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Are You Being Harassed by Wrongheaded Radiology Recruiting?
With an open letter to cold-calling recruiters, this radiologist emphasizes that incessant contact won’t gain a foothold with him or his colleagues.
I will begin by gushing with gratitude over the prolongedly strong radiology job market that has graced the lives of many rads like myself for nigh unto a decade now. May it never lapse!
We aren’t the only ones who can capitalize on these good times of course. Recruiters abound and while I haven’t done a scholarly study on the matter, it feels like a lot more are in the mix nowadays.
It resembles boom times for amateur-hour realtors you might have noticed in years gone by. When conditions enable lots of properties (or radiology jobs) to rapidly change hands, the industry becomes a target-rich shooting gallery. It feels like just about anybody can insert themselves to reap pockets full of cash with relatively little effort or skill.
That said, I have come to wonder just how many of the recruiters I have encountered in recent moons could be accomplishing anything at all. They are that bad.
Maybe some of them are salaried or otherwise paid on the basis of how many rads they annoy as opposed to the number of candidates they actually match with jobs. I have got to imagine, however, that the lion’s share of loot in that line of work comes from getting rads to apply, attend interviews, accept positions, and actually stay in them. The recruiter specimens crossing my path don’t exude any such capability.
I freely admit that my sample is skewed. I couldn’t even tell you the last time I reached out to any recruiters. In recent and not so recent memory, they come to me. Surely, there are good, professional ones out there who would impress me if I sought their services. As things have played out, I don’t see them in action.
Even when I have been on the hunt for a new gig, the roaring job market has easily allowed me to do my own searching. Part of that has included showcasing that I am “seeking” in my social media profiles. Afterwards, I have carefully shut down all indications that might give anybody the idea that I am still hungry.
Between my ringing phone, my chiming email-alerts, my snail mail box at the curb, and my social media app notifications, however, that gets the job half-done at best. An awful lot of the “less than” recruiters either think they can nag me into changing my mind or had no awareness of my situation to begin with and are relying on cold calling to give them an occasional payday.
For those recruiters or others bankrolling them who might happen to see this blog, I won’t even try pleading with you to leave me alone because you haven’t done so when I directly asked. Instead, let me suggest that it is in your own interest to knock it off. Perhaps you could spend your time more productively. Perhaps you have already considered that and determined that you can’t.
However, the reality is you’re hurting your own future chances with me and many other rads like myself. What kind of impression do you suppose you are making with a professional by repeatedly interrupting his or her workday or personal time with the same unwanted offers? Are those rads going to think, “Gosh, this is a helpful contact to have for 10 years down the line in case I ever need a new job. It is well worth hearing from this recruiter every couple of weeks until then!”
A lot of rads, myself included, eventually respond by hitting “Block” and “Report Spam” buttons so we will never hear from you again. It doesn’t feel like that has much of an effect, but I can’t say for sure whether I would be getting even more unwanted communications otherwise.
One thing I have noticed is that some of these nudniks keep coming back anyway. I block this number or that email, and they don’t miss a beat before contacting me from other routes. My automated phone screeners swat an incoming call. Seconds later the phone rings again from the same individual who clearly knows how to circumvent the obstacle.
When recruiters do that, they put themselves in the same category as political advertisers and con artists, including Nigerian princes bearing mythical fortunes. Maybe you think you are being a go-getter and pursuing more prospective contacts but all you’re doing is wallowing further into the muck of people we definitely don’t want to do business with. Even if you clean up your act down the line, our recollection of you will be permanently sullied. Further, other recruiters who behaved more professionally probably won’t appreciate your stinking up their line of work.
This bad behavior and other unproductive habits like it have a common theme. It places the recruiter at the center of things. Everything is for his or her benefit. This recruiterhas jobs to hype. This recruiterwants to contact and get his or her hooks into as many rads as possible if not to nag about current jobs, then to circle back when others turn up. Failing all that, maybe this recruiter can turn a small profit by selling that rad’s contact info to other unsavory characters.
They call it the service industry for a reason. If anybody even glancing at the situation can tell you are really just serving yourself, don’t expect to be regarded as anything other than a bottom feeder. (Public “servants” in political office are another kettle of rotten fish entirely.)
Meanwhile, a good recruiter at least appears to have a rad’s benefit in mind. By helping rads find good prospects and facilitating job hunts, applications, etc., the recruiter is meeting other people’s needs. Yes, the recruiter is also making a living doing this, but those personal gains are a step or two further removed down the line. The good recruiter doesn’t come across as a stalker or a loan shark who is trying to collect.
The Reading Room Podcast: Emerging Trends in the Radiology Workforce
February 11th 2022Richard Duszak, MD, and Mina Makary, MD, discuss a number of issues, ranging from demographic trends and NPRPs to physician burnout and medical student recruitment, that figure to impact the radiology workforce now and in the near future.
