Frustrated and seeking professional/experienced advice re: NI position

[MelissaSong]

I applied for an NI position a few months ago that has opened up within my facility. Here is my dilema and background. I am a nurse with an ASN degree, 8 classes short of a BSN (in which I am currently pursuing).

I have been a nurse since 2008 working in a variety of clinical settings. Neuro/Trauma for 2 yrs at another location and Float Pool/ICU at the current. I have had the ability to float throughout the current hospital in all acute/long term/clinic settings so I am very familiar with all of our computer applications and am able to apply them in all clinical settings.

We have a large variety of computer applications that we utilize in different areas. Ive also created and provided numerous examples in the interview/post interview emails of tasks and projects I have accomplished for the facility that we will use officially and satff members have used unofficially within the clinical setting. (For example I created a flow sheet from a blank word document that is to be utilized hospital wide within our facility for increased/more accurate documentation purposes for the safe practices of our patients). I also have 6 years working under my father as an assistant manager for the hotel he owned completing multiple proposals, accounting functions and a variety of other tasks, so I am very very familiar with word, excel, powerpoint, and quickbooks.

My husband also owns his own company in which I have done many of the same accounting functions, created proposals/bids for. I can provide my resume and emails sent. Throughout my panel interview and post interview they stated they loved my enthusiam, clinical experience, and was looking for someone who had the self motivation as I expressed. A few weeks later I recieved an email stating although they appreciate my enthusiam they wanted to yield a larger pool of applicants and opened the position to the public but would keep my application. The position posted, closed and had been 1 month so I sent another follow up letter requesting an update when she was available. A month later she sent an email saying, "we did go external to try to yield some candidates with educational background in informatics." Not a definitive yes or no.

The person who had been in the position prior was reassigned to another position unrelated to NI. The only information I have on him was that he had a previous degree in IT and only 6 months of clinical nursing experience. He told numerous people that "they kept placing more tasks for him to complete that he could not handle." Which I know maybe irrelevant, however I need advice as to where to continue on from here.

I am also an individual who is very known amongst my peers and coworkers as being someone who is familiar with computers and am sought after for questions that I expressed throughout the interview. I need help. I don't have what she maybe looking for on a physical piece of paper but I am very well qualified and am not sure what to do next.

[ikarus01]

Hello Melissa,

From what describe, you do seem to have the skills and drive to definitely get an informatics position, but many times hospitals reject candidates for reasons which even I don't understand.

In one hospital, for example we had this really qualified candidate whose interview performance was shot down simply because during the group interview, a couple of people said they got 'the wrong vibes.'

But I'm sure that's not what you want to hear, and truly, I just want to give you some perspective on how I entered the field.

While working as a nurse, I went back to school and got a computer science degree, and fortunately for me, I was able to land an IT job for a major computer company which had nothing to do with healthcare---or at least my position had nothing to do with healthcare.

After 2 years in that company, I decided to look for healthcare IT jobs and I submitted my resume to dozens of jobs and a couple of job boards.

I had tons of interviews and the funny thing about that experience is that I interviewed for at least half a dozen hospitals if not more, and they all rejected me.

I would actually get to the 2nd or 3rd interview only to be rejected and given something along the lines of, "You have clinical experience, and you have IT experience, but we are concerned that you have never implemented a project at a hospital, and we want somebody with hospital project implementation experience."

Honestly, this people made it seem as if implementing a project at a hospital was something only those who descended from Einstein could do.

And as I have told before, 6 months into the job hunt and constant rejections, I got a call from a major vendor and in a matter of days, they flew me out for an interview, and offered me a job the next day.

And you read that right...even thought I had clinical experience, a computer science degree, and 2years of solid IT experience, it took me 6 months to get a job in informatics, and this is back when it was very easy to get a job in this field, as not many people were applying for these jobs, and yet, I managed to get a high rejection rate! :rotfl:

When all my rejections kept piling up, I simply kept searching and applying for more jobs. Is this the first job you applied for and got rejected or have you applied to others?

[MelissaSong]

This is the first one I have applied for. I am in a situation where I would like to stay in the city I am living in. Its has been extremely frustrating. One of my follow up emails with one of the members of the panel stated they were all very excited about how the interview went. I just don't get it, and why no definitive yes or no you did not recieve the position.

[DSkelton711]

I think they are hoping to find someone with specific IT experience or education. I think if you want to pursue IT you should continue your education. And I don't know if this factors in, but since you are a "float" this may put them off. Not that anything is wrong with that but in this hiring environment these days seems human resources and hiring managers look at things in a critical way. Good Luck to you.

[MelissaSong]

Thank you for your input, I do appreciate it. I am actually a permanant ICU nurse at the facility but was a full time float pool nurse. The facility is small.

[MelissaSong]

I guess what it is that I'm ultimately seeking advice for is do I re-email her and restate that I will continue on with a degree and do what it takes to excel in the position

[ikarus01]

from your post it says they told you the following:

a month later she sent an email saying, "we did go external to try to yield some candidates with educational background in informatics." not a definitive yes or no.

given the reason they are giving you, this simply tells me that they specifically are looking to get somebody with a specific background.

a lot of hospitals believe that such candidates would be easier to train as they already have a specific background.

however, what you don't know is, did everybody find your personality 'likeable' in the interview.

nobody is going to come out and tell you, "well, yea, you did well on the inteview, but such and such person didn't think you would be a match for the personality we have in our current team."

also, is this the only hospital in your city?

as far as what to do next...i personally have seen these type of situations not get any better.

in other words, you could send an email asking what the status is, or re-stating your qualifications, but if they already made the decision not to hire you, this might not change, and it can even reinforce their decision not to hire you.

obviously though, every case is unique, and i would be curious to know if you're in contact with an hr person or a hiring manager/director?

[MelissaSong]

this is one of 8 hospitals in the area, the 7 others hospitals are affiliated. i haven't been in contact with anyone in HR and the point of contact is the only person making the decision. this facility is extremely unique and odd in how many aspects and does not function in many ways as a typical healthcare entity would.

[ikarus01]

this is one of 8 hospitals in the area, the 7 others hospitals are affiliated. i haven't been in contact with anyone in HR and the point of contact is the only person making the decision. this facility is extremely unique and odd in how many aspects and does not function in many ways as a typical healthcare entity would.

A couple of other questions...the last form of contact you had was this person was the email to inform you that she had gone external looking for an informatics candidate? How long ago was this? And as far as you know, the post for the position closed, but they have not hired a candidate yet?

[MelissaSong]

Prior to the decision to obtain a larger pool of applicants she stated she would keep my interview responses within the larger pool

[MelissaSong]

The interview was 3 months ago. The posting for external applicants was 2 months ago. She also informed me that i would receive an answer regrdless. The last email stated they did try to yield some candidates with informatics..but no one had been selected

[ikarus01]

The interview was 3 months ago. The posting for external applicants was 2 months ago. She also informed me that i would receive an answer regrdless. The last email stated they did try to yield some candidates with informatics..but no one had been selected

At this point I suppose your only options are either to wait for a response, or to again, email this person asking if a decision has been made.

But maybe this time around, you might want to ask for feedback (in a nice way obviously) as to why you might not have been selected for the job. For example, something along the lines of, I'm really interesting in becoming "name of position", and would really love to hear some feedback as to how I can improve my resume or my interviewing skills or my professional credentials to land a position in this field.

At any point, did you ask if there was a date as to when they would fill the position or a date when you would specifically know if you made it or if you didn't?