Have you ever experienced this? I applied to a hospital recently that had 2 different positions on their website that I was interested in. After I applied the first time, the manager said she didn't have those positions any more. After applying the second time to a different type of position, I was assured by the HR person it was open and available. I even went through a phone interview. I contacted HR after the manager never called and was told "oh, that position was taken by an internal employee" This was only 4 days after my interview! I asked if it was anything about my interview and nothing was said about it (vie email)
I was not happy. Have you noticed hospitals having positions on their websites, then they say they're old and they were already taken?
I told the HR person to please update their info so this doesn't keep happening to other nurses.
I just felt this was very rude. Or maybe it's because they are preparing for a possible strike? Doesn't make sense, because they posted more positions after the one I applied for!
Internal candidates always get first pick for postings...at least thats how it should be. But they shouldnt be screwing with you and interviewing you if its already taken.
The truth of the matter is however, hospitals need to capitalize on interest applicants. When a job is taken internally, that leaves another deficit somewhere else. It makes sense for the recruiters to turn this interested person in the direction of something similar that is open or even to have that person to check back with them in week or so to see if a another interesting job is available. So many of the human resource departments make it so difficult to even get in yet they are posting literally TONS of openings. I understand this poster's frustration....
I know that some places (not just healthcare) will keep job postings up just so they can collect resumes for when positions do open up. My last place of employment was one of them, in fact: they had a generic job advertisement in every week's classified listings. They never promised specific positions, just that they had a wide range of jobs there.
But I've never them or any place go so far as to interview people for a nonexistent position. At most, for places like this, I've been told to mail in my resume and if anything opens up they'll let me know.
Whatever one may think about this practice, that's what these places do.
We had a service line director who posted full time day ICU positions in the paper when we only hire into nights. With a 4 person wait list over 18 months on nights... how deceitful is that?? He openly said it was the old 'bait and switch' to get nurses into talk.
MA Nurse
676 Posts
Thanks, that's what I'm thinking. I'll just keep my current job...it wasn't difficult at all to get hired!