Looking Beyond The Generic Radiology Job Tease

Someone posted a semi-hypothetical on radiology social media last week: Would you jump on a $X-per-RVU opportunity? X was a pretty plump number, nearly double what I earn now.

There were other details, but not many, and certainly not the sort of things one would want to know before seriously pursuing a job. One might react differently, for instance, if one knew that the gig was exclusively overnights for a week at a time with heavy expectations of productivity as opposed to “log in whenever you like and read what you please.”

It wasn’t for long, but I confess that the mention of X got my attention, notwithstanding my solid satisfaction with my current gig. Whatever part of the brain considers such potential rewards clearly has the jump on other parts that consider things like “what’s the catch,” “too good to be true,” and “devil is in the details.” That ties into why people gamble: “I could win” outweighs “Losing is more probable,” at least long enough for that losing to occur.

Another phenomenon at play, especially for radiologists in this hot job market, reminded me of the generic ballot effect (probably because of where we are in the election cycle). One sees it when the relevant November is months if not years ahead.

Pollsters don’t yet have specific names to match up against one another so they ask folks about how they would vote for a generic candidate from this party versus a generic candidate from that one. More frequently, they know who one of the candidates is with an incumbent situation and respondents are then asked if they would pull for the incumbent versus an unspecified challenger.

In recent times of low approval ratings, being a “known” tends to work against you. The public can look at your track record and find fault with it. Your generic opponent, by contrast, is whatever voters imagine him or her to be. The more against you they are, the more intensely they hope and convince themselves that whoever comes out of the woodwork to challenge you will be better.

I think the same sort of thing happens when rads hear about alternative prospects for work. Their current circumstances are known incumbents, warts and all. Most of us could come up with at least a few things we would like to see changed in our professional lives, however minor. It is easy to imagine the absence of those things in a hypothetical new gig, especially if that opportunity grabs attention by promising fatter paychecks.

Meanwhile, we might not be so quick to think about what other unsavory things might be waiting for us in the new gig, especially if whoever is hyping it is a good hyper. The job poster is not likely to put the liabilities on display while trying to drum up interest. Heck, the person posting the job might not even know about any. A rad spending his or her time to bring in new blood has less time to spend in the reading room trenches, dealing with whatever imperfections his or her operations inflict on the grunts.

Frequently, the things that get our attention with prospective new jobs are far from detailed profiles of what we would be walking into if we went ahead and applied. They are like the teasers that recently came out for the next Avengers flick, barely enough to get your attention but far from trailers which might give you a good idea of what is forthcoming.

Such teasers might be a little annoying, just like any ad. Great, you demanded my attention and then gave me nothing of substance. It is the radiological equivalent of clickbait. Alternatively, maybe you got a little more taken in by the generic job (“I could be earning that much?!?”) and taken on a little emotional roller coaster before coming to your senses. But are they doing any harm?

Maybe. I mentioned the phenomenon in a previous blog, years ago, of mentally getting yourself one foot out the door of whatever job you currently have. It’s hard to take that foot back once you have started thinking about leaving for greener pastures.

It doesn’t matter so much if it wasn’t your foot out the door to begin with, but rather a foot in the door from whoever put the generic teaser in your path. You peeked out, and even a little bit of momentum might result. Next thing you know, you might just be looking at other teasers, or even full-on recruitment listings “to see what’s out there.” Perhaps you get a little more attentive to imperfections in your current situation and find more reasons to leave it.