Careers: Your job search and the interview questions doctors forget to ask
You must ask these questions if you are going to avoid the top three reasons employed physicians quit down the road. Let me give you a big list of queries and a method you can use in your interview to make a quality decision about your contract.
(Note: If you are not searching for a job at the moment ... This is a very interesting set of questions to ask about your current job. The answers may surprise you and give you some ideas on how to improve the quality of your work day.)
Let’s set the stage
I assume you have avoided the physician job search No. 1 mistake and have actually created an Ideal Job Description ... Yes? You will dramatically increase the odds of finding a great position when you compare your Ideal Job Description to any offers you get.
In your interview, I am sure you will ask the usual questions ... things like:
• How do I get paid?
• What is the call schedule?
• What are my benefits, and how much time off do I get?
These questions are important, and they give you no idea of what your day-to-day work experience will be with this group, in this facility, in this larger organization. Remember that the top three reasons employed physicians quit are culture, the way the group makes decisions, and the quality of your immediate supervisor.
This question list is designed to help you understand these important issues.
How to ask your interview questions
1) Take the questions below as a written list.
Yep, take a clipboard and this list so you make sure to ask all the questions. There is a piece of you that is hesitant to do this and will want to memorize the questions. But you are working too hard and that is just a piece of your physician programming. Honest. Take the list with you and take notes about the answers.
2) Channel Columbo.
The people interviewing you will have never heard questions like this. They might say something like, “Wow, never heard that question before.” It helps to have a way to ask these questions in a very nonthreatening manner. The key is to channel Columbo.
You remember the detective in the TV series with the baggy coat and half-chewed cigar? When you channel Columbo ... you start your questions with ...
• I’m curious .....
• I’m confused here, maybe you can help me out ...
Be “curious” and “confused.” Ask them to help you understand. You will be surprised at the candor of their answers when you adopt this attitude.
The questions
These questions are intended to give you specific information about the three main reasons you might eventually quit this position ... up front where you need it the most. I suggest you use these questions as raw materials to craft specific questions you would be comfortable asking in your interview. Then put them on a written list, take them with you to the interview, and channel your best Columbo.
1) Group culture:
• How long has this group existed?
• Please tell me a little about its history.
• Is there a group mission statement?
• If so, do the doctors and staff and the quality of their lives appear in it?
• How would you describe the culture of this group?
• If there were one thing you could change about the group’s culture, what would that be?
• How well do you feel the group members like each other?
• Do group members hang out together when not in the office?
• How much do you feel your partners “have your back”?
• Please tell me about the compensation formula.
• What physician behaviors is this compensation formula intended to motivate?
•If I worked here and wanted to maximize my compensation ... what is the simplest way for me to do that?
• Which do you feel the group values more as a whole ... making money or the quality of the care you provide?
• How much does the group believe that having a balanced life outside of your medical practice is important?
• What is the process you use to bring a new physician on board? What training, mentoring, and coaching would I receive, from whom and for how long?
• Who are the physicians in the group currently in this onboarding process? May I speak with one of them?
