Nestled between an arching hillside and a babbling brook, along an unpaved road in the Sutter Butte mountain range of Northern California, stands a sign that reads, "Time to Slow Down." In these viral days of overexposure and oversharing it sounds like a great idea, right? But you’re a physician recruiter, and conventional wisdom says you can’t unplug for a nanosecond.
Actually, you can.
Sometimes taking time to slow down also means deciding what mountains you want to climb. Because most physician recruiters live by the adage “never stop learning,” we recently presented 8 great resources for physician recruiters – and we now have a few more suggestions. Who knows, you just might pick up one of the suggested reads in its actual book form and unplug, off the grid for a bit, while you turn the unfamiliar into the familiar.
1. Learn about big data and leverage it to bolster the quality of your physician candidates.
As technology advances, one major development that is worth delving into is the rise of big data – and the advent of analytics in every aspect of our lives. While data, generally, can help you make better decisions faster, big data serves up an entirely new world of questions that you can ask, not to mention new ways to apply insights based on the answers. “Predictive Analytics” or how you apply insights to answers you get from big data has even been called “The Future of Smart Recruiting.” If you’re not entirely sure what big data is, read this Forbes article by Gil Press: A Very Short History Of Big Data. To really dig deep, we also suggest you read “CRITICAL QUESTIONS FOR BIG DATA: Provocations for a cultural, technological, and scholarly phenomenon.” You can download the full text for free here.
2. Follow some doctors on Twitter. Physicians are you’re audience and the best way to gain new insight is to get it straight from them. Start with these Tweeting docs:
- @JayParkinson – The CEO and cofounder of Sherpaa (an advocate with insurance companies and doctors offices), some people also call him the doctor of the future.
- @JKVedar – Director of Center for Connected Health; an associate professor at Harvard Medical School; and coauthor of Wellocracy. He’s also a mentor at chhealthblog.connectedhealth.org
- @DrVal — MD founder of Better Health, LLC, a network of healthcare professional bloggers. She offers smart health commentary – her Twitter bio even says so. You’ll also find her at getbetterhealth.com
3. Put these books on your nightstand or in your backpack and before you know it they’ll be dog-eared – or whatever the tablet equivalent might be:
The Non-Technical Guide to Web Technologies
by Tommy Chheng
If you’re a non-technical recruiter, there’s no better resource to get started becoming one of the techno literati. This guide will help you understand the basics about web technology, tech-speak, and how to apply all of it as you hone your recruiting hunting skills. It’s written largely for technology recruiters, but it’s great text for any recruiter who needs to learn how to use technology.
The Talent Sourcing and Recruitment Handbook
by Shally Steckerl
This is one of the most comprehensive and current guides of its kind about the sourcing and recruiting industry as a whole, but we’ll borrow a great book review from Steven Miranda at the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM):
“Shally Steckerl’s ability to deal with the little things that plue recruiters (What exactly is the best Boolean search string to find this particular type of candidate) to the higher level strategic questions (How do I best position the value of our recruiting team to my business leaders?) serves as a one-stop shop for anyone trying to figure out how to both recruit as an individual or to create an effective recruiting center within your organization.”
4. Follow some great blogs. Of course, the Doximity Talent Finder blog you’re reading right now is specifically for physician recruiters and we invite you to return again and again. But there are some general recruiting blogs out there we highly recommend, starting with these two:
Kris Dunn “let the dogs out” on the Fistful of Talent blog in 2007 and the blog’s list of alumni and writer credits reads like a “Who’s Who” of recruiting and HR. There’s a section dedicated to recruiting, but you’ll also find a full learning center and more. Start with this article by John Whitaker, which addresses the lack of information (or data) that is apparent in recruiting: Driving in the Fog.
The HR Capitalist is the solo project of Kris Dunn, the co-founder of (and frequent writer for) Fistful of Talent. Here, Dunn addresses issues often untouched by most HR writers – like making the case for employees being active on social media. Dunn also has his own list of of recommended reads.
5. Take some advice from Hollywood. Yes, Hollywood. It’s notoriously difficult to break into and it’s even more difficult to claw your way to the top. Here are five strategies top Hollywood power players used that will work – even in the physician recruitment industry.
It’s an almost impossible to task to describe your job as a physician recruiter, but do you know recruiters are happier with their jobs than the average person? Of course you do. You’re also never satisfied with the status quo, which means another mountain is calling. Which one will you climb next?
Did you know Doximity Talent Finder has a mobile app? Download it today and start searching for great physician candidates.
