Self-help books, recently relabeled into the more euphemistic "self-development" category have been a secret vice of mine for quite a while. One book that stood out as particularly disappointing was Kiyosaki's "Rich Dad, Poor Dad". The basic concepts can be summarized on a single page. And yes, we know that it is better to have your money work for your instead of working for your money - gosh, who would have thought so? I just wish I already did have the money to do this. I can't wait to have my money work fr me instead of working for my money! My few thousand dollars of savings just do not seem to cut it when it comes to working for me! Well, I should invest? Sure, and then? Get $2,59 in return every month? You got to be kidding! And it was curious to have "asset" redefined as something that makes you money and "liability" as something that drains your account. And the "cash-flow quadrant" is certainly worth considering. This book actually seems to help you AFTER you made your money and then it is obsolete anyway.
But when you are done reading the book, boy, do you feeel confident that yes, you can be rich too. But then the trouble starts, you wake up and ask - how do I do it? Kiyosaki offers outstanding advice - after looking through the whole book looking for answers, I found the solution. I seems that our wise author finds it vital to form "your team" - consisting of a realtor, an attorney and a finacial advisor. Great! But...wait a minute, what I tell those poeple about what they are supposed to do? And "forming a team" is going to make me rich? Based on what the lawyer is cahrging me by the hour, the result will be quite the opposite.....
I probed further into the riches of Kiyosaki's adice, and finally, after a lot of leafing and leafing, I dug up a single sentence, truly one single sentence - no kidding - in the middle of another Kiyosaki book, here it comes, watch this, are you ready? "Turn your ideas into companies" - done, end of advice, finito, that's it, end of story, end of advice! And then he immediately proceeds to waffles on with the 5th, 6th and 7th repetition of the cash flow quadrant or another similar hot "economics 101 for 6 year olds" topic. Kiyosaki does not write "how to become rich". He simply writes motivational "feel-good" leaflets. Detailed advice that helps you in real life? Anything of practical use? None, zero, nada....
Yet, Kiyosaki mentiones an annoying amount of times how much he learned listenting to "Rich Dad" discuss business with his son during dinner - but, somehow he never gets around to sharing any of those pearls with us, the interested readers. What did he do with all that knowledge, with the accumulated wisdom of rich dad? Where is he hiding it? Why is Kiyosaki afraid of sharing it? Instead of sharing it, he repeats his basic concepts ad nauseam until you fall asleep or throw his books away or start writing bad reviews and bad blog posts about him. And here I am.
I did not fully realize just how pathetic Kiyosaki was until I read something that actually delivers the goods - the book by Tim Ferris titled "The 4-Hour Workweek".
Now here is a gem - fully packed with practical, usable information, and almost no fluff. Chock full of innovative ideas on how to come up with ideas, test ideas, create a product, how to test it, how to market it and how to outsource the whole manufacturing and advertising and administration and go traveling around the world with the money you make. Tremendous insights on how to work more efficiently and how to actually LIVE. An incredible amount of inspiration and information packed into one single book.
Ferris does not hold back, he does not ration his information nor his advice, because in the back of his mind, he is already planning to publish a whole series of similar books and does not want to share eveything at once - none of that. He freely tells you what he knows. Importantly - he mentions other books and people he learned from and gives you his sources. This is good, since you can read his sources and understand them better, learn more. I believe this to be the sign of a good author. You could almost call him charitable. He truly shares, he does not seem to sell. It is not one of those thin books with slightly larger print and wide margins that beats a single thought to death. He really lays it all out. Great! Great! Great!
Kiyosaki, you are a ...(can't print this here)!
If you, dear reader actually had the patience of finishing a Kiyosaki book, now is the time to throw it out, donate it to a Pre-Kindergarden program or give it to someone you don't like (great waste of her time).
Then read the real deal: The Four Hour Work Week. This is one of the few books with the potential to be life changing. Tim Ferris delivers what others only promise.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Boy, you have the industry pegged!
