Healthcare IT Today

Guide to Successfully Working as a Consultant in the Healthcare IT Industry – Intro

Posted on 09. Feb, 2012 by David Kushan in Career Coaching, Career Paths, Careers, Consulting, Featured, Job Seekers

As the Healthcare IT market has heated up, so has the demand for new jobs to be filled.  I have been in staffing (permanent placement and contract) for 19 years.  Fifteen of these years have been in the healthcare clinical application space.  In all of this time I have not seen the market go from such an extreme low to high demand for people in such a short period of time.

For our firm, most of the full time permanent positions we place require a candidate to relocate for the job.  What I think is exceptionally unique about the upswing in demand is that, although many people are open to looking or may even want to leave their current job, the housing market has made it very difficult for many to seriously consider relocation.  As a result, these people are considering getting into consulting or contracting (which really are two different things).

Unfortunately, many of the people I talk to that are considering consulting are, in my professional opinion, being misled with regards to:

What skills are required?

What am I worth?

Do I join a consulting firm?

Do I become an independent?  If so, how do I price myself?  How do I market myself?

Can I work remotely?

What can this lead to long term?

I know the questions above are common, and I also know the answers I give you will be unique.  With the lack of experience in the market, I hear a lot of misinformation and I spend a lot of time educating with facts.  I don’t claim to know more than those at some of the reputable firms; however my tenure in the industry has given me insight that outweighs that of the many new firms in the Healthcare IT world over the last year.

What I hope to do over the next couple of weeks is provide a multi-part guide that will encompass factors to be considered by anyone looking to enter this field.  As this field is changing, some aspects of what I discuss may be out of date or irrelevant six months from now.  But, I hope to give an accurate snapshot of what needs to be considered today, that is often being overlooked, as well as a strong foundation to move forward.

If you are going to be at HIMSS, feel free to email me to set up a time to meet with me or someone from our organization: David@HealthcareIS.com.

David Kushan

David Kushan has spent the last 18 years of his career working as a Search Consultant in the Healthcare Information Technology industry. David established HealthcareIS in 1998 (originally as Management Recruiters of Davis) and works as both Managing Partner and Search Consultant. Over the last 16 years, David and his team have assisted over 120 organizations in all regions of the country with their Clinical Healthcare Information Technology staffing needs.

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Tags: Consulting, David Kushan, guide, healthcare it industry, workforce