Appropriate time to inquire about salary

[osprey099]

Couple of questions:

1. When should I inquire about salary when looking for private practice groups? On the initial recruiter call? On the first telephone/zoom interview? Or wait till the in-person site interview?

2. How long does it take on average for a practice to interview you after they've expressed interest? There are a couple of practices that reached out to me saying they reviewed my CV and would like to interview me, asking for availabilities. I gave my availabilities but it's been over a week and still no response from the practice. I assume they are just trying to find a time that all the docs are available since I imagine they're busy seeing patients. However, when should I reach out to them and re-express my interest in their practice or should I just wait for their response first?

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[bobsmith]

I think it's fine to ask during the initial recruiter call - they should be able to at least give you a range

Time to response really varied for me - the place I ended up working at just happened to have a very responsive recruiter who constantly kept me updated; other places did take longer and I did have to send a message to follow-up for 1-2 practices.

If you need to know sooner for any reason (scheduling, travel coordination, etc), I think it's fine to check in and let them know your situation. For example, I emailed one group saying I was going to be traveling in the area during a certain time period and that it would be great to know so that I could arrange travel plans and it did help them coordinate a bit.

 

[gutonc]

The recruiter should have at least a vague idea about the salary range. Ask them. Once you've gotten past the Zoomerview and been to the first in-person interview, and you're interested, reach out to the recruiter or the medical director/admin person you've been connected with, and get more deets on the comp plan.

When I was recruiting as the medical director, I would happily answer this question at any time. But if it's your first response to "what questions can I answer for you?" at the conclusion of our initial interview is how much you're going to get paid, I'm going to view you skeptically.

As for response time, it is widely variable. A week is nothing. A month (with no response) is too long. Anywhere in the middle there is fine. It's also totally OK to follow up with them and ask if they have an idea of when it will be.

Again, as the recruiting person, I want to get you in ASAP, but I also need to make sure that the key players are available, AND I need my admin coordinator to be available to set it all up. My admin coordinator was fantastic, my docs weren't great at getting back to her and she also got to take time off.

I'm currently on the other side of this and struggling with some of the same questions. But having been on the hiring side, I have a lot more insight and patience for what's up on the other side of the equation.

 

[dozitgetchahi]

The recruiter should have at least a vague idea about the salary range. Ask them. Once you've gotten past the Zoomerview and been to the first in-person interview, and you're interested, reach out to the recruiter or the medical director/admin person you've been connected with, and get more deets on the comp plan.

When I was recruiting as the medical director, I would happily answer this question at any time. But if it's your first response to "what questions can I answer for you?" at the conclusion of our initial interview is how much you're going to get paid, I'm going to view you skeptically.

As for response time, it is widely variable. A week is nothing. A month (with no response) is too long. Anywhere in the middle there is fine. It's also totally OK to follow up with them and ask if they have an idea of when it will be.

Again, as the recruiting person, I want to get you in ASAP, but I also need to make sure that the key players are available, AND I need my admin coordinator to be available to set it all up. My admin coordinator was fantastic, my docs weren't great at getting back to her and she also got to take time off.

I'm currently on the other side of this and struggling with some of the same questions. But having been on the hiring side, I have a lot more insight and patience for what's up on the other side of the equation.

After I had several interviews that seemed to go really well but were followed by insultingly bad offers (like ~50% pay cut over what I was currently making), I started asking about compensation much earlier in the process. In my opinion, there is no point in going through all the song and dance of traveling to an interview if the practice has no intention of handing you a competitive offer. In my experience, it’s a red flag if the recruiter won’t even offer up a ballpark number and tries to defer the discussion until you’re there for the interview. Those places that are going to give you a (financially) good deal know it, and usually boast about it early in the recruitment process. Those that won’t will be curiously silent about compensation until after the interview is done.

Also, I find that it’s pretty easy to gauge just how interested a practice is by how well the recruiter keeps in contact with you. In my opinion, the recruiter should be pretty aggressive about channeling you through the process and getting an in person interview date set; weeks-long periods of radio silence are generally a “poor prognostic sign” and in my experience seemed to indicate that the practice either wasn’t very interested or that they had found another candidate that they were moving forward with (I had several practices tell me “sorry, we hired someone else” after long periods of me not hearing anything from them). During my most recent job search, I had a couple of places get really surprised/almost angry with me after they went radio silent for many weeks while I negotiated and signed a very good deal with my current employer. “Wait, someone else signed you?” Yeah, I’m not waiting forever for you guys to get your act together. One place dragged its feet so long that I was just having my in person interview with them after I had already traveled to interview with my current job, had a few rounds of negotiations, and was about to sign the deal. Places that are interested will jump on a candidate they like and want. (Also, most places that will extend good offers seem to want to get the deal done quickly. I’ve never seen a really good offer come in from a practice that was dragging its feet.)