This is a comment on one of my past posts. It is so clear that it does not require any additions. Hear the opinion about physician recruiters from someone who has done it, who worked as a phyisian recruiter...! Emphasis added by me.
Start quote:
Boy, you have the industry pegged! It is funny, I have been a "Physician Recruiter" for over 15 years and started to work for myself at home because I hated the way the industry was run. I have given physicians the name and contact information to positions that do not pay me a fee (worked for free) because it was in their best interest. I was tired of working for people who played games with Physician's lives for the sake of the almighty dollar.
Now, I may not be rich doing business this way. I "loose" a placement or a fee by handing over information but I can look at myself in the mirror everyday and I also know, if they took a job that I could not get a fee for, then that was ok because it only means they would not have been happy if they accepted a job from one of the hospitals which would pay me a fee. I am happy to say, once I started "giving" jobs away, I could still pay my bills and I received more referrals from physicians I had helped and I stopped calling myself a "recruiter" and became a "Physician Career Consultant".
End quote
Start quote:
Boy, you have the industry pegged! It is funny, I have been a "Physician Recruiter" for over 15 years and started to work for myself at home because I hated the way the industry was run. I have given physicians the name and contact information to positions that do not pay me a fee (worked for free) because it was in their best interest. I was tired of working for people who played games with Physician's lives for the sake of the almighty dollar.
Now, I may not be rich doing business this way. I "loose" a placement or a fee by handing over information but I can look at myself in the mirror everyday and I also know, if they took a job that I could not get a fee for, then that was ok because it only means they would not have been happy if they accepted a job from one of the hospitals which would pay me a fee. I am happy to say, once I started "giving" jobs away, I could still pay my bills and I received more referrals from physicians I had helped and I stopped calling myself a "recruiter" and became a "Physician Career Consultant".
End quote
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Post jobs and find jobs for FREE on Sermo - a 60,000 and growing online physician community
I love Sermo, for many, many reasons. The community is physicians-only, it is free, you may even earn a bit of money by giving your opinion and it is a great community. Responses are many, diverse, friendly, supportive, interesting, funny. Sermo has a great humor section. What started in 2006 with just a few people is now a vibrant 60,000 physician community and continues to grow by about 1000 a month.
Here is one more reason to love Sermo: Recently they have started a job board - FOR FREE. And it will stay free. So, this is my new favorite in the physician job market. Please take look at Sermo.com, and if you are a physician, register for free and and look around. Go to the posts in your specialty, go to the "general interest section" and go to the job board.
The Founder and CEO introduced the job board with the below quoted post in Sermo. And, not to my surprise, I found that my opinions on the physician job market and in particular on physician recruiters are widely shared by my fellow physicians!
Quote start:
From the Founder: Return to Professional Courtesy - SermoJobs
Being the son of a physician I remember very vividly the role of professional courtesy. While I was always blessed with access to incredible physicians, dentists, and orthodontists, I can recall several occasions where professional courtesy became a topic of great discussion between my parents. To my father, and ultimately myself, it represented something much more meaningful; the willingness and desire of physicians to help one another in any way that they could.
Almost a year ago, when Sermo started to consider the features, services, and products that our community would find valuable, a Jobs Board quickly became a topic of great discussion. It has always been clear that a large physician community could benefit from a very powerful "network effect" if all physicians could use the medium for their collective interest. Then members of this community repeatedly posted jobs and contacted me about their strong interest in a jobs board. Then our Chief Medical Officer started talking about this in terms of a return to professional courtesy and it hit me. This community wants to cut out the third parties. Physicians want to connect to one another, network, discuss, and ideally resurrect the professional courtesy that was once so central to our profession. Sermo could do that As we researched the concept of a jobs board, the community was very consistent in the feedback:
• Demand for physicians is soaring, especially of late. The necessity to resort to recruiters is becoming all the more common.
• Physicians are frustrated by the intrinsic conflicts of interest that third parties (recruiters, head hunters, etc.) bring to the recruiting process.
