Avoid physician recruiters

I teach Obstetrics and Gynecology to the residents of a Family Medicine Program in Boston. This includes a lecture on "How to Find Your Ideal Job" that explains the dramatic advantages of the direct mail method for a job searching physician and outlines the drawbacks of working with physician recruiters.

A faculty members asked me why I was opposed to recruiters. Here is the answer: It was a long learning process over years, with many dozens of big and small bad experiences and big and small disappointments. In the end, I could count the good experiences on one hand and the bad experiences and disappointments were in the hundreds.

I started out with enthusiasm about recruiters, and with great hope. Here are these people that have "hundreds" or "thousands of jobs nationwide", that have "the best jobs", that "personalize a search for you", that routinely find "the perfect practice for you". Great! Call seversal recruiters, get a great job and start working!

It turned out quite different. I had graduated from one of the large Boston teaching hospitals and wanted to stay locally. And with "locally" I meant really Boston, specifically inside the I-95 ring. So I sent my CV to recruiter after recruiter, but strangely, such a job did not seem to exist. Even the recruiters that advertised jobs with "Enjoy all Boston has to offer" live and work in "the Boston suburbs" never had jobs within the I-95 ring. To my dismay, recruiters defined the "Boston suburbs" very creatively and differently than I did. The suburbs suddenly turned out to be Methuen, Lowell, Lawrence, Framingham, Worcester, Plymouth etc. Driving distances in ads were routinely understated; places advertised as "only 30 minutes from the city" always were an hour away.
Then, after a while, there actually was a job IN Boston, and I rushed to find out what it was. "Obstetrics only", and underpaid. At the time the usual starting salary was 150-160, this employer offered 120. A number of similar experiences later let me conclude that "within-city-limits" jobs coming through recruiters had serious flaws.

I realized in time that recruiter jobs were never "just great", there was always something off, the jobs always seemed to have a flaw, some drawback, concerning location or otherwise. My comfort zone in terms of location ended before the "recruiter area" started! And I grew more and more cynical when reading the oh-so-promising ads...

A few years later I went on another job search, and this time it lasted over 4 years. I wanted a position in Miami. Again, not outside of Miami, no, IN Miami.
On the internet I found Physicianwork.com, a website chockfull with recruiter ads, registered and up went my hopes again – over 75 jobs in Florida! There had to be something in Miami among them! For starters, the typical recruiter job descriptions are short, cryptic and vague. I understand the reasons for this very well, but it is still frustrating. I screen jobs by location and salary – and that is exactly what they never, ever tell you. I also was surprised to find that many jobs are listed multiple times by multiple recruiters. Great…

And the same frustrating game started all over again. “Oh, no I do not have anything in Miami”, "But what about Lakeland, Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, and the panhandle and, and, and". Lots of jobs, just never where I wanted one.

I adapted and listed myself on the Internet as looking “strictly in Miami, nowhere else”, "not Fort Lauderdale, not Naples, not Orlando, not Tampa". After all, I have family in Miami…

Do you think any of the recruiters cared about what I wrote in my profile? Not at all. I received literally countless emails advertising jobs in Florida – anywhere in Florida, except in Miami. It started to sound like Miami was the new Boston.

Sometimes I felt spammed by recruiters. I had just spoken to a recruiter in person and explained that I was looking really only in Miami, sorry, really nowhere else…and to my surprise next day I get an email about a remote California location, “home of the California puppy”, of course far away from the action, “a short drive” of 75 miles from LA. Did that recruiters not hear me? Did he not care? Or did he simply not take me seriously? Did he think I would change my mind that easily?

