Problem applying to hospitals before graduation

[wisemakl]

Hello everyone,

 

I'm graduating in December 2014.  I have started looking for jobs and thus far have applied for two positions and one residency.  I plan to pursue a job in a pediatric surgical subspecialty, preferably in a pediatric hospital.

 

I received an email this week from one of the hospitals stating that I was denied the position because I did not meet application requirements.  I was shocked and confused to receive this email (as there was no experience required), so I contacted HR.

 

The woman I spoke with explained that I did not meet the requirements of "state license, graduation from an accredited PA program, and NCCPA license."  I explained that I placed my graduation date on my application, and selected a start date for 2015, when I will have completed the PANCE.  She stated that it did not matter.  I asked if this meant I was unable to apply for any positions at their institution until after I had graduated and gotten my state license.  She stated that was the case, unless I was applying for a position that did not need a license.  

 

So now, I've been dismissed without having my application reviewed, for a position that I'm extremely interested in.  Also, I'm concerned that my application is going to be filtered out of these electronic applications at other hospitals. 

 

Does anyone have experience with this or suggestions of how I can solve the problem?  I thought of putting on the license/certification sections  something like "PANCE - eligible, NCCPA eligible," so that if the application is only searched by a computer using search terms the words will exist on my application.

I'd appreciate any help you can offer! 

[EMEDPA]

I've always found that the best way to get jobs is not to deal with HR at all. deal with medical directors and clinicians. let them make the decision to hire you then they can pass on notice to HR that it is a done deal. I have had 7 jobs as a PA and have never spoken with an HR person until after I was offered the job by a clinician in a position of authority.

[whoRyou]

Personally, I have found once you identify a position you are interested in, DO NOT IMMEDIATELY APPLY FOR THE POSITION! That is exactly what all the other job seekers are doing and as you know, the payoff for following this approach is very low. The process I recommend is to go to LinkedIn, and find employees of this company that have a direct link to your LinkedIn network. Then work through your network to contact this person. This process will give you a much higher likelihood of having the hiring manager of the position read your resume'/VITA. You can always apply later through the regular process once you have made direct contact to the company.

[rev ronin]

HR exists to weed out inappropriate applicants and send only pre-vetted ones to the hiring manager for consideration.  Unfortunately, they're not content experts, so all they can do is read the rules and assess you against the black-and-white criteria.  That's why HR should be avoided if at all possible, as EMEDPA notes above.

[gbrothers98]

You should be able to find out whom the clinical head of the department you want to join is by going to hospital website and looking at provider directory.

Likely if it is a larger place, this person is in that department and has a secretary. Call and see if you can get an appt to discuss the position.

The only thing I would warn you about is that in the status you are, you are still an unknown. You havent graduated yet, you havent passed the PANCE. 

Even when you graduate, you will still have to wait at least a week to take the PANCE, another week to 2 to get results. You may or may not be able to apply for a state license without PANCE passed. You definitely wont be able to get hospital credentialing till you have passed PANCE and state license in place. Likely you will have to get a DEA license too. This is what you run into when going to work at a hospital. Months of waiting on paperwork and a process.

Quicker to get a job and get working at a freestanding clinic, dont have to get credentialed.

Good luck.

G Brothers PA-C