• With so many financial pressures on physicians, the 10-33% of starting salary paid out to recruiters is increasingly unbearable.
• There is no single resource where physicians can present and discuss employment opportunities to and with one another.
Sermo Jobs is a free resource to all active physician members of the community and will not be accessible to any for-profit third parties. I can, however, foresee a model where physician employers such as hospitals, IPAs, and institutions could eventually participate, perhaps in a way similar to our client postings.
Job postings will benefit from the same community moderation and discussion that have made Sermo so successful. Should the author choose to engage in commentary around their posted job, they will not be identified as the author but their real Sermo user name will appear. This system allows the individual physician to independently choose if they would like to reveal their Sermo user name.
Sermo encourages the philosophy of physician professional courtesy and shared benefit between the job poster and applicant. It is our hope that when a candidate accepts a job position the two parties will share any financial resource that would have been spent as a recruiting fee thus keeping more money in the pockets of hard working physicians.
Daniel Palestrant, MD
Founder & CEO
Sermo, Inc
Quote End.
Thank you, Dr. Palestrant and thank you Sermo Team, for this great opportunity to pass on jobs directly from physician to physician. This is exactly what I wished for and predicted in the age of the Internet. No middlemen, no third parties that distract more than they help. Direct contact from physician / employer to physician.
Professional courtesy. Now we are talking!
Here is one more reason to love Sermo: Recently they have started a job board - FOR FREE. And it will stay free. So, this is my new favorite in the physician job market. Please take look at Sermo.com, and if you are a physician, register for free and and look around. Go to the posts in your specialty, go to the "general interest section" and go to the job board.
The Founder and CEO introduced the job board with the below quoted post in Sermo. And, not to my surprise, I found that my opinions on the physician job market and in particular on physician recruiters are widely shared by my fellow physicians!
Quote start:
From the Founder: Return to Professional Courtesy - SermoJobs
Being the son of a physician I remember very vividly the role of professional courtesy. While I was always blessed with access to incredible physicians, dentists, and orthodontists, I can recall several occasions where professional courtesy became a topic of great discussion between my parents. To my father, and ultimately myself, it represented something much more meaningful; the willingness and desire of physicians to help one another in any way that they could.
Almost a year ago, when Sermo started to consider the features, services, and products that our community would find valuable, a Jobs Board quickly became a topic of great discussion. It has always been clear that a large physician community could benefit from a very powerful "network effect" if all physicians could use the medium for their collective interest. Then members of this community repeatedly posted jobs and contacted me about their strong interest in a jobs board. Then our Chief Medical Officer started talking about this in terms of a return to professional courtesy and it hit me. This community wants to cut out the third parties. Physicians want to connect to one another, network, discuss, and ideally resurrect the professional courtesy that was once so central to our profession. Sermo could do that As we researched the concept of a jobs board, the community was very consistent in the feedback:
• Demand for physicians is soaring, especially of late. The necessity to resort to recruiters is becoming all the more common.
• Physicians are frustrated by the intrinsic conflicts of interest that third parties (recruiters, head hunters, etc.) bring to the recruiting process.
• With so many financial pressures on physicians, the 10-33% of starting salary paid out to recruiters is increasingly unbearable.
• There is no single resource where physicians can present and discuss employment opportunities to and with one another.
Sermo Jobs is a free resource to all active physician members of the community and will not be accessible to any for-profit third parties. I can, however, foresee a model where physician employers such as hospitals, IPAs, and institutions could eventually participate, perhaps in a way similar to our client postings.
Job postings will benefit from the same community moderation and discussion that have made Sermo so successful. Should the author choose to engage in commentary around their posted job, they will not be identified as the author but their real Sermo user name will appear. This system allows the individual physician to independently choose if they would like to reveal their Sermo user name.
Sermo encourages the philosophy of physician professional courtesy and shared benefit between the job poster and applicant. It is our hope that when a candidate accepts a job position the two parties will share any financial resource that would have been spent as a recruiting fee thus keeping more money in the pockets of hard working physicians.
