Nothing like a good old-fashioned awkward interview

[Wrench Party]

I had the pleasure yesterday of an amusingly awkward interview for a part-time position. Nurse manager was about 10 minutes late in coming out to get me, and never asked me any questions beyond "tell me about yourself".

No discussion of the hospital values, no questions about why I was interested in her ED, her management goals for the floor, no questions about clinical scenarios or how I work with coworkers, learning style, professional goals, not even pawned off on the staff nurses, NOTHING. I asked a ton of open ended questions to get a conversation going.

NOPE.

At one point I stopped and we sat staring at each other in silence.

I asked what our timeline was going forward, and it took her a few seconds to compose a vague answer.

Uhh...

Anybody have any less-than-steller interviews lately?

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Anybody have any less-than-steller interviews lately?

Yes, but I'm the one who usually bungles the interview and/or gets tripped up because I'm not the best oral communicator. I prefer to communicate in writing. I feel a sense of stage fright during the interview process.

[Wrench Party]

I honestly thought the whole thing was bizarre. As a more experienced nurse now, I've walked out of interviews pretty much knowing I was going to be offered the job, else why bother with the interview in the first place. ED nurses are notorious for thinking and acting pretty darn quickly.

So weird!

[Scarlettz, BSN, RN]

I wonder if the nurse manager purposely made the interview awkward? I once read about awkward interviews/awkward interview questions in an interview book I was reading. The interviewer acts awkward on purpose to see how the interviewee responds.

But maybe she was naturally awkward.

My interview for my first medsurg job was pretty laidback. I think she only asked me to tell her about myself, too. My first interviewer for the job, the HR woman, asked more serious questions that I was expecting in an interview.

[klone, MSN, RN]

I'd much rather receive (or ask) "Tell me about yourself" than "Tell me about a time you had a disagreement with a coworker and how did you handle it?"