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But I’m Better Than That

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Paint the Right Picture — Shine Through Your CV

How to Shine Through Your CV

After completing medical school and the demands of residency, looking for a job should be the easy part, right? Unfortunately, you may not have received a lesson on how to market your hard-earned skills as part of  your training. To complicate things, perhaps your picture isn’t so rosy. What if you’ve had some gaps or rough spots in your early medical career that might not appear marketable at first glance? How do you address these  flaws and still sell yourself to a potential employer? Don’t give up yet. Even the worst career mistakes—if handled tactically—don’t have to spoil your hiring potential.

Your job search begins with the development of a concise and effective curriculum vitae (CV) that markets you and your skills. “The CV is the first impression the hiring person will have of you,” says Martin Osinski, president of Nephrology USA, a division of the Miami based recruitment firm American Medical Consultants, Inc. “It’s about using your CV to present yourself in the most positive light. And it is important that you do not attempt to cover anything up.” If you happen to have skeletons in your closet, the worst thing you can do is to try to mask them because they will eventually be uncovered. In most cases, your CV will be thoroughly  reviewed during the screening and interview process and you’ll undergo a background check, at which time problems such as bad loans, felonies, lawsuits, sanctions or disciplinary actions will reveal themselves. In some cases, you may even be asked to fill out disclosure forms.

Blasted by the past

“Background checks are a very necessary part of the screening process,” says Debbie Gleason, a physician development administrator for The Nebraska Medical Center, a 689-bed academic medical center in Omaha, Nebraska. “The average candidate will interview with three physicians and several executives while they are here. That is a large financial investment when you consider the cost to bring them here and the opportunity cost of everyone’s time. To be cost effective, we need to ensure that the candidates we bring in for interviews are very qualified and that we have done our homework and investigated all red flags.”

If there is a chance potential employers will encounter sticky issues, prepare yourself by doing your own background check. Kristen Heffernan, a marketing manager for Locum Medical Group in Cleveland, recommends that a physician check his or her own credit and malpractice information so that he or she knows exactly what a potential employer will see and can prepare him/herself appropriately.

According to Patrice Streicher of Fox Hill Associates, a physician recruiting firm in Milwaukee, today’s shortage of physicians may provide a false sense of security for some individuals. This over-confidence may lead applicants to think physician groups will be more apt to overlook problems. “Despite the supply and demand issue, doctors, administrators, and physician groups are as discerning as ever about who they hire,” she says. “They would rather wait to hire the right physician rather than hire the wrong person.”

That means one of the most important things a candidate can do during the job search is to “be accountable,” says Streicher. If you have had a gap in your training or other undesirable situations, you need to “name it and claim it,” she says. “If you don’t hit it head on from day one, then it will look like you’re trying to hide it. The more you hedge on an issue, the more you will lose credibility.” Remember—word travels fast. “It never ceases to amaze me in the physician specialty markets how doctors on one side of the country know about the reputation of another doctor at the other end of the country,” Streicher says.

Never tell a lie

“The good news is that America is a very forgiving nation,” says Christopher Kashnig, the manager of Physician Services at Dean Health System in Madison, Wisconsin. Kashnig has 22 years in the physician recruitment business and says, “Red flags are not necessarily deal-killers. The best approach is to be upfront, honest and sincere. The recruiter or employer will respect someone who is upfront about issues.” Background checks can sometimes even unveil information that may benefit a candidate. Kay Gerth, the associate vice president of HCA Physician Recruitment in Brentwood, Tennessee, recalls a situation in which a candidate was flagged as a sex offender. “He was just as shocked about the finding as we were,” she says. “When we investigated further, we found out that it was actually another person with the exact same last name. Had this come up later, while he was practicing, it could have seriously tarnished his career.”

Recruiters say they see numerous situations that could potentially taint a physician’s marketability, but handled in the right manner, the impact may be minimized. Physician recruiters from across the nation shared some of the more common red flags they’ve encountered and their recommendations about how to present yourself in the best possible light, should these apply to you.


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