Working with Healthcare Recruiters
Finding a new job can be a solitary, almost secretive, affair. It can be tough to explore all the opportunities on your own, though. A healthcare search firm or recruiter can help.
Pam Pohly Associates, a national management consulting firm specializing in healthcare, has some tips on How to Work With Search Firms in Your Job Search.
1. Send your resume to hundreds of search firms whether or not they’re physically located near you.
2. Mail your resume with a cover letter specifying the position you want, where you’d like to work, and what your career goals are. Get the name of someone at the firm instead of sending it generally “To Whom It May Concern.”
3. Follow-up e-mailed or faxed resumes with a snail mail resume and cover letter. E-mail resumes in plain text because attachments are often treated as potentially infected with a virus.
4. Don’t call a recruiter unless s/he calls you first then return the call promptly.
5. When meeting with the recruiter, be honest and ask for advice but also prepare to impress!
6. If you’re offered a position you’re not interested in, don’t waste anyone’s time by not making a decision. Just be honest about why the position doesn’t seem right for you and what you’re looking for.
7. Keep the recruiters up-to-date on your contact info.
8. If a recruiter calls you even when you’re happily employed, call them back and network. You never know when you might need the contact either for yourself or for someone else.
9. After you interview with the employer or have other contact, bring the recruiter up-to-date.
A well-connected recruiter could be a good friend or a formidable enemy (?). Don’t forget to consult them on your job hunt.
Technorati Tags: healthcare, health+care, career, jobs, recruiters, search+firms
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April 3, 2006 @ 7:23 pm...
Is this site subsidized by healthcare “recruiters”? Because this post is distasteful. It should be entitled “What the healthcare slaves should do to keep their recruiters happy”.
Except treating you like sheep (because they get their money from the employers), what the heck are “recruiters” good for, anyway? Distributing your resume indiscriminately, so that every John and Jane knows a lot of really personal stuff about you?
You can deduct one RSS subscriber above. ;)
April 4, 2006 @ 7:40 am...
Anonymous Coward: I’m sorry you feel that way! I’ve had a number of friends get jobs from headhunters/recruiters and a good friend of mine is a headhunter so I don’t believe they are as awful as you say. Perhaps you’ve had a bad experience with a lousy one?
April 4, 2006 @ 12:05 pm...
Anonymous Coward: No, this site/network isn’t subsidised by recruiters at all. It offers completely independent advice from people who have lots of experience in their particular industry.
I totally empathise with you when it comes to recruiters - there are lots of ‘em who do abuse their position to the detriment of the jobseeker, and it’s becoming a problem throughout the UK, the USA, and probably most other countries, too.
The lack of regulation in the industry also causes a problem for people who operate job boards who allow recruiters to post jobs. Jobseekers are finding that many of the jobs they ‘find’ on boards are fake, and have simply been posted in order to harvest CVs and resumes, and names.
However, there are a lot of recruiters who are honest, who do respect jobseekers, and who are committed to providing a quality service.
You can’t tar them all with the same brush.
But commitment and respect are a two-way street - and I’d like to add that most of the points that Hsien mentioned probably apply to recruiters who you already trust, rather than just anyone.
I’m not a recruiter, but I’ve worked with both good and bad ones - both as a jobseeker myself, and in a professional capacity - for many years now. The bad ones I never work with again, the good ones I really do stay in contact with.
Anyway, what I’m saying is that the wurk network is somewhere you can find honest, unbiased advice, opinion and news about careers and jobhunting. I’m trying to provide a service that’s distinct from the current (failing) recruitment industry model, and I’ve put jobseekers’ interests at the very top of the list - NOT those of recruiters.
With that in mind, I’d be sorry to see you drop your subscription!!
April 4, 2006 @ 5:15 pm...
Ugly rant, nice responses. Bravo!
I had some personal experience with bad IT recruiters, and my wife’s only e-mail spam are jobs from healthcare recruiters, none of whom she has ever met, none of whom has asked her permission or provides an unsubscribe method.
Personally, I put (healthcare) recruiters in the same class as real estate agents. A good one is worth every penny, but is almost as rare as a white crow.
April 4, 2006 @ 5:19 pm...
Anonymous Coward: I hope you’ll stick around and tell it like it is. Honest opinion is always appreciated!
As for spammers, they should all be slow roasted over hell’s fire.