Find the Best Physician Job Boards for You

Searching for that perfect first role on physician job boards can feel complex and overwhelming, particularly for residents using them for the first time. How do you find the right job boards? What’s the best way to navigate them? How do you avoid spending hours spinning your wheels?

According to a Provider Solutions & Development (PS&D) survey, 52% of physicians search for jobs on job boards. Knowing how to use job boards to your advantage can help you zero in on exactly what you’re looking for and quickly get your CV in front of hiring teams.

Kyle Travers, Manager of Provider Recruitment at PS&D, offers insights and guidance on how residents can find the best job boards and use them to optimize their job search.

Types of Job Boards

Time is a hot commodity for residents. Finding a job can feel all-consuming, especially when you're starting your search — as is often the case — at the beginning of your third year of residency.

We've broken down the three types of job boards to make it easier for you to decide which ones have the most relevant jobs for you. You will likely use all three, but knowing the difference is key to tailoring your search.

1. General Physician/Healthcare Job Boards

General physician job boards have listings for roles across the country in all healthcare fields and specialties. You can cast the widest net here because these boards have the most jobs.

“At PS&D, our custom job board takes best practices from top industry job boards and applies them to our own,” Kyle says. “We have hundreds of openings at any given time for more than 25 healthcare systems across the country, which makes it easy for residents to filter for the specialty and location they want.”

Good examples of this type of board include PS&D, New England Journal of Medicine, PracticeMatch and DocCafé.

2. Specialty Job Boards

Specialty job boards are typically tied to medical associations and cover all listings within a specialty that employers pay to have posted. Use these job boards to look for positions in your preferred area of practice while focusing on other search parameters, such as location and job type (e.g., full-time, part-time, Locum Tenens and so on).

Examples of this type of board include the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the American Academy of Neurology and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

3. Healthcare System Job Boards

Healthcare system job boards only include open jobs within a specific healthcare system or organization. This is an excellent place to start if you know you want to work for a particular hospital or health system, such as Providence or Kadlec.

Job Boards: An Easier Way to Search for Healthcare Positions

Although search engines and generic job websites are great tools, they will serve up jobs that may not apply to you as a resident. If you do opt to use these search engines, make sure your search parameters include the words “physician new grad” to hone your results.

What healthcare, recruiting or specific health system job boards have in common is a focus on search parameters that are specific to residents and other healthcare professionals. As Kyle says, “If you go to a job board that only includes healthcare jobs, you’ll find more of what you’re looking for without having to sort through many other things.”

Each healthcare organization chooses where to post jobs based on the boards they’ve contracted with. Depending on their budgets and resources, they may list their jobs on several boards or just one. For this reason, it’s worth looking at several boards when you begin your search.

How to Search and Apply for the Physician Jobs You Want

To maximize your chances of getting the interviews you want, there are specific steps you can take when you search and apply through a job board.

Search a physician job board effectively.

As you begin your job search, keep the following things in mind:

Start searching early. Exactly how early you should start depends on what position you’re looking for and where you want to work. Many residents have formed their practice vision by the middle of their second year, so they can begin searching as they enter their third year.

But if you’re seeking a job in a high-demand specialty or a rural area, know that some employers are willing to hold a job for the right candidate for up to 24 months until graduation. Kyle says it’s vital to leave enough time for yourself to see what’s out there and compare job listings on multiple boards before applying.

“Many residents start interviewing in late summer or fall,” he says. “Interviews will continue early into the new year, but residents usually make their decisions sometime between December and February of their graduation year.”

It’s never too early to talk to a recruiter in your area of interest to get more details about a timeframe that makes sense for your search.

Network whenever possible. If you find a position within a health system you’re interested in, try to network with peers or faculty to make connections directly on your behalf. If you know somebody who works in that health system in any capacity, ask for an intro. An internal recommendation goes a long way.

Apply for the job you want, even if you don’t have every listed requirement. Kyle offers this advice: “Seeing ‘experience preferred’ may be intimidating, but it’s a preference. Behind the scenes, this usually means the group might be small and not have the capacity to mentor you fully. You might be working with more autonomy and be the only provider of that specialty within the clinic.”

