Most advice about getting a job in digital health comes from people who got one. That is useful. But it is not the same as advice from someone who has read tens of thousands of applications, interviewed hundreds of candidates, and hired over a thousand clinicians across companies like Teladoc, Lyra Health and HeliosX.

Jason Spinney has done all of that. He is now Head of Talent at BiteLabs, and he sat down with us for an honest conversation about what actually works when clinicians try to break into digital health. You can watch the full session in our recruiter's playbook.

What follows is not a motivational guide. It is what he actually looks for, and what gets applications deleted before anyone reads them.

What Recruiters Actually Do with Your Application

Before getting into tactics, it helps to understand what happens on the other side of the submit button.

"I don't need to spend more than five or ten seconds on a CV to see if somebody's potentially a fit for it. We're trying to delete as many as possible in the beginning."

That is not callousness. It is reality. Digital health companies receive large volumes of applications for every role. The recruiter's job in the first pass is not to find reasons to progress candidates. It is to find reasons to move on.

That changes how you should think about every element of your application. The question is not "does this CV represent me accurately?" It is "does this CV survive five seconds of scanning by someone who is looking for a reason to move on?"

For most clinicians the answer, in its current form, is no. And the fix is usually not about adding more. It is about removing what does not belong and making what remains immediately legible to someone who has never worked in a hospital.

The Clinical CV Problem

Jason sees this constantly. A clinician applies for a product management role. Their CV opens with their medical degree, their postgraduate qualifications, a list of publications, their audit experience, their teaching commitments and their exam results. None of it answers the question the recruiter is asking.

"What are you bringing that is specifically relevant to this company and this role right now?"

The clinical background matters. But it needs to be translated. A list of audits does not tell a hiring manager that you can identify a problem, define a solution, test it and measure outcomes. Even though that is exactly what an audit is. The translation is your job. The recruiter will not do it for you.

The LinkedIn Non-Negotiable

"A LinkedIn profile is mandatory for networking and visibility to recruiters."

This comes up before the CV. Recruiters search LinkedIn before they post jobs, before they review applications, and as a first check on candidates whose CVs do make it through the initial filter.

If your LinkedIn profile still reads like a hospital staff biography — clinical role, training grade, a few publications — it creates immediate doubt. Even if your CV is strong, a LinkedIn profile that shows no engagement with the digital health space suggests your interest may not be genuine or sustained.

What should it show instead? At minimum: a headline that reflects your interest in digital health rather than just your clinical title. A summary that describes what you are working toward and why. Some evidence of engagement with the industry — posts, articles, comments on relevant conversations.

What Actually Gets You in the Room

Digital health hiring, particularly at the startup and scale-up level, is heavily network-driven.

"80% of the healthtech roles are never really advertised. They actually go through internal referrals."

That number changes how you should be spending your time. If most roles go through referrals, optimising your CV is necessary but not sufficient. Getting into a room with the right people is often more valuable.

This is one of the reasons the BiteLabs fellowship exists. The alumni network includes people at most of the significant UK and US digital health companies. A warm introduction from someone who has worked with you on a real project is worth more than a perfectly crafted application to a job listing.

The Interview Process Is Different from Medicine

Clinical interviews test knowledge and judgment within a familiar domain. Digital health interviews test something different: how you think about problems you have not encountered before, how you communicate across disciplines, and whether you have the mindset for a fast-moving environment.

Research the Company Specifically

Not digital health in general. The specific company, their specific product, their specific mission. Recruiters can tell immediately whether a candidate has done real research or generic preparation.

"Being able to talk to their business, what's important to them, and make sure that they know that hopefully it's important to you."

Use the STAR Method

Situation, Task, Action, Result. Every behavioural question should be answered with a specific story that ends with a measurable outcome. Clinicians tend to be good at the situation and task parts. They struggle with the action and result parts because clinical medicine does not always reward quantifying outcomes. In an industry interview it is essential.

Prepare for Product Sense Questions

For product management roles especially, expect questions that test how you think about problems rather than what you know. "How would you improve our onboarding experience?" "What metrics would you use to measure the success of this feature?" There are no right answers. The question is whether you can think through the problem clearly.

Ask Good Questions

"I love as a recruiter to be challenged. If I say something and somebody challenges me, I want that. I want to know that you're interested in the job, that you're interested in what we're explaining."

Asking no questions, or asking generic questions about culture and benefits, suggests low engagement. Asking specific, intelligent questions about the role and the company signals that you have done the work.

Follow Up

This one is underrated. Jason recommends following up at least once after an interview if you have not heard back. Not repeatedly and not aggressively. But a single professional follow-up one week after the interview is appropriate and shows persistence without being pushy.

The Mindset Shift That Matters Most

"There's not really room in the health tech or telehealth space for people that just kind of want to say, 'Well, you know what? I just want to see my 20 patients today, clock out, and then I'm gone.' Because we're trying to make 20 patients, 40 patients for tomorrow."

That is not a criticism of clinical practice. It is a description of a different mode of working. And it is worth being honest with yourself about whether that mode appeals to you before you invest significant time in a transition.

The clinicians who thrive in digital health tend to be the ones who found something limiting about the traditional clinical model — not the patient care itself, but the pace of change, the constraints, the inability to fix systemic problems from inside the room. If that resonates, the motivation tends to be genuine and it shows in interviews.

The Entry Points Jason Recommends

For clinicians without prior digital health experience, Jason pointed to a few specific entry routes that tend to work.

Clinical Oversight Roles

Many digital health companies need clinicians to provide governance, safety review or clinical sign-off on content and products. These roles are sometimes contract or part-time. They are a way in without requiring you to leave clinical practice entirely.

Contract and 1099 Positions

In the US particularly, contract positions are a legitimate first step. They give you a track record in the industry, a reference and often a route to a permanent role.

Customer Success and Clinical Implementation

These roles are one of the most direct paths for clinicians without prior industry experience. You are immediately credible to the clinical customers you are working with, and the role puts you inside a company where you can learn how the business works.

The Small Details That Matter More Than You Think

"Nothing's everything, but everything's something. Even if it's a little bit, everything's a little bit of something. And you don't want to have a bunch of those little bits when you're such a great candidate."

He was talking about the accumulation of small errors — a typo in a cover letter, an inconsistency between your CV and your LinkedIn, a generic subject line, a missing follow-up. None of these things individually disqualify you. But they accumulate into a signal about how much care you are bringing to the process.

For clinicians who are used to an environment where attention to detail can be the difference between a correct and an incorrect diagnosis, that framing should feel familiar. The same care you bring to clinical work is what gets you through the door in digital health.

Where to Go from Here

If you are actively applying for digital health roles right now, start with the basics. Update your LinkedIn. Identify two or three companies whose products you genuinely find interesting and research them properly.

If you want to build the experience base that makes applications stronger, our UK and US fellowships give you real project work with a real company over eight weeks. That is the kind of tangible experience Jason describes as genuinely differentiating.

And if you want one-to-one help navigating the application process, our career coaching service works specifically with clinicians on CV translation, interview preparation and role targeting.