Finding a Hospital Job as a Surgical Technologist: Part 1 Surgical Technologists have one of the most interesting jobs in the world. Without having to go through the years of training that doctors do, they still work hands on in some of the toughest surgeries around.
Being Called Upon Depending on the hospital, Surgical Technologists can be called to assist in any case. They are just as needed as the doctors themselves. Surgical Techs are on call just as often and for the same amount of time as doctors. Doctors can’t do the surgery by themselves; they need their right hand men and women there to assist in any function. So if they’re so important, than why is it so hard for them to find a job after they graduate? If every doctor needs one or two, how is it so difficult to find one who needs you? Well the answer is pretty simple, and many times it has nothing to do with you. More often than not, the doctors simply don’t know you are there.
Getting Yourself Out There They can’t know your name if you don’t give it to them. You need to advertise yourself. Find every opportunity to introduce yourself in person, over the phone, or more importantly, through an application. Nothing tells an employer that you’re interested in working for them quite like an application. You can hee-haw all day on the phone about how great their company is and how you would love to work for them, but without that official application, your donkey speak does you no good. You need to get your resume into the hands of the people that can do something about it. Often times that place is the HR (Human Resources) Department. Get your applications/resumes to as many of these offices as you can get. Dropping off a resume in just one or two places isn’t enough on its own. The odds are against you that you’ll get more than a smiling face, an assurance that they’ll let you know if they have an opening and a sore behind from sitting next to the phone all day.
Diversify Improves Chances The chances of you finding a hospital that needs a Surgical Tech increase the more places you go. Find every possible place to drop off your resume and get rid of them. Jump through whatever loopholes it takes to get them to the right places. Most healthcare providers have switched to an electronic application submission process. You will need to create a login with a larger healthcare firm—i.e. Utah’s Mountain West Hospital chain— and begin filling out an application. They can often be tedious as they will all ask you the same questions, and then require you to rewrite your resume into their online forms. Stick with it though, and as soon as you get that application filled out, subsequent applications to the same company will become easier to submit. By doing this, you will make sure that your name will stick when Human Resources sees your application over and over again.
Photo Credit: Alex E. Proimos, Scottkellum