If you meet most requirements, consider applying to these jobs anyway, and ask the physician recruiter for more detail during the initial phone screening.

How to prepare and submit your application for physician jobs.

Before applying, make sure your CV is in great shape. And don’t forget to write an effective cover letter. In the rare case that a CV isn’t required when you first apply, the healthcare recruiter who contacts you will want to see it before passing it along to the hiring manager or team.

Certain job boards will allow you to create a profile that is used to prescreen candidates before they apply. Uploading your CV and creating a profile on these boards will help if you want recruiters to find you.

“The resident can reach out to a job board and express interest in having their CV on file,” Kyle says. “In those cases, a representative from the job board will do a brief interview to find out information about that person.

This may include learning what types of jobs they’re looking for, full-time or part-time preferences, locations where they might be interested in practicing and more. Recruiters might reach out to a physician who is set up with that job board and has matching interests to job opportunities for which they’re recruiting.”

There are two ways to apply through job boards:

Apply through the job board itself. The exact setup depends on the board, but typically you upload a CV and answer some basic questions to apply for a position. Some sites conduct screening interviews, too.

For boards where you’ve created a profile, Kyle says, there will be a link so you can click ‘Apply,’ and it will include preloaded information like your name, specialty, states of interest and contact information. There may be other questions, like what your hobbies are and what schools you attended.

You don’t need to apply for the same job more than once, even if you see it listed on multiple boards. Your application will go to the same place and be processed similarly.

Contact the listed healthcare recruiter. This varies somewhat from site to site, but you’ll usually see a recruiter’s name and contact information included in a job listing. These recruiters are happy to talk to you if you reach out directly.

“There’s no preference on the recruiter’s side,” Kyle says. “All candidates are welcome, whether they apply through a job board or our career site or they reach out directly.”

If you apply through a physician recruiter, feel free to contact them through any of the provided contact methods. Starting with an email?

Kyle offers this inside tip: “Include your CV and reference the specific job number, job title and the location in your email. Many recruiters are working with multiple jobs, and they could have the same name across several clinics and cities.”

Don’t forget to follow up with recruiters one to two weeks after applying if you haven’t heard back.

Things to Remember About Using Physician Job Boards

Here are tips to increase your success when using job boards. They include ways to get the recruitment support you need during the search process.

Use a spreadsheet to keep track of all the jobs you’ve applied for.

“There are many job openings for physicians, especially in major metropolitan markets,” Kyle says. “It’s a good idea for residents to keep a running spreadsheet of these jobs so they can easily reference the recruiter’s name and job details and track which ones they’ve applied to and when.”

When it’s time to follow up, you can simply consult your spreadsheet rather than digging through emails or job boards to find information.

Be open-minded about suggestions from recruiters.

Job boards are a crucial starting point in any job search. Still, recruiters often know things the boards don’t.

“Depending on the recruiter’s network, they can help connect the potential candidate with additional recruiters who might also be able to help them,” Kyle says. “Don’t hesitate to contact multiple recruiters because different people may know more about a job or have more connections.”

He adds, “There’s a chance the recruiter might have a search you didn’t see. They can connect you with another recruiter who’s working on that position. Or they can screen you for it along with the job you applied for, maximizing your time and effort and broadening opportunities.”

Find out more about how to work with recruiters as a resident.

Know when to go beyond the boards and ask for feedback.

It’s helpful to ask a recruiter for feedback when you come across a job where the qualifications, credentials or other listed requirements aren’t clear. Recruiters can often tell you whether it’s worth applying.

“Sometimes recruiters don’t know why you haven’t been selected,” Kyle says. “But it’s always worth asking for feedback about whether you’re being considered.”

It can be a bit tedious to tweak every application and cover letter for a specific opportunity, but this extra effort can really pay off. When physician recruiters and the hiring team see that you are not just interested in a job, but that specific job, it helps you stand out.

Let Us Help You

Looking for support as you transition from residency to clinical practice? PS&D’s GME Resource Lounge has resident advisors who offer complimentary resources, including free CV reviews, one-on-one career guidance, toolkits, seminars, training and more. Reach out to an advisor today and let us help you find your perfect fit.