Recruiters help other job seekers find jobs in the areas they are best qualified for. They are critical in helping businesses locate skilled personnel and matching the right person to the right job. To do this, recruiters need a comprehensive understanding of the job market, where candidates look for jobs, and how best to both attract and screen the best applicants for the position.
Maybe you’ve noticed during your job search that there are many places where jobs are listed. These listing usually detail the job, the needs of the employer, and the requirements needed to apply. But who actually puts the listing together? Chances are that that listing was created as part of another type of position: the job recruiter.
Writing listings isn’t all a job recruiter does, however. It’s just the start. Jobs in recruiting involve traveling to colleges and medical schools around the country (or even the world) to interview prospective candidates. Recruiters have to be able to evaluate if the applicants they meet are not only capable of meeting the technical skills needed for a position, but also if they have the temperament, experience and work history to make the grade.
Recruiters often attend or set up job fairs, where they can meet with the widest number of potential applicants at one time. At these meetings, recruiters may give presentations about a company’s benefits, salaries, and job opportunities to possible candidates. They may administer tests to see what skills a candidate has, or even give the applicant advice on how to best show their abilities.
Recruiters not only offer jobs; they also take in resumes submissions for applicants looking for new positions. Recruiters know the market better than most job seekers, and because they often are working for or within an employer’s hiring staff, the fees for locating recruits are usually covered by the employer.
There are many kinds of recruiting jobs
Recruiting often requires a very encyclopedic knowledge of a particular job area. For this reason, many recruiters specialize in specific types of recruiting for jobs. Medical recruiters are a good example of this. These recruiters specialize in locating medical professionals from doctors to administrators, seeking the best hires for medical colleges, consultancies, hospitals, clinics, or pharmaceutical positions. They must keep in touch with these firms to determine their manpower needs through phone calls or personal visits. From there, medical recruiters will gather information on both applicants and employers, matching prospects together using databases and other recruiting tools. Medical recruiters handle screening interviews, set up face-to-face meetings, check backgrounds and resumes, collect information on suitable applicants, and help hiring managers at hospitals and other healthcare facilities to meet their hiring goals. Medical recruiters also travel to colleges and nursing schools to find candidates to fill slots in physician residency and other entry-level medical jobs.
Here are our top tips to scoring a medical recruiter job.
1) Check your people skills. The most important part of being a recruiter is being a people person. You have to be able to get candidates to open up and be at ease so that you can get a sense of their ability to match up with the job. Helping people succeed is the most important part of the recruiter job, so invest in some people management skills on the way.
2) Start Small. It’s easier to get a medical recruiter job if you have experience in recruiting beforehand. Starting in the human resources department of a college or large company is a good way to learn the ropes and move up to a recruiting position. From there you can work your way up to get experience, and then move to medical recruiting.
3) To get a good recruiting job, you’ll need a good education: in point of fact, a college education at least. B.A., degrees in human resources, business, psychology, sociology, or management degrees are the most preferable, although a basic liberal arts degree is also acceptable.
4) Medical recruiters in particular need to be familiar with medical training and the kind of work involved in these recruiting jobs; some medical school or physician training gives an excellent advantage.
5) Work in a medical setting first. You’ll need to know the jargon and the jobs to be good as a recruiter. Working in a hospital HR department will give you a good idea of where the most pressing needs are.
6) Join a medical recruiting firm in another capacity. Everyone needs administrative workers, and recruiting firms are no different.
7) See if you can job shadow a recruiter already in the business. People love to show off their knowledge, and finding a mentor when you’re just starting out will help you learn the inside practices.
8) You should make sure to locate a medical recruiter to handle your job search. After all, someone has to handle hiring medical recruiters!
9) Investigate hiring departments beyond the typical hospitals and clinics. Remember that there are foundations and international health service groups that also need to hire personnel, but may have not considered the idea of having a dedicated medical recruiter.
10) Boost your resume by concentrating on a specific aspect of medical recruiting. Being number one at knowing how to locate the best surgeons, for example, can set you apart from the rest of the crowd.
Conclusion
Becoming a recruiter can be both challenging and lucrative. If you have a knack for working with people, a good eye for judging character and the needs of a position, and have a background in business, administration, psychology or other human relations training, a job in recruiting may be a good fit for you.
