How Doctors Get Recruited and Search for Jobs Is Broken – Here’s How We Fix It

The way doctors search for work is broken. I know from experience. When I first posted my profile on a job board years ago, the volume of inbound from recruiters was overwhelming. The barrage of emails and texts from different recruiters brought me to my knees trying to keep up and organized. As a result, I also had difficulty comparing opportunities to one another. Can’t compare and can’t choose is not a winning formula. As a busy third year resident who started his job search late, I felt I was running in quick sand.

My experience mirrors that of countless other colleagues, friends, and residents who have struggled to find a job. Here are just a few anecdotes I’ve heard: One colleague kept folders of job applications on her desktop at home, not even in the cloud. She had three young kids at home. The number of times she opened her folders was minimal. Another friend of mine was just applying to four jobs at a time because applying to more would overwhelm her bandwidth. Still another colleague lost a great opportunity after missing the recruiter’s email response when he was least expecting it.

The lesson I’ve learned from all of these various examples is that the way doctors search for work is outdated as the pager. Our lives as doctors are busy and complex as it is, and searching for work shouldn’t be this complicated. Furthermore, the current methods we use tend to cede control - just like a car buyer negotiating in the dealer’s office. What I’ve learned from my own experience is that revamping the way we search for jobs can help us reclaim that control.

A major change that I made in my own personal job search came when I borrowed a tool from the world of sales people called Customer Relationship Management (CRM). You can think of a CRM as your command center. It’s a common tool in other industries that allows for a company to manage all of its interactions with prospective and current customers.

In my case, adopting a CRM to help manage my job search has helped me profoundly. I’ve been able to use the tool to:

• Track Applications - Knowing which hospitals, clinics, or organizations I’ve applied to and what stage I’m in.
• Manage Contacts - Keeping a clean record of recruiters, department heads, and professional connections.
• Schedule Follow-Ups - Never missing a chance to reconnect, send a thank-you, or follow up on an interview.
• Spot Patterns - Seeing which roles are gaining traction and refining my strategy accordingly.

Here’s how this system helped me personally: During my final year of residency, I was applying for work as a first-time attending. With the grind of medical training, I was exhausted and short on extra time. But instead of the typical pattern of receiving countless marketing emails from recruiters, I adopted a CRM which was powerful and surprisingly easy. Between studying and tending to patients, I watched as my computer lit up; I used the CRM’s email tracker to see which emails were opened. I watched a hospital recruiter forward my application to others. My application was being shared back and forth for a position I was interested in, in a location I was interested in. It made sense to cultivate this relationship. As my application progressed to interviews and beyond, I never missed emails from stakeholders involved in my hiring: the recruiter, medical director, Chief Medical Officer, hospital lawyer, my lawyer, and human resources. Further, their contacts were at my finger tips and accessible along with any verbal promises made and any research collected online or by conversations that may be used for negotiations.

Because the above process was conducted in parallel with multiple organizations, I received multiple letter of intents (LOI) or offer letters landing around the same time. That’s when I set myself up to create the Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA). To summarize, the CRM tool made a complex process simpler, saved me time, and helped me create BATNA. These three consequences of using a CRM (simplicity, efficiency, and BATNA) were my flywheel of leverage. I used this leverage to negotiate my contract. For good reason compensation and contracts shape your career, guard your time, and influence your financial future. The CRM helped me to achieve this.

Based on my experience, I’ve become convinced that using a CRM can be a game-changer for other physicians. I want to share a few details about how others can get started if you’re curious.

First, you need to change your mindset. Instead of turning over rocks and peeking what’s under, you need to think in terms of building a sales funnel (see image below). This makes sense if you think of yourself as a business selling your physician services to customers (i.e. employers in W2 or locum roles). Seeing the process in this way will help you carry out a series of steps of nurturing and curating relationships with the goal of ultimately signing contracts.

Second, build a simple workflow that will work for you. Ultimately, I realized that finding work is all about managing relationships with a specific purpose. To accomplish this at scale, physicians need a good workflow that maps to the sales funnel pictured above. One workflow that was successful for me is:

-Networking;

-Researching;

-Submitted applications;

-1st Interview;

-2nd Interview;

-Offer Received;

-Discard

Let me explain further: Networking is your top of funnel. It captures everything from conversations to job boards to direct job posts on an organization's website–really anything that passes your minimal filter of interest. Of these, some will be worth looking into. This is your research phase. You will investigate the opportunity and prepare for the next phase, submitting an application. From here, you will move onto more fun phases of interviews and contracts in hand. Verbal promises and relevant comments from current or former employees will be logged. Contact information is up to date and accessible to you. Emails and documents are never missed and follow the opportunity through the above stages. As described in my story above, you are in control and get to choose the best opportunity that matches your objectives and preferences.

Third, remember that hiring organizations are going through a search journey as much as you are. The people tasked with hiring appreciate promptness, open communication, and follow through. The CRM helped me to be a better companion on the journey. For example, even after signing a contract, the CRM helped me stay abreast of the credentialing and on-boarding process, which is easily another three months or more. There were no employment start delays or other issues. A CRM helped me to enter a new organization and new culture with the best impression, staying above the tensions that may come with negotiations and on-boarding.

In conclusion, using a CRM unleashes the power of how you manage relationships. It is a record of all of your interactions with potential employers. In one view, you have access to emails, research notes, phone logs, documents, important contacts and more. A CRM lays information at your fingertips to improve the job search experiences for you and potential employers alike.

On a personal note, a couple years ago, I started a new search for a work arrangement that better fit my goals and lifestyle. Turning on a CRM tool was my first action. I ultimately signed two organizations to work with among multiple offers. In each place, I enjoy where I work, the people I work with, and the patients I work for. The CRM was vital in my search.

So my suggestion is to use a CRM as a single source of truth and to automate processes. Use Offcall’s platform for data transparency. Together you have created leverage and peace of mind.

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Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleemzafar/