Did I screw myself out of this job??

DowntheRiver · Aug 1, 2015

I would move on and look at other positions. Until you have an actual offer letter, I would still be in the mindset of job-seeking. You never know what might come up.

BuckyBadgerRN, ASN, RN · Aug 5, 2015

I agree, it was a VERY bad move, but honestly, checking the IP address is pretty darned thorough! I would keep looking and keep my fingers crossed on this one...

Ok-so new BSN grad here. :) After months of applying for jobs I finally get an interview at a large teaching hospital for a new grad residency. Interview goes great- HR calls shortly after my interview and tells me the nurse manager wants to move forward with me an wants to check references (score!!).... This hospital checks references by sending my references emails with a survey about me (weird). So I submit four reference emails on my laptop. Here's the thing-one of my references is a close family friend I used to work private duty home health for...she used my laptop to fill out her survey. And no, I did not see or tell her what to say. At the time, I did not think this would screw me in the end....
The hospital calls me back two days later after all my references are submitted and asks for an additional reference because one of my references has the same IP computer address as what I used to set up the references. I give her another reference and have heard NOTHING from this job for two weeks now...
Did I screw myself? All my references are great... all clinical faculty from my school. Only ONE REFERENCE is from my same computer. Would this deny me of a job? I have been living in constant anxiety lately...I just want to know. I called HR the end of last week and asked the status and she gave me attitude about how one of my references is from the same computer...I explained to her what happened but she didn't seem like she cared. She said they are still looking at other candidates and will let me know this week...well this week is over and I haven't heard a thing.
Why would she ask for another reference if I completely screwed myself out of this? Do I still have a chance? It was only one reference, I'm sure they have to omit that one but I gave them a replacement reference. I can't wait any longer and need some insight...help!!!

OrganizedChaos, LVN · Aug 5, 2015

Yeah, I would put applications in elsewhere. But it's pretty weird they looked at IP addresses. :/

NurslingNicole · Aug 13, 2015

It's been a few days now. Just curious if you ended up hearing back from HR on this or not? My guess is that they had a bad experience in the past with someone providing them with a "reference" using their same computer IP address and were quick to assume that you were trying to pull a fast one on them. I'm sorry that this happened to you if it did end up actually causing you to lose out on this particular job... But you know how they say that when a door shuts, a window often opens? Maybe your window is wide open and you just don't know it yet. Keep applying at other jobs. You're bound to find something you love. :)

klone, MSN, RN · Aug 14, 2015

Something similar happened to a candidate we were interviewing. She was an internal candidate, and she harangued her colleagues into doing their reference surveys all at once, that same day, from the same computer at work. And all of them basically gave her the same exact sterling recommendation. To us, it reeked of coaching and lack of bias (as well as lack of integrity), and we moved on to a different candidate.

Sorry this happened to you, but yes, employers do check that, and if the survey came from your computer, it looks to HR like you either did the survey yourself, or sat with the person and told them what to write. Lesson learned, and I agree with the others that you should move on.