Daniel Palestrant, MD
Founder & CEO
Sermo, Inc
Quote End.
Thank you, Dr. Palestrant and thank you Sermo Team, for this great opportunity to pass on jobs directly from physician to physician. This is exactly what I wished for and predicted in the age of the Internet. No middlemen, no third parties that distract more than they help. Direct contact from physician / employer to physician.
Professional courtesy. Now we are talking!
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Another grrrreat recruiter email! Have fun
Hello Dr.
We have many new and Great opportunities available in ALL STATES which include, $alary increase, sign on bonus, relocation packages. Locums and Perm National Positions Available!!! Open ended Assignments!!! Great rates $$$ All expenses are covered including lodging, mileage, and malpractice for Locums. VERY FLEXIBLE HOURS!!! GREAT FOR THE FAMILY!!! Must have a State license for Locums and Client will wait for Perm. Recent grads are welcomed. Excellent support staff and coverage. Possibility to covert to a permanent position. Low Stress Environment!!! All Submissions are strictly confidential.
Thank You,
Besides the very personal approach so familiar from too many recruiter emails "Dear Dr.", this recruiter apparently had help from his children armed with their new crayons! And I love the specific details! Are all his jobs so great? I guess so...I suspect he put all the superlatives from many many ads in a blender and out came....It was very, very hard to resist calling him!
What else can you say if you receive such a customized personal message? You truly believe that he is "going to customize a search for you".
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Physician Recruiters and Divine Justice
Deceased physician recruiters realize to their great dismay that they are stuck in hell! Why?
They were told "heaven is oversaturated", so they chose a place with "easy access to heaven".
They were told "heaven is oversaturated", so they chose a place with "easy access to heaven".
Saturday, January 26, 2008
A Physician's View of Job Search
A colleague of mine wrote this comprehensive piece on job search, short and to the point. Wise. True. You will see why physicians always will give you more and better information than any recruiter.
The best jobs are with:
1. People you know
2. People recommended by the people you know
3. People who know the same people you know (listen carefully to the people you know)
You have to know what YOU want first:
academic versus private versus mixed
solo, small group, big group, employee of a large concern
small town versus metropolis
Coasts versus center
North versus south
Once you decide on the above, you have to do the market research. Get a directory from your society, count the number of society members in each state (this takes some time). Then take go to US census site and take population in that state for your target population (Pediatrics, young adults, middle aged, Medicare). Then figure out practitioners/100k target population. The places that have the lowest number are the places where you will likely do best in solo or small group practice. The places that have the higher numbers generally are the more desirable places to live, and you should consider joining a group. Another good resource is the Dartmouth survey of medicine which has a listing of specialists/population for almost every burg in the city. For example, in White Plains, NY, if you hit a pedestrian, you just hit a doctor. Also, do this for the major referring specialties for your practice - you need feeder fish.
So, if you are a shark, you need to know where the feeder fish are, and if there are already a bunch of sharks there.
Watch for signup bonuses - contract may say it is a "zero interest loan", or part of your buy-in, or other nonsense.
Watch for dictators - they are the majority partners and have the practice of burning through young people to keep costs low. Don't be a slave.
Get a handle on what is the MGMA average for your intended practice situation - your department should provide you with this. Negotiate starting above the mean.
Don't get enamored of the metropolis - you'll probably never afford housing. Better is if you work in a friendly, but out of the way place (much more doctor friendly) - then you can buy a pied-a-terre in San Francisco, Manhattan, or Aspen, or all three, if you invest in carwashes, gas stations, or become a slum lord in your small town.
If your spouse can't go where you must go, it's easier to divorce at your stage than at later when your net worth is higher (not from personal experience, but from watching a lot of car crashes).
