ASTROnews: Making the connection

ASTRO launches Career Center

Researchers predict that sociodemographic changes in the United States and an increase in the aging population will lead to an increase in cancer incidence. Combined with a predicted 23 percent increase in the demand for radiation oncology services over the next 10 years (Benjamin Smith et al, abstract presented at 2009 ASTRO Annual Meeting), the concern becomes: where does one go to find qualified professionals in our specialty?

ASTRO has long offered members a Job Placement Center, and as the leader in radiation therapy, ASTRO recognized its responsibility to update and enhance the Job Placement Center.

Launched in April 2010, the new ASTRO Radiation Oncology Career Center allows both member and nonmember employers to use the Career Center to reach qualified candidates. Employers can post jobs online, search for qualified candidates based on specific job criteria and create an online resume agent to receive e-mail notifications of qualified candidates. Employers also benefit from online reporting that provides job activity statistics.

As one employer who used the new Career Center for the first time said, “The ASTRO Career Center is the number one resource we use when filling our radiation oncology vacancies. I like how the new employer profile feature allows us to link to our newly created homepage and provide a summary about us.” 

The ASTRO Career Center is a free service for job seekers, providing access to employers and jobs in the radiation oncology and healthcare industries. In addition to posting resumes, job seekers can browse and view available jobs based on criteria they’ve selected. Job seekers can also create a search agent to prompt e-mail notifications of jobs that match their criteria.

A job seeker said, “I like the look of the new site. I also like how my profile and application data are posted, as well as the display format. As well, the job postings are also easier to browse through. [The] application process is more user-friendly and intuitive.”

Another user had some questions about setting up search agents, as he was not getting the scope of jobs he was looking for. Our tip to this job seeker is be sure to set up your keyword search to search the entire job announcement, not just the titles, and also include as many keywords as necessary.

A new feature of the ASTRO Career Center is an alliance with the National Healthcare Career Network, a network of more than 200 healthcare associations. This alliance exposes job announcements to significantly more qualified job seekers and gives job
seekers access to more job opportunities.         

Take a tour of the new Career Center at www.astro.org/careercenter. Look for more from the Career Center in coming months, including information about the Career Fair at the ASTRO Annual meeting.

How to use Keywords to find the perfect job

• Type in a word or phrase and click the search button. The search will also return similar versions of the keyword.
  Example: Entering the word “manager” will return results for manager, as well as management and managerial.
• Leave the “Search Job Titles Only” box unchecked unless you want to limit your search to words in the job title only.
• Match an exact phrase by placing quotes around the phrase.
  Example: Entering the phrase “Project Manager” with quotation marks will return the exact phrase “project manager” and not “project management” or “project managers.”
• Search for multiple key words by using the “or” operator or by placing a comma between words.
  Example: Entering apple or orange or apple, orange will return results for apples as well as results for oranges.
• Add parentheses to nest expressions within a search. The expressions in parentheses are evaluated before the rest of the search. You may also use the “not” operator to filter results from a search.
  Example: Entering (apple OR orange) NOT banana as shown will return results for apples as well as results for oranges, but will not display any records that contain bananas.