Discovering physicians’ priorities and the best way to reach them

AB&C recently teamed with MDLinx to conduct a survey of 500 general practitioners, medical specialists and surgical specialists at different stages of their careers. Our research revealed similarities and surprises regarding their professional priorities and the best ways to reach them.

First, “show me the money”—financial rewards—still ranked as their number-one priority, followed by autonomy/independence, respect, reputation, camaraderie and, unexpectedly last, recognition.

When asked how they preferred to be alerted to job openings, 92% of physicians said email, with direct mail (6%), texts (1%) and phone (1%) trailing far behind. In a bit of a shock, apps (32%) and mobile (20%) outperformed traditional newsletters (19%) and social media (18%) that were once hot recruiting tools.

Some things never change, however. Geographic area was still the most decisive factor in reviewing a job opportunity, with work/life balance, compensation and practice-specific details ranking close behind. Of lesser importance were quality-of-life issues.

Where did physicians look for jobs? Forty-eight percent said medical journals, followed by medical career websites (45%), medical society sites (37%) and the sites of practices in which they were already interested (30%). The remaining search methods were Google (27%), hospital/health system sites (20%) and Career Builder/Monster (9%).