Also, consider this: if you can find one or two other people to form a practice and commit to a three year business plan, and find a hospital willing to finance you (joint venture), you can start your own practice from scratch and make your own rules. You'll be hungry to start, but you won't beholden to a dictator and can become one yourself! (don't). If you find a partner, and you see an ad for more than one of your positions in Montana, go and stick up that hospital in Montana. If you don't have a partner going there with you, tell the hospital that you'll do the work of two and that you'll hire your own partner, and have them give you that other position's salary for all that extra work you're promising.
Actually, if you want to make money, go into hedge funds. You have no business in medicine.
In your specialty, you have billable services tied to revenue generating activities. Take the 10 most common activities and figure out ~how long it takes and ~how much it reimburses. From this, order these in terms of revenue density (reimbursement/average time). The priority from a purely financial viewpoint is to maximize the revenue dense items and minimize the revenue diffuse items. Things like GETTING TO KNOW YOUR PATIENT is probably why you went into medicine and is not billable, but necessary to generate the revenue dense items.
Rounding on inpatients and hanging out at the hospital and volunteering for committees are also revenue negative. In your figures, then budget a workweek and figure out how you wish to spend your time. For all the revenue negative or less dense times, figure out the opportunity cost compared to what would happen if all you did was the revenue densest activity. The difference between the balanced scheme and the fully revenue dense scheme is the money space that you should negotiate under.
You can then structure a business plan that includes using residents, physician extenders, and MLP's (slaves, slaves, and sharecroppers) to soak up some of the revenue less dense and negative activities and let you spend more time doing the revenue dense activities. Better yet, get the hospital to pay for these functionaries so that you are set free to sit in a windowless room and read EMG's day and night or whatever revenue densest activity it is you have.
Grim, but the hospitals and more knowledgeable practices crunch these numbers, and so should you. Radiology - pure revenue, no wasted motion of the jaw or ask me what - just neurons firing - is the extreme example. But again, money is not why you went into medicine, so let's step away a bit and get real and budget your ideal week of work. You have to know what it is that will keep you running on that wheel and how much it is worth.
If you find that the chairman - recommended jobs are not exactly what you want, you then have the recruiting industry. As long as you are mobile and not wed to absolutely having a metropolis with a Chinatown, and you realize that first jobs are like first wives, the recruiters are not so bad if you know what they're good for.
Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match! Typically, a practice makes a contract with a recruiter on contingency of a hire - typically this fee runs about $15-20k. If they hire you without a recruiter, the practice keeps that $15k - which is good negotiating room. Recruiters are then like a real estate agent and use their own ad language. But if you must, you should USE them. If you are a good candidate, their relationship just became worthwhile - to the tune of 15k. That's like a $300,000 house.
Don't be an easy mark. Let them know you are looking at other positions with other recruiters. Get them to pitch more than one position at you. That way, you can ask compare and contrast questions. They are your job-finding assistants and make them earn their keep. Get data - how many hip replacements at that hospital? How much trauma? How many orthopods? How many primary care physicians? Who else is practicing in your field there? The good recruiters will have this info.
Find out specific locations and do your homework. The web makes it very easy. Is that Lexus dealership in another state? Are there more WalMarts than Targets in that town? Is Applebee's haute cuisine in that burg? Get staff lists of that hospital and figure out where people trained and where they are from.
Check out the real estate in that town - you can get a baronial estate in North Dakota for what you pay for a studio in Manhattan. Know the school system if you have lil'uns. Is the place on Craigs list (or in really nowhere)? If so, what are these people buying and selling from each other? Woodcarvings of bears or antique Shaker dressers? Crossbows and used computers from the 90's or timeshares in Cozumel and slightly used Espresso machines? Unspeakable acts with fat strangers or skinny ones? Check out the symphony if they tout one - does it thrive (count number of different shows, less than 4 and you recognize all of the pieces and this is a symphony in trouble). Check out the Broadway shows they tout and see what the locals like (Mamma Mia or the Rockettes Christmas Extravaganzapalooza). Count the number of Starbucks, and you get a general count of New York City blocks this town is equivalent to.