What would happen if I treated my patients that way – “Dear Mrs Jones, I don’t care if you just want the birth control pill, here, read this leaflet on hysterectomy, let's schedule it”

I adapted again and started answering my emails with: “Thank you for contacting me, but I am searching exclusively in Miami”.
Bam, now I got the “Miami AREA” emails and ads. The “Miami area” seemed to stretch from the Keys to West Palm Beach. What kind of map are these people looking at? What are their concepts of distance? Do they ever commute? One excited and eager recruiter told me that I could live in Miami, but "commute to work just slightly north of Fort Lauderdale". She obviously had never, never been on I-95 in rush hour…

Then I started to add one more sentence to my answer to all those recruiter emails:
“I am only interested in Miami, and only in a practice that has a phone number starting with the area code 305”. Now THAT usually worked. One recruiter audibly chuckled on the phone. He seemed to understand exactly why I was saying it. At least now the number of emails about Naples and Orlando dropped somewhat.

I loved the following answer “I do not have anything in Miami at this time, but I’ll call my clients I that area to see if they have something” Oh, yeah! I am still waiting today for those call-backs.
And now, here is the outstanding, rare, single, amazing experience with a recruiter – an actual, true and honest answer: “I don't have jobs there. If you want to find a job in Miami, you have to call the practices yourself, one by one. And if it does not work the first time, then try again in three months”. I was blown away, a recruiter that actually does not try to convince me that Backwater, FL is a great place to live and raise a family, but that instead gives me a tip how to land a job in the city I want.

This happened only once, one single time, on one lonely occasion, on one remarkable afternoon, in several YEARS of searching, after literally hundreds of emails and telephone conversations! The first honest and true tip from a recruiter, advice from one human being to another human being - no salesmanship. It happened only ONCE.

Do you begin to understand why I do not like recruiters?

You would not believe how many emails I received about jobs from West Virginia to North Carolina to Indiana and Idaho, even jobs in other fields of medicine like anesthesia and pediatrics! The recruiters who are sending me these emails seemingly could care less about my profile and my registration information.
Do you understand why I cringe when I read recruiters advertise “we personalize a job search for you”. Idaho instead of Miami, really personalized, great job!

I now believe that most contingency recruiters just do not care. They sell, sell, sell and sell some more. They go for volume, they go for the numbers. The more emails they send out, the more people they contact, the more chances they may have to get an answer and sell one of their jobs. That is why they remind me of used car salesmen and telemarketers. Their ads are just the nice marketing face, and you have to read them with upmost suspicion.

But then, when I was starting to believe that good jobs where I wanted them, were just not available, then I found “Thedoctorjob.com” They explained how direct mailing works and how it is superior to any other search method. After reading through their website, the behavior of recruiters suddenly made sense and it became completely clear why they did not have the jobs I wanted – and why they never will!

I tried the direct mail myself, and it worked like a charm. One mailing and I had seven interviews and three job offers. And that in a city that - according to recruiters - was “oversaturated”, where there were “no jobs”. Months later I tried mass faxing with the same success. And mailing is easy, the lists are readily available on the Internet, there are services that review and improve your cover letter and CV and ….of course there is “Thedoctorjob.com” that offers all this in one neat package for a very reasonable price.
And, no, I am not related to any of the folks at TheDoctorJob.com, I am not part of the company, they do not pay me, I am not on commission. I just love the idea, the method and above all - the results.

A classic recruiter email

Here is one of my favorite recruiter emails. After telling a recruiter in person - on the phone - and repeatedly and in no uncertain terms that I was looking for a position in Miami, Florida and only and exclusively in Miami proper, yes, in the city of Miami, not too far from downtown, not in Fort Lauderdale, not in Naples, not in Orlando, not anywhere in central Florida, no, no, no, really only in Miami...so, after telling a recruiter all this I received the following email on the very next day:

"Dear Doctor (note the nice personal touch), I hope this finds you well. You are receiving this because you are on the www.obgynxxxxx.com mailing list for new and exciting Ob/Gyn jobs! Although we represent OVER 400 Ob/Gyn jobs NATIONWIDE!!! (So what? But you have none where I want it! - and what are all those 400 jobs going to do for me???) I wanted to let you know about an exciting new position in Northern Los Angeles County!! (Just what I was looking for, Miami is right next to LA, talk about "personalizing a search for you") Here are the details: Easy access to Los Angeles (I just hope the devil will tell these guys after they die "Hey, you have easy access to heaven! Hah!)~ OBGYN physician needed to join a solo practitioner. The salary is $180,000 and will include malpractice insurance, health insurance, and dental coverage. Call coverage will increase to 1:3 with the addition of the new OBGYN. Partnership is available. Option to be Independent Contractor if physician so desires. This is a great community for a practice (and so is every single place a recruiter will ever tell you about, did you notice that yet?). Our ("our"? Does he live there? - of course not) wide array of art galleries showcase solo and membership exhibits of photography, paintings and other works of art with weekly readings open to the public. We also are the home of an enormous poppy reserve established to protect California’s native wildflowers. (So, the location is remote enough to house the last surviving poppy flowers....need I say more?) The California poppy, California’s state flower, can be seen by the hundreds blanketing the lush green fields and is a truly breathtaking sight. A wide variety of activities are available for those people who enjoy sports and other outdoor recreational opportunities (and if you do not enjoy sports and outdoors activities, but enjoy listening to concerts, theater etc? Another hint that there is nothing, but nothing cultural going on in that town!). Try your luck at catching the big one on our placid lake, which is stocked every two weeks (Which is stocked every two weeks? Did I read that right? The lake does not even support fish – is it toxic or just too small?), or go for a round of golf at one of the area golf courses. We are also teeming with places for fine dinning and shopping for everything from designer clothes to fine antiques. (All this blabla is usually copied and pasted without any further thought from local tourism brochures. Yet, it may help you pinpoint the town by entering the info in Google. In this case it yields the town of Lancaster, Los Angeles County, a mere 75 miles or 1 hour and 30 minutes from Rodeo Drive or from LAX. A prime example that teaches you what recruiters call a “short drive to LA”). This position will fill QUICKLY, so do not hesitate to fax or email your CV immediately (Old sales trick to push you forward by creating fear of competition and loss, never, ever believe something like that!). As I mentioned we do represent over 400 Ob/Gyn jobs Nationwide, so if there are other areas of interest please do not hesitate to contact me. I can be reached 7 Days a week at 800-xxx-xxxx until 10 PM EST. I look forward to hearing from you. Bxxxxxm, Txxxxxxp, Consultant (they never represent themselves as”salesmen”, but use cute euphemistic terms such as "Manager", "senior vice president", "consultant", "representative", "client advocate" etc).

What an instructive email. So many lessons about what is wrong with recruiters in one single email...
Forget recruiters, click on this link to find more jobs than any recruiter will ever find!

Remember, the function of physician recruiters is to fill the less desirable jobs.

Behind every recruiter ad is an employer that has given up trying to fill a position using the standard means and now is ready to pay 20 K to have it filled.

Don't fall for recruiters! And, send me similar email or write me your "recruiter story".

Matthias Muenzer, MD .....Search the right way!

More "physician recruiter speak"

Did you ever wonder why recruiter "opportunities" are rarely located in attractive cities? Recruiter "opportunities" mostly seem to be in locations described as ...

..."A great place to raise a family".
What this truly means is - there is really nothing else to do in that place except raising a family! Maybe watching satellite TV. It's a guarantee for boring. If you are married and like the countryside, you may consider it, but if you are single and looking to meet someone, or if you enjoy theater, opera, live music, cafes and similar aspects of urban life, don't even think about it. If you hear "a great place to raise a family" - run!
Did someone ever describe New York City or LA or Boston or Miami as a great place to raise a family?

...having "Low pollution" - sure, rural areas have low density, low concentration of cars and therefore low pollution. Did pollution ever bother you when visiting Manhattan?

...having "Low crime" - sure, the last few criminals fled the place due to boredom.

And last, not least, recruiters always add that sentence that the location is "a great place to build a practice" - apparently just the fact that they are offering a job and are willing to shell out 20K is sufficient proof of that. But please do not ask for any real proof, such as a marketing analysis. Sentences like these are just thrown in to make you feel better.

Always remember:
"The function of recruiters is to fill the less desirable jobs"

And the next time when a recruiter calls, stop and think "Do I really want a less desirable job?"