The world loves superlatives. Most of us think nothing of categorizing something as the ‘best’. And in fact, the introduction of digital marketing in the internet era has caused us to take superlatives to unprecedented levels. We even do it in the healthcare sector, particularly when it comes to discussing the ‘perfect job’.
How many of us have searched for the perfect physician job among the thousands that seem to always be listed? How many of us really believe the perfect job exists? It may or may not. The one thing we can say for sure is that the search for the perfect physician job sometimes comes up empty. But that is true for any career.
Physicians might be at a slight disadvantage here due to the high honor we attach to the profession. We assume that because becoming a physician requires so much time and effort, physician jobs are somehow superior to other career choices. And with that thinking comes the inevitable letdown when a doctor fails to find the perfect job promised in medical school.
3 Main Job Criteria
Your average job seeker searches for jobs based on their particular criteria. That criteria could be anything. But by and large, there are three things that dominate most job searches:
- Salary
- Location
- Description
If you are like most people, your search for physician jobs is dominated by salary requirements. In other words, you look for the jobs that pay the most. You may be the kind of person who wants to work in a particular geographic location, so that might be just as important to you as salary. But what about job description?
Job seekers tend to look at descriptions to see if they qualify. Some go so far as to try to understand what a particular job entails by paying close attention to minute description details. But let’s be honest. When push comes to shove, job description takes a distant third place to salary and location.
Scoring the Trifecta
To use a horse betting analogy, finding a physician job that met all your requirements for salary, location, and job description would be like hitting the trifecta. Is it possible? Absolutely. Is it likely? Perhaps.
Conventional wisdom says that you can probably count on getting two of the three but getting all three is not likely. Does that mean you should not try for the trifecta? Absolutely not. You definitely will not get all three if you do not try. If you do try, you may or may not succeed.
This all boils down to the idea of pragmatism. One’s search for healthcare jobs can be supported by plenty of optimism and high hopes for the future. But it can also be tempered with the pragmatic reality that perfection is hard to come by. When one accepts the fact that the perfect job may either not exist or not be found on the first try, finding a job becomes easier.
Perfect Is a Matter of Perspective
Taking a pragmatic approach to physicians jobs does not automatically mean settling for whatever you can get. Rather, a better way to look at it is to acknowledge that perfection is a matter of perspective. A physician job that pays well, allows a good work-life balance, and gives you an opportunity to grow professionally may be exactly what you need. It may not be what you dreamed of, but so what?
Like any other job category, physician jobs are abundant. Whether or not you will find the perfect job remains to be seen.