When I was first looking for a nursing job I celebrated each and every interview. I recall interviewing at a hospital about thirty minutes north of me for their secured unit and was so excited by it. Unless I'm forgetting some, I believe the rest of my interviews were for the prison. Either for the one south of me where I ended up working (where I must have interviewed three or four times), one of them here in town, or the one WAY west of me. That last one was intimidating as it was in front of about ten people.
After that initial set of interviews, I didn't have to interview all that often. Since I technically transferred between my first and second prison there wasn't an interview there. I interviewed twice for my prison manager position. I interviewed once for the state hospital. At the end of that while I was grasping at straws trying to get my migraines under control I interviewed another two times for prison manager positions, though I had migraines for both of those interviews.
During this series, I interviewed once at my old prison and I felt it went well. I'm still not sure who exactly was stopping me from working there as it may well have been someone above the interview panel. A few months later I interviewed for the prison hospital job and again, felt it went well. When I found out that I didn't get that job, I entered this final stage. Apply to 'everything'. I mean, it's not quite 'everything', but I'm not waiting for any particular job. I'm not waiting for the federal prison job even though that seems to be progressing. I'm not waiting on this new state prison possibility. I'm not waiting on this behavioral health hospital position.
So, obviously I was very happy to hear from a recruiter and get a phone screening/interview with her for that hospital position. I didn't really work hard at that as it did feel more like an investigative process rather than a real interview. She was checking on my resume and confirming facts. Filling in the blanks. When she contacted me later and said that they wanted to interview me in person, I was naturally excited. But again, I'm in the 'everything' stage so I didn't slow down in applying for anything else.
I've already recalled that first interview last week. It was with the COO and a nursing supervisor and I felt it went well. The COO ended by saying I should hear something within a couple weeks. That would be January 28th. Then come Tuesday, I hear back from the recruiter... they want me in for another interview.
I'll be honest, I wasn't sure if that was a good sign or a bad sign. The recruiter told me the interview would be with a nurse manager (the position I'm applying for) and two nursing supervisors (two people I'd be supervising). I know every organization is different, but there's no way a direct colleague (the nurse manager) nor two subordinates (the supervisors) would make a hiring decision. It would either be the COO, whom I've already spoken with, or the nursing manager's boss. I'd assume that would be the Chief Nursing Officer who I've heard about, but haven't met.
The best thing I could think of is that the COO wanted the nurse manager's impression of me as a nurse before he pulled the trigger. Regardless, I had to keep my best foot forward and immediately agreed to the interview. The initial date for the interview was scheduled for today, Friday. A few hours later though, the recruiter texted me back saying that she'd mis-read a calendar and that someone wasn't available at that time. We went back and forth for a bit and I agreed to interview the next day, Wednesday.
Of course, I didn't know we'd be getting five inches of snow Wednesday morning. You see, this hospital is thirty miles away from me. It'd be my shortest nursing work commute besides the prison here in town, but thirty minutes on a snow covered highway is bad.
For those that don't live in snowy areas let me explain how snow works on highways. If it's just a dusting of snow, say a quarter inch or less, and the temperature isn't sub zero, the snow won't stick to the highway. It'll just melt and turn to slush or just water. Not a problem to drive on whatsoever. But if it's colder, or if it's snowing faster, or there is a LOT of snow, it can build up and cover the highway. Yes, even with highway traffic going seventy miles an hour.
The two lanes of traffic become one lane. Then that lane becomes to tire tracks. Then even those tracks start getting covered in areas until you're simply driving on snow. And while some cocky people think they can drive safely on snow at seventy, most people slow WAY down to like 50 or 45 or less. I've been on highways that had inches of snow and traffic was below twenty miles an hour. At that point officials are telling everybody to stay off the roads.
At some point between the snow accumulating and the single lane, the road commissions will put their plows to work. Big comparatively slow moving plows pushing the snow off to the side and dropping salt down to help melt away what remains. These plows require about three passes per lane to clear it. One just to get a clear enough space for the width of a car. One to get the lane markings visible off to the side. One to finally get the breakdown lane clear. In other words, it takes hours to clear the highway if it's snowing for a long period and your commute might be slowed down a little bit or completely destroyed. The longer the commute, the higher chance of it being messed up. My thirty minute highway trip could easily turn into sixty minutes, and that's if there were no accidents or actual stoppages. So I had to plan at LEAST an extra thirty minutes.
