Reaching Residents and Fellows – Part I

It’s true, the best source of candidates for our practice opportunities are graduating residents or fellows. In fact, when I meet with a client that says they prefer a practicing candidate, I cringe!!!!

This is the time of year when we start put our “plan of attack” in motion for next round of graduating residents and fellows.

So, what is the best way to reach residents/fellows? There are three tried and true approaches:

1. Cold Calling
2. Email Blasting
3. Direct Mail

I know what you are thinking. “Been there, done that!” Those of us that have been recruiting for many years are no strangers to cold calling, email blasts and direct mail.

In this day and age of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and so many others, is there a place for the traditional candidate sourcing activities? I think so!

The key to using these tried and true approaches is how you combine them. Rather than just sitting down one afternoon a week and cold calling out of the blue for three hours, develop a comprehensive resident outreach plan.

At the beginning of the year sit down with key decision makers and decide what specialties you want to target. Be realistic. There is only some much time and manpower you can dedicate to reaching residents/fellows. Also be sure to prioritize the specialties in order of importance according your recruitment needs.

Once you have identified the targeted specialties, resident and fellow name gathering comes into to play. The AMA is often a good source for residents, not for fellows. There are several organizations that do resident/fellow name gathering and often they will also collect contact information including address, phone and email. If your budget allows it, I recommend purchasing a list from a vendor. The expense can be quite reasonable and this will save you a ton of time!