Four Essential Career Search Tactics for Medical Residents

Your medical residency experience has provided you with a wide range of skills and knowledge. You have earned the leverage that comes with becoming an expert in your field. However, there are a set of vital skills that you will need to effectively use in the very near future if you want to find a position that fits you well. There are four essential career search tactics for medical residents:

1. Leverage the resources available to you
It is common for second and third year residents to become singularly focused on their daily duties, and justifiably so. When possible, you should take the opportunity to pass some of the time-consuming tasks related to a post-residency job search on to the resources your school, medical center, or associated organizations. Look to the associations and groups that specialize in your discipline. These groups have job boards that only include positions that fit your specialization and also can be essential networking environments.

2. Learn the Market (In-Hospital vs. Private Practice)
For medical residents, there are two main avenues for entry into the job market: via a private practice or via an in-hospital position. You may find it interesting that electing an in-hospital position may set you apart from your competition.  According to a 2014 survey conducted by Merritt Hawkins, only 36% of third year residents chose “Hospital Employee” as the practice setting they would be most open to. The trend over the past decades has been for physicians to prefer small, privately run clinics. While there are many market forces that affecting this trend, being open to a, hospital setting may give you more options in the long run. Learn how a physician’s rights and duties differ between a hospital position and a private practice (partnership, solo, multi-specialty, single-specialty, out-patient clinic). 

3. Narrow your Geographic Focus
It is important to determine early on in your search to clearly define the geographic location in which you want to practice, then take the time research hospitals and practices in that location. It is wasteful to spend any effort on finding hospitals or practices that match your profession aspirations but do not have a presence in the geographic location you are limited to. In the early stages of your research, you will also want to determine whether a large metropolitan area or a rural setting. By honestly, systematically defining your criteria, it will help narrow your geographic options.

4. Contact hospital recruiters directly
One advantageous career search tactics for Medical Residents is to leverage in-hospital recruiters. A hospital operates on a much larger scale than a small, private practice and will have a Human Resources division committed exclusively to recruiting talented physicians. The hospital recruiter can be an extremely helpful ally, especially in large network of hospital and clinics, and you can often learn of new openings at that hospital before they are made public. A hospital recruiter may have information about ongoing, large scale research projects (more likely at University teaching hospitals or medical centers). The research project may not yet be completed and therefore not yet publicized or otherwise made public. 

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Elliot Health System is interested is interested in physicians who want to be a part of a healthcare organization focused on quality and work-life balance. Find out what EHS has to offer you today.