Help with job search

bananz · Feb 13, 2008

There are MANY places with work for CRNA's in Seattle. The level 1 trauma center is Harborview Medical Center, which is affiliated with University of Washington Medical Center. Other facilities include Virginia Mason, Swedish, VA Medical Center, Group Health and Seattle Children's Hospital.

I know Harborview, UW and Seattle Childrens all have positions posted ~ can't say for certain about the other facilities

good luck!

jwk · Feb 17, 2008

Hey guys,
I am an SRNA in Chicago looking at moving West after graduation. Specifically I am looking to move to Seattle/Tacoma. Does anyone have any insight into whom/where I should look for job openings? I have tried the normal avenues with minimal success, i.e. gaswork, monster.com, etc. The only place I can find is U of W. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!! 35 weeks and counting!

I'll tell this to anyone looking for anesthesia jobs - MD, AA, CRNA, student or grad. Gaswork.com and monster.com are NOT the "normal avenues". That's taking the lazy way out. You're looking for jobs to find you - and let me clue you in - MANY good employers will never use those "normal avenues" you mentioned nor will they come within a mile of a recruiting company charging a fat fee.

Do the legwork. Instead of using the internet for gaswork or monster.com, (or perhaps in addition to) use it to look up info on EVERY hospital in Seattle/Tacoma or any other hospital you want to check out. Have a professional-looking resume and cover letter made up, and using the information you've come up with, send it off to as many places you want to check out. Sending a resume implies no intent or commitment on your part, just an interest. It's cheap and honestly not a huge time investment for you. If it's a place you're really interested in, follow-up with a phone call in a couple of weeks if you've gotten no response. Maybe they're not hiring, but if you're really interested, make sure they know that and ask them to keep your name in their "active file".

I'm in the middle of trying to hire eight anesthetists, on top of the ten I hired last year (due to continued expansion). Here's what we do - We don't advertise and don't talk to recruiters. We go to AA and CRNA school job fairs and meetings in our corner of the country, take students out to dinner (sometimes the whole class) and promote our group in general, so that when students start thinking of a place to work, they'll at least think of that nice group in Atlanta that took me and 20 of my classmates out to dinner. We talk to anyone and everyone who comes by our table at a job fair. For those farther away, resumes and letters get reviewed and some sort of response sent out quickly, whether that's to come for an interview or thanks but no thanks.

One more word about recruiters and the hospitals/groups that use them. There's a reason they're using them, and it's frequently because they have difficulty hiring for one reason or another. Lousy job, lousy location, lousy compensation and/or benefits. If for some reason you use one, figure out which "lousy" applies.

Qwiigley, BSN, MSN, DNP, RN, CRNA · Feb 17, 2008

Very Good Advise, JWK. Those anesthesia providers that go the route you mentioned have already shown more initiative and IMHO worth taking a look at.