How do you find a job after residency?

[BigBoss]

How exactly does this process work? Do you apply on job sites, do recruiters contact you, or do you contact the hospital yourself? A little insight from experienced residents and/or attending physicians would be helpful.

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[VA Hopeful Dr]

How exactly does this process work? Do you apply on job sites, do recruiters contact you, or do you contact the hospital yourself? A little insight from experienced residents and/or attending physicians would be helpful.

All of the above?

Part of it depends on your specialty and how in demand it is.

 

[OrthoTraumaMD]

Job recruiters, ads in journals, word of mouth, friends. Mine was a combo of personal connections from residency and fellowship.


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[WingedOx]

Mine was a combo of personal connections from residency and fellowship.

same.

 

[scootad.]

Many specialties have online job listings.

 

[jdh71]

Just cold call places you are interested in.

 

[Mass Effect]

When you're in residency, you will be recruited like you wouldn't believe (I guess it might depend on specialty?). Recruiters email me daily, probably about 10 emails a day are from recruiters. They call me, they text me, everything. I don't even know how they got my number. I had to block multiple companies for this reason and I still get a call every couple of weeks or so. They know nothing about me, don't have my CV, all they know is my specialty and that I have my license. Aside from that, it's connections. If you want to stay at the place you did residency, you will likely be hired unless you were a problem resident. If you want other opportunities, you just cold call or meet people through others you already know.

 

[oneiroi]

How exactly does this process work? Do you apply on job sites, do recruiters contact you, or do you contact the hospital yourself? A little insight from experienced residents and/or attending physicians would be helpful.

A little of everything you said, plus the poster above who said recruiters will constantly reach out to you. There's also informational dinners, events, and so on. The best part is it feels like the ball is in your court finally (obviously specialty dependent).

 

[SurfingDoctor]

If you've made connections, networking is the best way. Nothing like having someone else who knows somebody a call a place you want to go and say "Hey friend. How are you doing?! How's the family?! By the way, I know someone and you would be stupid not to hire them".

 

[mimelim]

As others have said, combination of all the above. But, this depends entirely on where you are going to residency and what specialty.

Most places flew my wife and I out to interview without much other than my chairman saying, "look at him." Many had planned hospital interviews in the morning and then someone to take us around the locale to see whatever we wanted. Schools, outdoors stuff, housing, etc. The place that I trained at wanted me to stay and got me setup pretty nicely which gave me a really good job to compare everything else to.

 

[scootad.]

General rules likely applicable across all specialties...

The best jobs are not advertised. Use all your connections first. Then, google practices in your preferred geography, make a list, and cold call. Then, use job listings. Recruiters are a last resort.

 

[getdown]

Use your connections (attendings, more senior residents now in practice, etc). Those are the jobs you want, not the **** they post online cause that usually means nobody wants that position (**** location, **** pay, **** co-workers, **** benefits).

And try avoiding recruiters. They'll keep hassling you long after you've found a job since your name is in their database for perpetuity.

 

[Tenk]

When I was in residency I told every recruiter I met I wanted a job at X location. I told them I didn’t care about anything else, just X. I said find me X and I will take it. That tactic actually paid off because a random recruiter who wanted me to go to a place originally half way across the United States from X called me my third year of residency with a job at X where I currently work.

Recruiters are just tools who want to get paid. Make them work for you not the other way around.