According to the 2005 Veterinary Economics Job Satisfaction and Professional Outlook Study, 32 percent of veterinary hospitals plan to add a veterinarian in the next five years. Graduating veterinarians receive four to five bona fide offers for employment; corporations say they can hire every veterinarian coming out of school next year and still not fill all their vacancies.

So it's definitely an employee's market—as it has been for several years. But the market will get even tighter. So if you want to hire a new associate, you need to strategize or you may not be successful.

I recently presented a seminar in Philadelphia, and an attending veterinarian told me he's been looking for an associate for more than three years and hasn't had a nibble. He's in his early 40s, married, and has a 3-year-old daughter. He works long hours, owns a high-volume, relatively low-cost practice, and says he's on the edge of burnout. In fact, if he doesn't find someone by the end of the year, he's going to sell the practice and get out of the profession.

I asked him what steps he had taken to try to recruit a new associate. He said he'd put some ads in the journals and talked to the sales people that came to his practice—and that was it! He didn't know what else to do, nor did he have the time or energy to do much more.

Times have changed. And if you want a new associate, you need to recruit more aggressively. And these strategies can improve your chances of finding and hiring a new doctor.

Cast a wide net on the Internet

Not too many years ago I lectured at veterinary schools and received numerous thank-you cards days and weeks later. I still lecture at veterinary schools, but no longer receive cards. Instead, I receive e-mails.

Today's students e-mail their friends down the corridor to see whether they'd like to go out for a drink. Their primary method of communication and information is the Internet. So it stands to reason that most new graduates will go to the Web when they look for a job.

Posting on the Internet today is a must. And this approach has perks. It's often less expensive than print advertising, and you can include more information and post pictures of your practice. Most veterinary schools have a Web site for job postings, and there are numerous veterinary-specific Web sites where you can post a job listing.

Look at some Web sites and ask yourself, "If I were looking for a job, which site would I go to and what type of ad would I respond to?"