Healthcare employment is projected to grow 16% through 2032—much faster than the average for all other occupations. Moreover, the industry will add about 2.6 million new jobs to the economy, with an overall 1.8 million total openings projected each year, partly to replace retirees and physicians who move into academic and administrative roles.

What this means for healthcare providers in the U.S. is that the future is yours to sculpt, and whether you’re still shaping your life’s clay in medical school or residency or your professional journey took form years ago but was never quite what you had in mind, there is always time to put your career back on the spinning wheel of possibilities to try again.

The art of hiring, however, will continue to change in response to the ongoing physician shortages, increased provider turnover, advancing AI, animosity over the use of noncompete clauses and the lessons and initiatives from recruiters, healthcare organizations and providers. Here’s what you need to know about the future of physician employment:

  1. Data-driven screenings before speaking to recruiters

More organizations will double down on prescreening candidates for job-related skills and other requirements before funneling applications to the recruiter.

Updated digital resumes

Physician recruiters will look for skills and core competencies rather than a list of hobbies and where you like to travel. Include skills specific to your specialty that identify your level of proficiency, such as surgical precision and other skills in which you excel, like patient assessment.

Additionally, physician candidates hoping to stand out will start using cloud-based digital resumes. While static resumes such as downloadable PDF and Word documents aren’t going away anytime soon, cloud resumes are dynamic, online portfolios that update themselves when you acquire new skills. The data is represented via badges, graphs and automatically calculated scores that represent your capabilities and potential.

Specialized job portals

Online physician recruitment portals such as PracticeLink will be increasingly relied on for identifying top talent. These niche platforms are ideal for the healthcare industry because every registered applicant is like you—a qualified professional actively seeking new physician opportunities. To succeed in your job search, take advantage of PracticeLink’s unique features, such as in-depth interviews with a provider relations specialist and virtual career fairs.

Generative AI and Blockchain

Generative AI, which uses machine learning to generate original content, is currently an invaluable tool in hospitals for a range of administrative and patient documentation tasks. Now, recruiters are turning to encrypted AI programs to track, reach out to, and follow up with applicants based on specific data sets of hiring requirements.

Blockchain technology tracks data across a network of computers, forming a chain of new information that cannot be deleted or altered.

Verifying credentials for each physician can cost healthcare organizations as much as $3000 and take an average of three months – sometimes even six months. Now, there is blockchain-based credential verification such as the MIT digital diploma: A coded, certifiable digital version of a graduate’s diploma that allows organizations to authenticate credentials that have been written to the blockchain.

Background checks to confirm the provider’s education, licensing, work experience, criminal history, civil court history, drug screenings, national sex offender search and more are complex, costly and time-consuming. Now, organizations can use blockchain-based recruitment and background verification platforms to access work experience and other verified information faster.

Automated, prerecorded and on-demand interviews

These are solitary recorded interviews where candidates respond on camera to a predetermined set of open-ended prompts. They are highly structured and can be a little unsettling, but there’s generally an opportunity to delete and redo your answer as long as it is completed within a certain timeframe. To perform well, use bright lighting, dress for success like any other interview, use a portion of the allotted time to practice and write down your answer, then tape it to your monitor so you can act natural while looking at the camera instead of down at your desk to read what you wrote.

  1. Story-driven interviews with recruiters and management

Physician recruiters will attempt to draw out your backstory to a greater degree than ever before—what motivates and inspires you, what your family life entails, and what your dealbreakers are. They will also be more transparent and share intel about the hiring organization, the surrounding community, and the patient population. You can expect inquisitive phone calls, virtual interviews, and panel clencher interviews with the full hiring team. You’ll have to know your best look online and in person to succeed.

Compensation packages will vary widely based on what each recruit cares about most

In lieu of noncompete clauses, here are a few creative ways recruiters will try to woo physician recruits while also protecting the hiring organization from significant losses if new hires leave within the first couple of years of employment.

  • 401(k), 403(b) and 457 retirement plans where the percentage the organization matches activates and/or increases in intervals over time, such as after one, three and five years
  • Sign-on bonuses payable after the first year or first 18 months
  • Childcare/elderly parent support and flexibility
  • Stock options. These are more commonly associated with corporations; however, publicly traded hospitals (as opposed to private and university hospitals) may also offer stock options to their physicians
  • Contract wording that allows senior physicians and specialists to receive payments directly from pharmaceutical and medical device companies, publishing and speaking engagements
  • Employee referral incentives and annual bonuses
  • Employee sharing, where doctors are “shared” with other practices that agree to help cover the physician’s full asking salary
  • Paid expenses to educational and industry conferences
  • Discount pricing in the cafeteria or end-of-year meal reimbursement
  • Rideshare programs or car maintenance reimbursements
  • Home IT support for hybrid work
  • Student loan assistance and continued education incentives
  • Wellness programs such as gym memberships or mental health stipends
Work-life balance initiatives

Depending on the practice and specialty, physician recruiters will be increasingly open to negotiating hybrid work arrangements, flexible expectations for EHR and other paperwork and other ways to integrate balance in your busy schedule. For your part, come prepared with what you want and job-specific solutions on how it can work without putting undo strain on your colleagues or adversely affecting patient care.

Bias and bedside manner

Empathy and patient-first mentality will be key, including toward the growing elderly population. Diversity, equity and inclusion will be strictly embedded into recruitment strategies. If a physician has an implicit bias toward patients, it will adversely affect patient care. To help ensure every patient – no matter their race or gender – is taken seriously and provided with equal care, healthcare organizations must have a zero-tolerance policy. If you’re not sure where you stand, or you’re concerned about certain raw feelings that might manifest, take a free implicit bias test to see your triggers, then talk it through with a professional before the subject comes up in an interview.

  1. Purpose-driven roadmaps will guide candidate decisions

While physician recruiters are looking for skilled providers that have ambition within their specialty, excellent oral and written communication skills, confidence, critical thinking and an eagerness to learn, candidates will be looking for their own set of criteria. The mindset of tomorrow’s physician candidates will be idealistic as much as it is realistic, as they refuse to let anyone diminish their light. They’re interested in personal wellness and having a full life, which could be anything, depending on the individual.

Before starting your job search—and periodically throughout the process—think about what success means to you, what motivates you, and what an ideal practice would be. Focus on what gives you energy, what kind of environment you want to work in and what kind of interactions you want to have at work. Then, be prepared to articulate your ambitions and interests to the physician recruiter, keeping in mind what’s reasonably attainable.

Every resident finishes their program with the skills and experience that can translate to being a good physician. But, to live your life on your own terms, it’s important to align yourself with a practice where you can grow and thrive.