At interview, look at the people you'll be working with. You'll spend most of your time with them rather than the people and activities that you love. Check out their teeth. Do they have a singing fish on the wall? Who is going to drive you crazy?
Negotiating - get a number and tell them you'll get back to them. Collect at least two offers.
Have a medical contract lawyer review - costs between 300-1000 bucks and is worth every penny if you have a good one. Make sure your malpractice is covered, including your tail and your next tail (cost of leaving - is it impossibly high?).
And finally, unless you're married to a woman (and then she decides), you decide by going eeniee meenie miney moe, and go with the place that gives you the most peace of mind.
The best jobs are with:
1. People you know
2. People recommended by the people you know
3. People who know the same people you know (listen carefully to the people you know)
You have to know what YOU want first:
academic versus private versus mixed
solo, small group, big group, employee of a large concern
small town versus metropolis
Coasts versus center
North versus south
Once you decide on the above, you have to do the market research. Get a directory from your society, count the number of society members in each state (this takes some time). Then take go to US census site and take population in that state for your target population (Pediatrics, young adults, middle aged, Medicare). Then figure out practitioners/100k target population. The places that have the lowest number are the places where you will likely do best in solo or small group practice. The places that have the higher numbers generally are the more desirable places to live, and you should consider joining a group. Another good resource is the Dartmouth survey of medicine which has a listing of specialists/population for almost every burg in the city. For example, in White Plains, NY, if you hit a pedestrian, you just hit a doctor. Also, do this for the major referring specialties for your practice - you need feeder fish.
So, if you are a shark, you need to know where the feeder fish are, and if there are already a bunch of sharks there.
Watch for signup bonuses - contract may say it is a "zero interest loan", or part of your buy-in, or other nonsense.
Watch for dictators - they are the majority partners and have the practice of burning through young people to keep costs low. Don't be a slave.
Get a handle on what is the MGMA average for your intended practice situation - your department should provide you with this. Negotiate starting above the mean.
Don't get enamored of the metropolis - you'll probably never afford housing. Better is if you work in a friendly, but out of the way place (much more doctor friendly) - then you can buy a pied-a-terre in San Francisco, Manhattan, or Aspen, or all three, if you invest in carwashes, gas stations, or become a slum lord in your small town.
If your spouse can't go where you must go, it's easier to divorce at your stage than at later when your net worth is higher (not from personal experience, but from watching a lot of car crashes).
Also, consider this: if you can find one or two other people to form a practice and commit to a three year business plan, and find a hospital willing to finance you (joint venture), you can start your own practice from scratch and make your own rules. You'll be hungry to start, but you won't beholden to a dictator and can become one yourself! (don't). If you find a partner, and you see an ad for more than one of your positions in Montana, go and stick up that hospital in Montana. If you don't have a partner going there with you, tell the hospital that you'll do the work of two and that you'll hire your own partner, and have them give you that other position's salary for all that extra work you're promising.
Actually, if you want to make money, go into hedge funds. You have no business in medicine.
In your specialty, you have billable services tied to revenue generating activities. Take the 10 most common activities and figure out ~how long it takes and ~how much it reimburses. From this, order these in terms of revenue density (reimbursement/average time). The priority from a purely financial viewpoint is to maximize the revenue dense items and minimize the revenue diffuse items. Things like GETTING TO KNOW YOUR PATIENT is probably why you went into medicine and is not billable, but necessary to generate the revenue dense items.
Rounding on inpatients and hanging out at the hospital and volunteering for committees are also revenue negative. In your figures, then budget a workweek and figure out how you wish to spend your time. For all the revenue negative or less dense times, figure out the opportunity cost compared to what would happen if all you did was the revenue densest activity. The difference between the balanced scheme and the fully revenue dense scheme is the money space that you should negotiate under.
You can then structure a business plan that includes using residents, physician extenders, and MLP's (slaves, slaves, and sharecroppers) to soak up some of the revenue less dense and negative activities and let you spend more time doing the revenue dense activities. Better yet, get the hospital to pay for these functionaries so that you are set free to sit in a windowless room and read EMG's day and night or whatever revenue densest activity it is you have.
