Penalized for too many interests

Ruby Vee, BSN · Aug 12, 2012

How long does one have to pay for choices made 12 years agio, I an talking job changes, and I am also being penalized for being laid off and taking another job. I have to pay the bills. What is HR"S problem?

You're not being penalized for too many interests. If you are being penalized -- and I hesitate to think that you are being penalized so much as living with today's economy -- it's for job hopping.

PennyWise · Aug 12, 2012

How many times were you told that it was specifically your work history that caused you not to be hired? Once, or many times (showing a trend). Just wondering.

Whenever I see a post by someone unhappy about not getting hired or upset with something they were told by a HR department, I recall one thing. It is something I was taught in my nursing programs exit meeting (taught by the school's career counsoling manager) that was later confirmed by a friend who worked in human resources:

HR employees have quotas/performance markers just like the rest of us. One of said markers is a range of interviews they must perform for each job opening. They must perform at least "X" interviews (to avoid people claiming they are not being "equal opportunity employers") but no more than "Y" (to avoid the HR person being inefficient). Often, a position is posted but the manager of the hiring unit already has a person in mind for it. Its just a fact of life that many positions (the ones worth while anyway) are filled internally. This leaves the interviewer in a position of having to perform interviews for a position that is, in every sense of the word, filled (yet they have not formally offered the position). The HR person will then do a day or two of blitz interviews to satisfy the quota, then proceed to go through the motions of offering the position to the person who was going to get it all along. The people who interviewed for the position, unknowingly only for the sake of the quota, are left wondering what went wrong and why they were no picked. This is especially sensitive when it is an internal position and everyone knows one another.

This system/problem is not going to go away, its just a fact of life. What does need to be eliminated though is how these interviewers handle applicants post "blitz interviews". Often, they find themselves ready to move on to the next project, but their phone is constantly ringing from people who are calling about the job they just filled (believe it or not, there are still many people who believe being aggressive and calling every day after an interview is the best way to get hired). Many applicants want to know why they were not hired. Sometimes the interviewer is simply arrogant. Whatever the reason is, interviewers eventually feel the need to bring closure to the finished project and try to get there by offering a reason the applicant is not fired: "We found someone with more experience" (may or may not be true), "Your credit check revealed some suspicious trends", "We felt your expectations of the position were not realistic", "It was too difficult to get responses from some of your references", "Your work history has too many "interests".

Regardless of what reason they give, often they are simply pulling something out of their hat, they just want closure. It is neither well thought out nor accurate. This leaves the applicant's head spinning while they try to find a solution to the problem when.........there really is none. They spend hours grasping for straws, pondering minute details and hoping to find a way to keep from repeating the mistake. Problem is, they then start to over thinking everything and do more harm than good.

I read some of the posts here and on another non-nursing forum I frequent and can't help but wonder how much of this is going on. People picking and prying at every detail of an interview, wondering how to answer questions perfectly so that they can land a certain job. Its obvious the problem I'm describing is very common.

netglow, ASN, RN · Aug 12, 2012

This is true. I get solicited all the time from big pharma. I have many years ago worked for big pharma but not in clinical capacity. I now ignore those solicitations because I know they will be bogus. They want a certain resume that I don't have, but I am ALWAYS referred to as someone with a "very interesting background". Get tired of learning someone's product just for a bogus interview. And as I get older I actually dislike getting all dressed up for nothing. It actually pains me!!

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Aug 12, 2012

This is true. I get solicited all the time from big pharma. I have many years ago worked for big pharma but not in clinical capacity. I now ignore those solicitations because I know they will be bogus. They want a certain resume that I don't have, but I am ALWAYS referred to as someone with a "very interesting background". Get tired of learning someone's product just for a bogus interview. And as I get older I actually dislike getting all dressed up for nothing. It actually pains me!!

Love it, netglow. I'm with you. Let's go out some night in shorts and tees and swap war stories.

MJB2010 · Aug 13, 2012

OP it sounds like you might be trying to make excuses for having too many jobs.You were pretty vague though, so I might be wrong. Feel free to elaborate. How many jobs (or interests as you say?) Please explain what you mean. I might not be following.

For those that say you wouldn't want to work for someone like that anyway, I must point out it depends on who you interview with. If it is the Unit Manager or DON, then yes I agree, but if it is just HR they often have little to no impact on your daily job. I have interviewed with some rather ridiculous HR people only to find the unit and manager wonderful and vice versa. Don't let HR run you off. I feel very strongly that with HR you just have to smile and tell them what you want to hear, then get to the real stuff with the actual work interview. My job experience in the nursing field has left me with a bad taste for HR. A really bad taste.