The interview from h**l. Did I do the right thing?

Question

Do you think this was a bizarre interview approach?

Was this a bizarre interview? WOULD YOU have done this?

I would really love some feedback on this one! I was called to interview for a greater than life job at a local hospital. I did intially interview and it went well. I felt that they would be offering me the "job" as a clinical supervisor. I got a calll the next day to intervierw with a panel of nurses that I would potentially be supervising.. I loved this idea!!

I met with this bunch today about 10 staff members. I sat in a circle and the generic interview questions rang off. I really like the bunch that I was there with until one nurse pulled out a list of questions and fired one after another at me. Like I was at a firing range and I was the target.

She asked some very good quesitons, but a few were asked with inappropriate language.. LIke "what would you do with a **** stirrer?" I answered very honestly.. then she pulled out my resume and said you have left many jobs in just more than a year. Explan yourself.? I did very eloquyantly and explained some positions I had to pursue elsewehre due to the nature of degree I was pursuing at school ect. She was very rude, harsh and inappropriate with her inquires and told me "I just want to make sure you are going to stick around" "we have had so many managers over the last couple of years " There was other odd things that came out of the interview like expections of me working more than full time ect..

I thought about this weird impression and though I'd write a kind letter outlining my impression of what I was originally interviewing for and what the job really was. I futhered the letter by telling the manager that the choice of employee's to speak to me was for the most part positive except the one outlined above. I did tell her as a manager to another this was not a good impression of your office and on that alone i would decline any offers of employment.....

I did tell her that I was NOT interested in pursuing this position any further and thank her for her interest.

Would you have done this?

Answer 1

Maybe they just wanted to see how you react when dealing with unpleasant people, as you undoubtedly would from time to time. The questions you described do not seem inappropriate to me, even if her tone was a little "harsh." I think you overreacted by turning the job down before it was even offered, if everything was good except that one person.

(By the way, what is a **** stirrer? And what was your answer to that question?)

Answer 2

Honestly, No you did not.  All you did was show them that you can not handle pressure and are not a team player.  In the letter you assumed they were going to offer you the job when in fact if you did that bad in the interview they most likely were not going to. And even if they were going to, there are much better way to decline a job offer.I doubt you will ever work for that company (or on of their associates) because of the letter so I hope you did not set your self back in your career.

Answer 3

As an HR Recruiter for three large hospitals, I definitely can tell you, you did the right thing.  That is very unprofessional to have what would be YOUR staff interview you, a meet and greet would of been fine.  But having staff interview you undermines what could of been your potential authority. Though you may have thought it was kind of a good idea to interview with the staff, it really should have raised red flags; why would your potential employees interview you?  The reasons are as you probably gathered from the interview is that the staff has problems, and mgmt may have thought there input would be good because they have had unsuccessful mangers in the past, but instead of looking at the staff as the problem they must have laid it on past supervisors.  You said the one employee said they had so many managers come and go in the last couple of years - there's a reason for that, either they are a difficult staff or the hospital is having mgmt issues themselves, the good don't stay in a bad environment.  My experience with mgmt turnovers in a nursing floor/dept is due to staff issues and no higher mgmt support to correct the issues.  A professional organization would have had you interview with your potential boss and or your equals you may work with the same authority.  There is never any good reason to have your staff interview your boss.  So if you should ever encounter this again, be aware that there are more issues there.  If the employer wants opinions from the Staff it should be on a meet & greet, like Jane Doe is a candidate we a seriously considering for Our Clinical Supervisor position she has a strong background in x*x and several years of experience and feel she may be a wonderful contribution to Supervise this area and we are showing her around and introducing her to some of the staff, and staff should be professional and say hi, with maybe small chat if time allows it.  There opinion shouldn't hold much weight, but the staff could feel like they contributed w/o taking any authority away from you or your role if they hired you.  The only thing I would suggest doing next time is to call and speak with the Recruiter or HR person who arranged the interview, and professionally and politely explain that you aren't interested.  Sometime no call back just followed up by a letter seems cold, and the people interpreting the letter could put a negative slant on it in their own heads because they don't know you and declining for negative reasons w/the staff may reflect poorly for to be considered w/them in any other positions or for the future even if it's 10 years later - these things are tracked now, plus hospitals keep in contact w/other hospitals and even though it's illegal to black-ball a person out of a job it happens because they say to each other "off the record" and there is never any proof just one persons opinion to another and the contacts use that information as gold - trust me, I see it happen all the time - I'm not a follower in this but not everyone has a real world person telling them that's not right.  So after all that, you don't want to work in that dept anyway.  If you are concerned you may have burned a bridge I would just follow up with a call I would assume you met w/and HR person or at least someone higher up in Nursing that you could explain your position to, and you can always leave the door open saying you don't feel this position is right for you, but would love to be considered for something in the future.  Hopefully they are recongizing they have issues in the dept and are looking to solve them, and won't include staff in interviews in the future.

Good luck in your job search!

Nursing Recruiter, 10+yrs exp.

Answer 4

Not really.  Every interview I've ever had, I've had difficult questions fired at me, one after the other.

Answer 5

I think you did the right thing because now they know there is a problem within their institution and that it needs to be dealt with.

Answer 6

NO not all all. Congratulation you just burned a bridge I hope you do not need in the future.  If you were offended (and if you were you offend way to easy) if the job was actually offered to you, you should have just turned it down stating you were given another offer and accepted.  By venting your anger you came off looking bad and if you ever apply there again they will remember you and not in a good way.