How do recruiters work?

[ChildPsychiatrist]

How do recruiters work? How do they get paid? What is their motivation? Should we work with them? What is your opinion? Any experience with recruiters?

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[Merovinge]

How do recruiters work? How do they get paid? What is their motivation? Should we work with them? What is your opinion? Any experience with recruiters?

They work by getting lists of job openings from companies looking to hire physicans (often less desirable jobs) and working their very best to sell those jobs to physicians (in my experience by using lack of information to get you invested). Their motivation is huge sums of money if they connect a physician ranging from several thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. Bounties, I mean commissions, are generally based on the difficulty of attracting a physician and the starting wage; that is finding a neurosurgeon to come to podunk Alabama can net huge sums of money for a recruiter.

I recently worked with a recruiter to try and find moonlighting work and have had a pretty negative experience. They initially offered me a 20 hour/week part time gig and when I asked to instead convert it into an hourly moonlight contract they actually lowered the $/hour and got rid of the signing bonus and benefits. The recruiter seemed shocked that I was appalled by this change in contract. Their only priority is to get you to sign and you must realize this when interacting with them.

By mindful that the roughly 10k a recruiter is getting to land a psychiatrist is coming from somewhere. As such I am doing everything possible to avoid working with them when searching full-time employment as I believe it gives me more negotiating flexibility.

As an aside, internal physician recruiters are different. They are basically just an extensive of human resources that specializes in working with docs and many places will require you speak with them. They tend to have no skin in the game and have been pretty helpful, although I imagine some part of them still wants you to sign with the company signing their paycheck.

 

[SmallBird]

They work by getting lists of job openings from companies looking to hire physicans (often less desirable jobs) and working their very best to sell those jobs to physicians (in my experience by using lack of information to get you invested). Their motivation is huge sums of money if they connect a physician ranging from several thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. Bounties, I mean commissions, are generally based on the difficulty of attracting a physician and the starting wage; that is finding a neurosurgeon to come to podunk Alabama can net huge sums of money for a recruiter.

I recently worked with a recruiter to try and find moonlighting work and have had a pretty negative experience. They initially offered me a 20 hour/week part time gig and when I asked to instead convert it into an hourly moonlight contract they actually lowered the $/hour and got rid of the signing bonus and benefits. The recruiter seemed shocked that I was appalled by this change in contract. Their only priority is to get you to sign and you must realize this when interacting with them.

By mindful that the roughly 10k a recruiter is getting to land a psychiatrist is coming from somewhere. As such I am doing everything possible to avoid working with them when searching full-time employment as I believe it gives me more negotiating flexibility.

As an aside, internal physician recruiters are different. They are basically just an extensive of human resources that specializes in working with docs and many places will require you speak with them. They tend to have no skin in the game and have been pretty helpful, although I imagine some part of them still wants you to sign with the company signing their paycheck.

My experience with recruiters was also very negative. They completely ignored my indicated preferences, and then tried to convince me what I wanted was unrealistic, and instead offered me interviews at places I had no interest in moving to!

 

[TexasPhysician]

Think of outside recruiters as salesmen with high commissions. The jobs are usually not desirable, but if you are highly flexible then the pay can be nice.

 

[ChildPsychiatrist]

I'm frustrated because none of the jobs I've been seeing really fit the bill that well, although I guess I won't find something "perfect". I recently was told by a recruiter about an opening I was very excited about, and was even about to send her my resume, only to call the hospital system directly and speak with the medical director and find out that that position was taken. Sigh. How is everyone's job search going? I'm beginning to think I'll be jobless come July...

 

[TexasPhysician]

It is still quite early. Most jobs require giving only a few months notice, so new openings happen all of the time. Also, many of the best jobs are found while networking and are not ever posted.

 

[sazerac]

It has been my experience with both inter- and intra-company recruiters that they all work for the job offerer and NOT the job seeker. Probably because that is the relationship they want to maintain long term.

 

[Jules A]

It has been my experience with both inter- and intra-company recruiters that they all work for the job offerer and NOT the job seeker. Probably because that is the relationship they want to maintain long term.

And that is who is compensating them.

 

[milesed]

It really depends on the person assigned to fill the opening. You have to view them like any others type of sales person. They are there to sell you on a job and only get paid if you sign a contract to work for the employer. I am currently in a job filled through Merritt Hawkins years ago. My dealings with them were great.

We are currently dealing with a lot of firms as we attempt to fill ARNP positions and get mixed results. The less scrupulous reps just outright lie to us and to candidates, call constantly and don't pass along the basic job info to candidates as requested. I've spent an hour on phone interviews twice now to find out that the candidate wanted something COMPLETELY different from what we are offering. As the medical director, I now won't set up anything until the candidate has received and reviewed our packet of info first.

 

[Mapplicant]

Have had several calls and the constant daily email spam from recruiters. Had 1 Washington number calling me several times a day and finally picked to see who it is...and was a recruiter. Felt kinda bad....she probably had quotas to meet in terms of calls and actual human to human convos.

Tentatively I'm looking at Denver for 2 years. An alumni apparently visited our program last week and was talking about getting a partner for his solo-practice. Apparently he runs his own office as well as rounding on several nursing homes and other residential-like facilities in the area. Works 60hrs/wk and supposedly raking in some big bucks.