Health Chaos

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS:

Last year, at the age of 60, I left a position to take a managerial position for yet another insurance company. And eventually I was the subject of a lay off due to corporate downsizing, and took another position, found by an aggressive head hunter, and was bamboozled into a position that was not right for me, or for them. That lasted one month; didn’t even finish the orientation!

What I have learned: I cannot work for corporate America. We are not a good fit. I have always enjoyed, despite funding challenges, working for non profit public health and academia, which is where my heart lies.

I have mentored many health professional students during my 38 years as a health professional. And I have many friends and colleagues who have had long phone conversations and numerous emails shared because they truly felt that I helped them through the job search and interview processes. So I would like to share my experience with you. I hope it will help.

What we “do.” our ‘work, factors so much in our identity. Yet we “lose” work for many reasons: lay offs, getting fired, quitting for necessary reasons, or just plain can’t stand it. How do we look for new work?  One needs to look at your profession, education, any credentials, but also how your skills and knowledge are transferable to another occupation…

And then there is the interview, and the second interview. If you are not offered a second interview and are just offered a position, please do ask for a second interview, and please do use some of the ideas listed below. And by the way, if you live in a big city, ask the potential employer for their recommendations of where you should park, during the interview.

• The position (don’t say job; makes you sound like a slave) description to…what is the position REALLY? Job descriptions are often long and tedious and don’t really say WHAT the position is really responsible for. 

• What is the composition of the staff? Team orientation?

• What is the composition of the patient/client/member and community base? (socioeconomic, ethnicity, language, geography)

• May I meet my potential co-workers, colleagues?

• How did you determine that you needed this position filled? What would you like the person in this position to accomplish? Not a new position?

• May I see the organization chart?  How, where do I fit in?

• What is the working environment? Cubicle? Office space?  Is the team located together? May I have a walk through and meet the staff with whom I would be working?

• What do you really want someone in this position to do? A team member? An on-call consultant? A leader?

• How would I interface with other staff?  Who will I be working with on a regular basis?

• How does the staff get along? With you? Team spirit? Will I have the opportunity to affect this?

• Why would I like to work in this program? Is this a stimulating and challenging environment where I could not only share my knowledge and experience but continue my own professional growth as well?

• Computer skills needed? Outlook? Can you please show me/ demonstrate the computer programs which I would need to use? May I see you demonstrate the computer programs that I would be using?

• Just as you are interviewing me, I am interviewing you. If I am hired, I would like this to be the best for all of us.

• I look forward to promoting team feeling, team growth, as well as individual growth.

• Tell me about the strengths, weaknesses, needs of your program

• I want to feel enthusiastic about going to work each morning, and look forward to returning the next day.  This is what I am looking for in a position.

• Who will provide my orientation, and educate me for my position? For how long?

• Who will be my direct supervisors/managers? What is their style? Micro managing or trust me to do my work?

• Salary negotiations: never say I could live on $00,000. Tell them what the highest salary you ever received, and what you think you deserve. They would be HAPPY  to pay you $8.00/hr. You are worth a lot more!!!

• Why do you think I am qualified for this position?

• Do you reimburse parking, public transportation? Why not? Alternatives?

• Working days, hours?

• NEVER RESPOND IMMEDIATELY WITH “OH; I WOULD LOVE THIS JOB; THANK YOU FOR THE OFFER”. Instead say “let me think about this and I will get back to you in a day or two; I want this to be a good fit for both of us”.

• Tell me about your dress code. When I was a manager I have always told staff to just be clean, neat, and professional. But this philosophy may not work in corporate America. In my last position I was complimented one morning by a supervisor (not mine) who admired my corduroy overalls. By the end of the day, a manager handed me a dress code policy (one of three for this company) that stated that corduroy was taboo. And overalls too. And then I was told that velour was also out. But none of the 3 dress code policies was clear. And I quickly learned who the snitch was.)

• Which leads to: sorry to say: you need to find out slowly who you can trust to say anything to. You will not know for a long time (a year?) who the real players are and who will be reporting on you. I truly hate to say “don’t trust” but I need to say it LOUD AND CLEAR. Be careful.

• Don’t make the head hunter happy. He/she does not have your interests at heart.

Health chaos goes on. Last week I had facet joint injections with steroids to hopefully, take away spinal pain caused by scoliosis and spinal compression fractures. And I have tried calling the clinic back to try to schedule subsequent injections to the right side of my spine. But why is no one returning my calls, after 3 days? I left messages for the staff who were supposed to be helpful. No calls returned. This is embarrassing to me as a health professional. Is this what my profession has been reduced to? Yes. There is a dumbing down of the nursing profession which I find disgusting.

So how do you find work in this profession that is worth your time, deserving of your education and experience? Seems that insurance companies are the only viable places to look for work in Seattle. Sure, you can apply for other positions that seem to be creative, but then you find out that they “really liked you” but had to hire an internal applicant, or they just don’t know who they want or what they want this “who” to do….well. can’t help out there, since they aren’t asking me, though I bet I could if they asked my opinion. It seems so clear that I could help them take another look at what they really wanted to do with their program, or what they wanted to hire someone to do.

Then there is the thought of retirement and health care…so apparently medicare starts at age 65. but social security allows you to collect benefits at 62. so unless you have worked for some local, state, or federal government job for 30 years or more and are “vested” (like working for an auto union for your entire life), how do you pay for health care? At the time in your life that you need health care the most.

Got scared last week when seen by the doc who did the spinal injections. He detected a heart murmur. Well no surprise in a post menopausal; woman. But I got out my stethoscope and could not hear it; neither could my internist. And as she said, with a woman as slender as I am, it is easy to confuse breath and heart sounds. By the way, the physician who did the spinal injections was amused that he had never treated someone who weighed less than 100lbs. I weighed 99 that day. But I am supposed to weigh 108. I had better eat a lot of rich foods for thanksgiving!