Recently I was reading about bait and switch during preliminary interviews. I then recalled the worst interview torture that I was ever subjected to. It was a few years back and I had applied for a nurse educator position in a 74 bed hospital. I was greeted by 2-3 interviewers and we were located in a small conference room. There were probably 8 total chairs in there. During the interview a couple more people came in, then in a few minutes a few more came in, till at one point people were standing. At that time someone mentioned that we would be moving to a larger room.
I was escorted to a very large class room, more like an auditorium really. I sat and waited in front of the class at a small table and chair. As I waited more and more and more people came in, department heads, assistants of department heads, managers, secretarial staff, nurse residents, trainees, every single member of the HR department. Finally the crowd was all settled in and introductions began. Each person introduced themselves and what their position was. No way was I going to remember who all these people were. I'd say there were about 40-50 people there. I mean really? So they start hammering me with questions. Why do you think you should get this job? What makes you qualified? Talk about mob mentality. I felt like I was on the witness stand being drilled by a team of lawyers. There were a couple of mean ones in there too, staring at me as if I were a creepy little bug that they wanted to squash. The one I remember most was the nurse manager of the OR who would roll her eyes. Now, I wish I would have gotten up and walked out leaving them there scratching their heads.
At one point, I quipped, " wow, it looks like everyone is here, Who is running the hospital?" I got several laughs about it. The HR folks told me that they invited everyone who wanted to come (it was an open type of torture for anybody to join in on I guess). Yes, and this was the first interview. I decided I would never work at that hospital. They didn't call me back anyway but I don't think it would have mattered. I was ready to tell them that their practices were unwarranted and unfair and like the Spanish Inquisition. If they treated potential employees that way I couldn't imagine how they treated actual employees.
So... Tell me about your nightmare interview experience.
