Searching for the right candidate can feel like trying to find a needle in a haystack, and here at Doximity Talent Finder, a majority of the questions we receive are related to search strategies.

What search strategies can I use to narrow down to the candidates that will be most interested in an opportunity? Is there anything else I can search by to filter through a large number of physicians?

Over the years, our Client Success Team has seen some strategic searches that lead to hires, and some not so strategic searches. We asked our team for common mistakes that are made when it comes to searching for candidates, and here’s what they said! 

1. Limiting your search to one state. If you are open to candidates from multiple nearby states, it might be more beneficial to search by region. This widens your candidate pool while allowing you to target physicians near the opportunity you’re hiring for.
2. Limiting your search to physicians currently living in the state. While it makes sense to search for physicians currently living in the state where the opportunity is (as relocation can often be a hurdle), there is also value in targeting physicians who have past ties to the city or state where the role is. For example, if they went to medical school or residency in the area, they may be more likely to move back to that area.
   
   Another way to search in your area is by licenses. Rather than yielding results for all who are currently practicing in your state, you could search for those who are currently holding licenses in your state. Searching by state licenses can also be beneficial when recruiting for telemedicine opportunities.
   
3. Keeping your own hospital/system in your search. On Talent Finder, and likely most other online sourcing tools, you can exclude your own organization from your searches to avoid accidentally reaching out to candidates already working at your organization.
4. Reaching out to an overqualified candidate. While it might be great for your organization (or client) if you can get a current CMO or Medical Director to fill your role for a practicing physician job, the reality is that those odds aren’t very high. With that in mind, try using your search filters to exclude those with leadership titles from showing in your results.
5. Contacting the same candidate many times in a row. While giving a candidate a couple opportunities to open or reply is one thing, we don’t ever want to annoy them. Using the Talent Finder activity filter, recruiters can filter out clinicians that have either already been sent a message or that have already viewed a message from you in the past (based on the date range you select). 
6. Ignoring keyword search. Search filters allow you to narrow down to candidates that have the exact experience/training that your job requires. Taking you a step further. For example, if you’re hiring for a Telemedicine role, you might want to type ‘Telemedicine’ into keyword search to bring physicians who have Telemedicine listed on their profile into your search results. You could also search ‘Spanish’ if you’re  looking for a bilingual physician. Searching by specific keywords can ensure you are including all the relevant criteria for an opportunity.
   

For more tips and tricks on sourcing physician candidates, check out our earlier blog post on lessons learned from seasons recruiters.