It is that time of year again that residents and fellows that will be finishing in 2009 are contacting us in droves.  We probably get over 100 phone calls and emails a week from physicians in every specialty and sub specialty.  The J1 Physician Network takes on a limited number of clients at any one time to insure that each physician is afforded a priority search and has personal service.

There is always a question about what a placement and recruiting agency does.  Here are just some of the things we do for each client.  Hopefully this will help you when deciding whether or not to use a recruiter or to seek a job for yourself.

1.  Insure that all J1’s get their State Department Case Number.  We help in filling out the form DS 3035.

2. Reveiw and rewrite the candidates CV.  We never change the content, but we do change the format to make it more “user friendly” and more presentable.

3.  Get an understanding of the physicians needs and the needs of their family.  We want to know each physicians needs in terms of schools for children, employment for spouses, religious needs, etc.  This information all goes together to get a profile of the physician to aid in making a good match with a facility and practice opportunity.

4.  If there are any unique immigration issues, have the physician speak with our on staff immigration attorney.  We want no suprises and make sure that all issues are covered.

5.  Find out each physicians expectations.  What they are expecting in regards to salary, call, geographic area, etc. and let them know what is probably the reality of the market place and what they can realistically expect.

Think about it, that is what happens even before conducting a search or presenting an opportunity.  We have all heard of nightmares for J1’s.  Do you know why?  Because all of these issues were not considered.  Physicians that only care about going to a particular city, or making a particular amount of money, or having a particular call schedule and not care about anything else, opens them up to problems and bad situations.

6.  Begin a search.  Find potentially appropriate opportunities.

7.  If a potentially appropriate opportunity is found, we insure that it is in a qualified area, we make sure there are still slots available in the state for a J1 waiver, we insure that the facility will offer a guarenteed income and not an income guarentee, we get a job profile that tells us the salary, call, vacation, whether or not they will pay for legal expenses, whether or not they will pay for site visits, etc.  Then, and only then do we present the candidate and tell about their background, their family, their hobbies, etc.

8.  If the facility is interested, we then arrange an initial phone interview. 

9.  If the facility is still interested, we help in arranging the site visit for the physician and his family ALWAYS paid for by the facility.  If they are not willing to pay, we do not present the candidate.  Just a quick note as well, if the facility is not willing to pay relocation we do not present the candidate.

We do not work with any facility that wont pay interview expenses or relocation expenses.  If they wont pay those, how do we know that they will pay the physician?

10.  After the site visit, we then insure that a contract, if going to be offered, will be offered within 5 days (typically).

11.  We reveiw the contract, and send a copy to our immigration attorney to insure that it meets all the requirement for the J1 waiver.

12.  We help each candidate negotiate any points of the contract that might need to be negotiated.  We also give advice on if we feel the facility is being reasonable and/or the candidate is being reasonable.

13.  We then expect the candidate to either accept or reject the contract with 5 days unless still negotiating changes.

14.  If the candidate rejects the opportunity, we start the entire process again.  If accepted, we help the immigration attorney with all the filings for the waiver petitition.

15.  We monitor the J1 petition until the candidate gets their H1 and then insure that them moving, getting housing, and starting their new career goes smoothly.

16.  From the time that a site visit is scheduled until the waiver petition is filed, we are in contact with the state insuring that the waiver will be approved.  We have never had a waiver petition denied.  We only allow the process to go forward if the waiver is going to be approved.

17.  We make sure that the facility will not take advantage of the physician.  The placement is important but we insure that the physician is going to be treated fairly and honestly.

That is a basic overview of what we do and what you should expect from a recruiter.  EVERY TIME.  Their are many that want allot of money and then present opportunites that do not match the physician in any way.  They dont vet the facilities and that leads to the nightmare situations that we have all heard of.  We know when a facility has the potential of abusing a physician and we have never had a situation that that has occurred.

We always give advice to every physician.  When using a recruiter, make sure that they do all of these items.  If they dont it will be the physician that suffers.

Also, because we are insuring a match, the number of interviews and such is not important.  I know many physicians call us and want us to get them 3 interviews and get them 3 offers and they already have 2 offers.  We decline and would not work with these type of physicians.  We want to make a good match.  One that meets the needs of the physician and their family.  That can take a bit of time and that is not always easy but that is our obligation.

And that should be the obligation of any physician recruiter that you work with