Sixty-three percent of residents have been approached with job opportunities by hospitals, medical groups and recruiting firms 51 times or more during the course of their training.
Furthermore, 46 percent of residents said they've been approached by recruiters 100 times or more during their training. This includes all recruiting letters, phone calls, personal conversations, emails or any other form of communication about a job to practice medicine.
The results are based on Merritt Hawkins' 2015 Final-Year Medical Residents Survey, which includes responses from more than 1,200 residents about to complete their training and enter the job market. Survey respondents participated from May to June 2014.
"Unlike virtually any other type of professional in today's economy, newly trained doctors are being recruited like blue chip athletes," said Mark Smith, president of Merritt Hawkins. "There are simply not enough physicians coming out of training to fill all the available openings."
Heavy recruiting has been on the upswing in the past two editions of the survey (this latest edition and that from 2011) after a decline in 2008. For instance, in 2008, only 6 percent of residents reported they were contacted more than 100 times by recruiters. That figure grew to 47 percent in 2011.
Most physicians (67 percent) find personal networking most useful for learning about job opportunities, followed by their residency program and online job boards. Medical journals and physician recruiters were cited as some of the least useful sources of information about jobs.
Despite their favorable employment outlook, some new physicians regret their choice of profession. When asked if they would study medicine if they had their education to do over again, 25 percent of residents said they would select another field.