Hiring manager offered position, HR said no and won't tell me why.

Nurses General Nursing

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Im so confused and upset.

I've been a public health nurse for a year and 6 mos of cardiac pcu prior to that.

2 weeks ago I interviewed for a cardiac tele floor at ********, and it went wonderfully. The hiring manager gave me a tour of the entire unit and introduced me to almost every nurse. At the end of the tour/interview, she shook my hand and even gave me a hug and said, "Welcome to the team!"

She told me to wait and hear from the HR department. After almost 2 weeks of not hearing anything I gave the recruiter a call and she very rudely said that they would not be hiring me and that they hired another candidate instead. I explained how the manager that I interviewed with had offered me the position and that I was very confused and wondered if she could share what went wrong or why I was being denied the position (there were day and night positions available, btw). She said she couldn't say anything. Nothing about my references or what went wrong. Just that they weren't going to offer me the position, but could not tell me a single reason why. I called the hiring manager afterwards, since she had given me her cell phone number, and she could tell I was upset and said that she would call the recruiter herself because she really wanted to hire me but HR told her that she couldn't. She called me back about 5 mins later and told me that the recruiter said she couldn't tell her or myself why. I didn't authorize a background check or anything (not that anything is on it anyways). All of my references checked out because I called each and every one of them and all gave glowing references.

I'm so confused and upset. Has anyone else had an experience like this or have any feedback?

Happy nurses week to me. :(

Thank you for any input.

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Specializes in ICU/community health/school nursing.

Florida is an "at will" state....even if you have been promised a job, the hospital is under no obligation to give it to you.

I'm sorry this happened. I don't think you're going to get any more answers. It's possible they had to hire an internal candidate. Perhaps there were people who had more cardiac care experience - you'll never know. Head high, move along. I've always found that when something didn't happen for me career-wise, it was usually for the best.

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Florida is an "at will" state....even if you have been promised a job, the hospital is under no obligation to give it to you.

I'm sorry this happened. I don't think you're going to get any more answers. It's possible they had to hire an internal candidate. Perhaps there were people who had more cardiac care experience - you'll never know. Head high, move along. I've always found that when something didn't happen for me career-wise, it was usually for the best.

Thank you so much for your kind words. I have been applying to hospital positions for months and this is the first interview I had gotten (and thought I had been offered the position). I may have to relocate, I just can't find anything here. I did get a call about an icu position in Fargo ND. That would be a big step from Florida í ½í¸‚

Thanks again.

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Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.

Plenty of openings in SW Michigan... just sayin'!

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I wonder if one of your "good" references didn't have the nerve to be honest with you about their opinion(s). That's the only thing that makes sense to me as a possibility.

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Specializes in Ambulatory Care-Family Medicine.

They probably aren't going to tell you why as it could open them up to legal issues (you could try to sue them if you feel you were inappropriately passed over)

Unfortunately even if the manager tells you you have the job, HR gets the final say and actually makes the legal offer. If HR said no for some reason there isn't a whole lot you can do. It could be someone that you used to work with that now works for them is giving you a bad name. If HR notices that you two worked at the same place at the same time so they could have asked for an unofficial reference and it may not have been good. HR wouldn't release this person's name and may be the reason they are being so tight lipped, especially if it was bad.

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Thanks for your input. I don't know anyone in the area or that works at the hospital so that wouldn't be it, so I have no idea! Oh well, it just seemed very unprofessional to me. I even applied for an apartment in the new city. That was money down the drain, I guess I just thought I had the position after the hiring manager said I did.

Thanks again!

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I didn't authorize a background check or anything (not that anything is on it anyways).

Could that be why they won't hire you? Did you refuse to give permission, or are you saying it was never brought up?

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I did get a call about an ICU postion in Fargo, ND 10 mins after this happened... but I don't wanna go from FL to ND! haha :) I guess beggers can't be choosers!

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Could that be why they won't hire you? Did you refuse to give permission, or are you saying it was never brought up?

It was never brought up :-/ I didn't hear from HR again until I called 2 weeks after my interview.

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Specializes in Pedi.

They're not required to tell you why they decided not to hire you. Employment in the United States is, by and large, at will and they can decline to hire you for any reason (save for a select few prohibited by non-discrimination laws) or no reason at all. Perhaps the person they hired was the HR person's relative or friend. Maybe the HR person Googled you and found something she didn't like. As long as they didn't refuse to hire you because of your gender, age, race, ethnicity, disability, there's nothing you can do about it. It's very hard to prove that those are the reasons you weren't hired, too.

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They're not required to tell you why they decided not to hire you. Employment in the United States is, by and large, at will and they can decline to hire you for any reason (save for a select few prohibited by non-discrimination laws) or no reason at all. Perhaps the person they hired was the HR person's relative or friend. Maybe the HR person Googled you and found something she didn't like. As long as they didn't refuse to hire you because of your gender, age, race, ethnicity, disability, there's nothing you can do about it. It's very hard to prove that those are the reasons you weren't hired, too.

Still highly unprofessional, thanks for your comment

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