On "A Physician On.."

Last night, I discovered a blog that I have not seen before called “A Physician on Job Search and Practice: What I Wish I Had Known as a Resident”. This is a well written and active blog with a heavy emphasis on searching for practice opportunities as well as other general thoughts and advice about your career and managing a medical practice.

As the Physician recruiter blog grows, our readers will grow an understanding that I feel it’s important to represent and look at issues from multiple angles. One thing that I appreciate about the “A Physician On…” blog is that it’s written from the perspective of a physician who has been though job searches using various tools, including 3rd party recruiters as well as a hiring authority who has recruited physicians. While the goal of each “recruiting process” is to create a win-win, the truth of the matter is that the hiring authority and the candidates are, in many ways, on opposite sides and clearly have different motivations and biases. While win-win situations do occur, often one or both parties is settling in some way, be it money, duties, location, experience or whatever. Throw in a 3rd party recruiter and there are even more variables.

As someone who has been through the recruiting process multiple times as a candidate, someone who has hired a lot of candidates by my own efforts, using 3rd party recruiters and using job boards, someone who has worked as a 3rd party recruiter and, now, as someone involved with specialty recruiting publications and job boards, I feel “A Physician On..” does a fairly reasonable job of capturing the reality of job search/recruitment. That said, I feel 3rd party recruiters are greatly over-vilified, as only the most extreme and negative examples and perceptions of recruiters are represented there.

I was able to read the majority of the entries from the last few months and, while I found plenty that I disagree with to varying degrees, there was a lot that I think is right on. At it’s worst it is an extremely thought provoking read and, at it’s best, up to this point, it is the most worthwhile blog I’ve seen on the subject of physician recruitment. “A Physician On..” is a place that I will be visiting regularly and one that I would recommend to anyone, physician or recruiter, involved in the process.

-WJ 8/9/07