Looking for a new job can be a nerve-rattling experience for anyone, no matter what your profession is or what industry you work in. But when you’re a highly-skilled physician, finding a job might actually be easier than you think.
As a physician, you have a specific set of skills that are highly needed within the healthcare industry today. And with the COVID-19 pandemic still affecting life in just about every possible way here in the United States and putting strain on the healthcare system, your skills are in high demand.
But looking for a new job as a physician also includes using a few tools that might be able to help speed along the process. Also, you need a good GAMSAT score to study medicine.
If you’re leaving the public sector and hoping to land a job in the private sector, or if you’re just exploring your options, the following will provide some helpful advice.
Update Your Resume
If you’ve worked in the same clinic or hospital for many years, chances are you haven’t updated or revised your resume in quite a long time. And if you expect to catch the eye of a recruiter or hiring manager, your resume is going to be the key to landing the right job.
A resume should only be specifically tailored to the job you’re seeking. As such, removing any unrelated content, such as a long-winded explanation of how you struggled through medical school and only ate Ramen noodles every night. Though this may tug on a few heartstrings, it isn’t going to land you a job.
Additionally, revise your resume and add it to online resources such as physician associations and other related directories. This will give you greater visibility when you begin your job search, and you may find that recruiters are reaching out to you before too long.
Search Niche-Specific Job Postings
If you want to weed out all of the random jobs that you have to sift through on sites like Indeed, you’ll want to focus on niche specific healthcare jobs or physician job postings. These sites will give you only the jobs that you’ll be interested in pursuing.
When you search healthcare and physician’s job boards, you’re likely to find exactly what you’re looking for in the quickest amount of time. And a few of these job postings might be as follows:
- Family medicine
- Hematology
- Oncology
- Gastroenterology
- Pulmonology
- Pediatrics
By narrowing your search to the fields that you’re interested in and using only keywords that correspond to your expertise, you’ll be able to shorten your search and come up with much more suitable results.
Consider Cold-Calling
Maybe you just can’t find anything to pique your interest on job boards or anywhere you’ve looked. If this is the case, consider putting yourself out there and making a few calls to hospitals or clinics that you feel would be a perfect fit for you.
Many places might be in need of physicians, but perhaps you’re not seeing their job boards, or they haven’t begun advertising. As such, there’s nothing wrong with making a few calls to the management staff of an HR department to see if there are positions available.
When cold calling, look for places that you’d like to see yourself working. Maybe these are businesses that encourage innovation, or perhaps they have ideal hours that you’d prefer to work. Whatever your motivation is, leaving your name and contact information shows your interest and it never hurts to reach out.
Do Your Homework
When you set out to find a new place of employment, you really need to do your homework to find out as much as possible about where you’re considering working. And thankfully, you have a few strategies for doing this.
For example, chances are that you’ve been able to establish connections with colleagues in different fields, or at different hospitals or clinics. If this is the case, you should reach out to your connections and see if you can learn anything about a prospective employer that you might consider working for.
The more you know about the place that you’d like to work, the better prepared you’ll be for any interviews or onboarding processes that may be in place.
As a physician, you have plenty of options to consider. And even though transitioning to a new place as a career move might be an overwhelming process for anyone, with a little planning and a sound strategy, you’ll be able to simplify the transition and enjoy the job search.