To be safe, I planned on an extra hour.
Once I got on the highway the plows were already at work. One lane was okay while the other was struggle driving. That sucks as the 'okay' lane is generally moving slow, but to pass them you have to go into a worse lane that doesn't support that faster travel. Even in an all wheel drive SUV with winter tires.
For half of the trip I was also fighting Tatiana for control. She kept seeing the lane markers for a bit and would start up her lane centering system. When that's engaged, she steers for me. That is NOT ideal when the road conditions are bad. Worse, if she lost the lane markings she'd give the warning that I have to take control back. To do that, to show that I'm in control, she wants me to jerk the steering wheel a bit. It's not a problem at all on normal roads. On slippery snow covered roads when a little jerk in steering could send you slip sliding off the highway? Yeah, that sucked. I eventually had to simply turn that feature off.
As bad as I'm making it out, the driving wasn't terrible. It went along at a good enough pace that I was able to maintain the speed limit for much of it. I don't think I ever slowed down below 50 miles per hour (the speed limit here is 70 mph and I normally drive at 75). But that put me at the hospital almost an hour before my interview appointment, meaning I had to just sit out in the parking lot and not get anxious or bored or overthinking.
I stepped in 15 minutes before my appointment (early is on time, on time is late, late is unacceptable!) and sat down with two people.
I won't use their real names, but I was given the name of the nurse manager and the two supervisors I'd be interviewing with. K, E, and Billie. The K and E were both overtly feminine names. I'm so used to nursing managers and supervisors being women that when I was given the third name, I just assumed it was a woman. Billie. So when I sat down with K and a large white man with a bush beard and was introduced to him as Billy (again, I'm not giving his real name, but it's along those lines where it could be male or female), I was naturally surprised.
The surprise was compounded when K introduced herself as the day nurse manager and Billy introduced himself as... some other title. It went over my head because K piled on and said something along the lines of "He's the boss'.
He didn't sound like a nurse, but had been in mental health healthcare for years. Regardless of his actual title or licensure, if he's K's 'boss' then he COULD be making the hiring decision.
Suddenly this interview got a LOT more real.
And you know what? The interview couldn't have gone better.
In most interviews I feel I have to massage my story a bit. I have to emphasize different parts of my skills or experiences or education just to make sure I fit into what they are looking for. I never lie, but instead just present myself in the best possible manner. But with K and Billy, I didn't feel a need to massage my past or emphasize something that I didn't really believe. I talked about my history at the prison, my management through the COVID nightmare, my management at the state hospital, how I dealt with the staff at the hospital and the mixture of nurses and techs, and it all was directly relevent to what they were asking and how they ran their operation.
And while I certainly could have miss-read their impressions, I noted them constantly nodding and smiling and agreeing with what I was saying. Hell, K kept adding stories and experiences as if she were selling ME this position. Billy was obviously more interested in managerial skills as that's what he focused on, but I believe my style is exactly what they're looking for. Friendly, but not a friend. The ability to smile and encourage, right up until it's time to reprimand and discipline. I gave plenty of examples of the times I've had to do that and how I maintained it such a professional manner that I still maintained good friendly relationships with my staff afterward.
It honestly felt more like a conversation, a chat, rather than an interrogative interview. The COO was FAR more interrogative. I don't mean that in a bad way, but he had a series of questions and was really getting a feel for me and my style. K and Billy and I were more or less just talking about the job and how we all did our jobs. They even mentioned that having an outsider come in for this position would be a good thing as I wouldn't have built in relationships with any of the nurses.
The only bad thing about the whole interview was I didn't get a timeframe like I did with the COO. I know a lot of the time you don't give a timeframe when the answer is 'no'. But then again, I was given a timeline previously so they might still be chiming in and leaving the final decision to the COO. My plan is to stay with that timeframe in mind. Next Wednesday, the 28th, if I haven't heard anything, I'll contact the recruiter and see if there's been any movement.
I almost dislike feeling this good about it though. I feel good enough about both interviews AND the job in general that if I don't get it at this point, I'm going to be disappointed. Any other job feels like a step down.
No comments:
Post a Comment