Grim, but the hospitals and more knowledgeable practices crunch these numbers, and so should you. Radiology - pure revenue, no wasted motion of the jaw or ask me what - just neurons firing - is the extreme example. But again, money is not why you went into medicine, so let's step away a bit and get real and budget your ideal week of work. You have to know what it is that will keep you running on that wheel and how much it is worth.
If you find that the chairman - recommended jobs are not exactly what you want, you then have the recruiting industry. As long as you are mobile and not wed to absolutely having a metropolis with a Chinatown, and you realize that first jobs are like first wives, the recruiters are not so bad if you know what they're good for.
Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match! Typically, a practice makes a contract with a recruiter on contingency of a hire - typically this fee runs about $15-20k. If they hire you without a recruiter, the practice keeps that $15k - which is good negotiating room. Recruiters are then like a real estate agent and use their own ad language. But if you must, you should USE them. If you are a good candidate, their relationship just became worthwhile - to the tune of 15k. That's like a $300,000 house.
Don't be an easy mark. Let them know you are looking at other positions with other recruiters. Get them to pitch more than one position at you. That way, you can ask compare and contrast questions. They are your job-finding assistants and make them earn their keep. Get data - how many hip replacements at that hospital? How much trauma? How many orthopods? How many primary care physicians? Who else is practicing in your field there? The good recruiters will have this info.
Find out specific locations and do your homework. The web makes it very easy. Is that Lexus dealership in another state? Are there more WalMarts than Targets in that town? Is Applebee's haute cuisine in that burg? Get staff lists of that hospital and figure out where people trained and where they are from.
Check out the real estate in that town - you can get a baronial estate in North Dakota for what you pay for a studio in Manhattan. Know the school system if you have lil'uns. Is the place on Craigs list (or in really nowhere)? If so, what are these people buying and selling from each other? Woodcarvings of bears or antique Shaker dressers? Crossbows and used computers from the 90's or timeshares in Cozumel and slightly used Espresso machines? Unspeakable acts with fat strangers or skinny ones? Check out the symphony if they tout one - does it thrive (count number of different shows, less than 4 and you recognize all of the pieces and this is a symphony in trouble). Check out the Broadway shows they tout and see what the locals like (Mamma Mia or the Rockettes Christmas Extravaganzapalooza). Count the number of Starbucks, and you get a general count of New York City blocks this town is equivalent to.
At interview, look at the people you'll be working with. You'll spend most of your time with them rather than the people and activities that you love. Check out their teeth. Do they have a singing fish on the wall? Who is going to drive you crazy?
Negotiating - get a number and tell them you'll get back to them. Collect at least two offers.
Have a medical contract lawyer review - costs between 300-1000 bucks and is worth every penny if you have a good one. Make sure your malpractice is covered, including your tail and your next tail (cost of leaving - is it impossibly high?).
And finally, unless you're married to a woman (and then she decides), you decide by going eeniee meenie miney moe, and go with the place that gives you the most peace of mind.
Friday, January 25, 2008
More "Recruiter Speak"
Another contribution to understanding what recruiter ads really mean...
"family-oriented community" = everyone in town is related.
(If I divorce my wife, is she still my sister?)
"good hunting and fishing" = moose population greater than human population.
"little managed care penetration" = Medicare/Medicaid heavy
"beautiful region" = isolated
"salary guarantee" = loan
"many recreational opportunities" = small town
"$400K income potential" = on call 24/7 without help.
Send me your translation tips!
"family-oriented community" = everyone in town is related.
(If I divorce my wife, is she still my sister?)
"good hunting and fishing" = moose population greater than human population.
"little managed care penetration" = Medicare/Medicaid heavy
"beautiful region" = isolated
"salary guarantee" = loan
"many recreational opportunities" = small town
"$400K income potential" = on call 24/7 without help.
Send me your translation tips!
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