Be a Healthcare Recruiter

Over the years, in my role as a medical recruiter, I have been contacted many times by nurses or doctors who are interested in leaving their clinical roles for a career in healthcare recruiting. Most often these inquiries are more specifically related to recruiting nurses or doctors, but there are many other types of healthcare recruiters needed, from medical office staff to hospital executives and everything in between.

If you love to talk to people, and think you would enjoy pounding the phones for hours each day, "smiling and dialing" as we call it, then a career in healthcare recruiting may be for you. If you are a clinician looking to make the transition into a non-clinical role, your clinical background may help you gain credibility with clients and job seekers, but that will only take you so far.

In addition to the clinical knowledge, you must learn to quickly assess candidates' qualifications, goals, and credentials, and motivations to determine if they could be a fit for the respective job opening you're representing. You must be comfortable in a sales-type of presentation, communicating the advantages, perks and benefits of a job and an employer, be able to overcome objections, and to move on after being turned down repeatedly.

Prior clinical experience is not a requirement for medical recruiting. Actually, many former clinicians find they don't enjoy recruiting, as they may not be used to a desk job. However, others may flourish in a recruiting role as a former clinician. If you have an interest in the medical field, especially if you already have some recruiting or sales experience, you may want to explore a career in healthcare recruiting.