that was my introduction to physician recruiters many years ago. But it was only the first in a long series of disappointments with this "profession".

Remember: The function of phycisian recruiters is to fill the less desirable jobs!
And when a recruiter calls, think: Do I really want a less desirable job?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It's unfortunate that so many residents and fellows graduate thinking that recruiters are their only way to find a job. It's hard to tell if the education should start in the medical school, or if the program directors should be encouraged to provide guidance with career decisions.