The Career Center also represents an improvement over general job boards because the pool of positions offered and solicited on the site is restricted to those only for hospital medicine professionals. The site is free for all, although SHM members are able to take advantage of certain “members-only” functionality (resume posting, e-mail notification of new job postings). “Career opportunists,” or hospitalists who are gainfully employed but constantly curious about what else is available, will enjoy this site, too.
The Way it Works
SHM’s Career Center matches applicants and jobs using search features that allow applicants to tailor their search. As an applicant, you enter your job preferences as you would when searching for an article in PubMed or when looking online for a board-certified specialist in a specific geographic region when referring a patient. The boxes prompt you to provide the minimum information necessary for an acceptable search. For example, you need to provide geographical preferences, the type of position you’re looking for, and the specialty area you’re interested in to best tailor your search.
Visitors can browse all jobs by specialty or state—or view the complete list of jobs. The advanced search option augments the specialty and state fields with the ability to specify keywords (see “Hospitalists and Keywords,” p. 10), specialty, employment type (full time, moonlighting, and so on), and the announcement opening date. (The latter is important to applicants who believe older announcements raise a red flag indicating conditions that make it unattractive to candidates.)
The advanced search option also allows you to look at job summaries with the results. So instead of receiving a simple list of the job title, the location, and the announcement date, the summary includes a short description of the position. But visitor beware: You have to click a box to make this happen. Otherwise, your search will create a simple list of jobs, and clicking on any individual job will bring up the job summary. The information is accessible either way.
Get Started
Most job seekers will find the site quite easy to navigate, although a few may be impeded by cookies. (For more information, see “Got Cookies,” p. 10.) The FAQ area is a site strength and will help you eliminate hurdles, from inability to navigate the site, to figuring out how to be notified electronically when new jobs are added.
Once you enter your search criteria, a list of jobs displays. Then click on a specific job to open another page describing the position in great detail. After seeing the array of positions available, SHM non-members are likely to join the society just to have access to the full functionality of the Career Center.
Your next step is to create an account; doing so allows you to apply for positions with just a click. Once you establish an account (a process that takes just a few minutes), click on “Edit My Profile.” In this area, you’ll establish your profile.