JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Traditional methods using print media and commercial firms for clinician recruiting are often limited by cost, slow pace and suboptimal results. An efficient fiscally sound approach is needed for clinician searches online.

Objective:

To investigate how (1) clinicians search for jobs online in a variety of specialties; and (2) academic medical centers can advertise clinical job openings so as to prominently appear on internet searches and yield the greatest return on investment.

Methods:

We used a search engine (Google) to identify eight query terms for each of the specialties and specialists (e.g. dermatology, dermatologist) to determine internet job search methodologies for twelve clinical disciplines. Searches were conducted and results obtained from the first 20 results.

Results:

In total 176 searches were conducted at varying times over the course of several months, and 3,520 results recorded. The following five types of websites appeared in the top ten search results across all specialties searched, accounting for 52.3% of the results: (a) a single no-cost job aggregator (13%); (b) two prominent journal-based paid digital job listing services (8.9 and 5.2%); (c) a fee-based online agency (7.8%) offering candidate profiles; and (d) society-based paid advertisements (totaling 17.4%). These sites accounted for 75.4% of results limited to the top five results. Repetitive short-term testing yielded similar results with minor changes in the rank order.

Conclusions:

Based on our findings we offer a specific financially prudent internet strategy for both clinicians searching online for employment, and employers hiring clinicians in academic medical centers.