Taking some educational courses such as the Physician in Management courses can help you speak the language of management so you can get on committees and be influential. For example, if you have taken a course on Quality , you can speak the language that will be used in that committee. In a recent on-line discussion about job searches, one anesthesiologist said recruiters would not consider him for positions because he was not in a primary care specialty. Another anesthesiologist immediately responded and said he had been in management for 25 years. The barrier of not being a primary care specialist is overcome most often by networking-you know someone who knows you are good at management tasks and he or she recommends you for more of those tasks.
Stories abound about the power of networking.
Everyone knows someone who got a job because they knew someone who led to it. Most can even tell you how it happened to them once or twice. It may have happened as far back as high school. With all the past evidence of the process working, we still often attribute the job hunting success to luck and hate trying to make it happen again by talking to people about what we want. But it must be done.