Physicians of all types are in high demand these days— especially urgent care doctors— so as a physician, you don’t necessarily have to worry about job availability. However, you have to know which medical facility near you is hiring and where to look. Here’s a look a five of the most common ways to find employment in an urgent care position, whether it’s your first job or if you’re looking for a new job.
#1: Social Media
Social media isn’t the ideal or the best place for urgent care physicians (or other types of physicians) to find their first or next job, but it is possible. In fact, about 12% of physicians surveyed said they found their jobs through social media. Businesses of all types have promoted job openings on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, but not many medical facilities post their open positions on these sites.
If you’re going to use social media to find your next physician job, it’s recommended that you use LinkedIn because it’s a social media job search/networking platform. You’re more likely to get the results you’re looking for when using LinkedIn, versus using Facebook, Instagram, or another platform that’s more social-based.
#2: Search Engines
This is another method that may or may not give you the results you’re looking for. Search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo!, and DuckDuckGo are great for conducting everyday searches, but not so much for jobs— unless you have a working knowledge of how SEO (search engine optimization) works.
Companies use SEO techniques to get their website to rank higher in search engines, and this includes medical institutions that are hiring. SEO involves the understanding (on the part of the companies) of which keywords are used in these searches. While you don’t necessarily have to understand how SEO works, entering the right keywords in your search will give you a better chance of finding a physician position through a search engine.
#3: Networking and Referrals
More than half of all physicians use networking and referrals from others to find their first or next physician job. During your years of undergrad, medical school, and residency you’ll build up a strong network of professionals that will be able to refer you to hospitals or doctor’s offices that are looking to fill a specific physician position. This is also a useful resource if you want to start your own urgent care practice, as you can hire those in your network to be a part of your staff— or it can work in the opposite, where you can be a part of the staff of a new startup by someone in your network.
Some medical school students will even be offered positions at their place of residency, but only a little more than one-quarter of medical students reported finding their first job in this way.
#4: Monster, Indeed, and Other Job Boards
The most popular way that the majority of people search for jobs is through job search sites. Monster, Indeed, Glassdoor, and ZipRecruiter are some of the most popular job boards, so you can use either one of these when searching for a job. In fact, Indeed is considered to be the number one job search site, as the majority of people use this site to find their next job.
The only downside to using Indeed or any other job board is that these sites are best for finding entry-level and part-time jobs, and not necessarily the best for finding highly skilled or professional jobs. It’s not impossible to find these higher-level jobs, but you may have a harder time finding exactly what you’re looking for.
#5: Medical-Specific Job Boards
As a medical professional, you’re more likely to be successful in finding your next physician job on a medical-specific (or physician) job board (examples include PracticeMatch, MDSearch, and PhysicianJobBoard), as these job boards are designed specifically to help physicians of all levels find a job that best matches their qualifications and expertise. It’s recommended that you start here when looking for a physician position, especially if networking and referrals don’t yield any results. When using these sites, you’re more likely to find a job that’s a good fit than if you were to use a traditional job search site.
The bottom line is that physician job boards and networking/referrals are going to bring you the most success when searching for a physician job. Search engines and your typical job boards will bring you some success as well, while social media may not bring you much success.
