First Phone Interview

[Isoval]

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Hello!

I have a phone interview coming up with the apparently chair of recruitment and a practicing hospitalist of a large academic institution near me.

This is my first interview while on the job trail and I was curious what to expect from a phone interview and how the phone interview may be perceived moving forward and what things I should be expecting and what things I should be asking at this point in the interview cycle. I presume there will be an in-person interview after this phone interview if things go well enough, but this hasn't yet been mentioned.

Thanks!

 

[gutonc]

I always start with a phone interview (or coffee meetup for people who are local) before the full interview. Gives me a chance to tell the candidate more about the job and see if the position is something that is of interest to them. It should be pretty low key but that doesn't mean you show up drunk for it.

I have never not offered a candidate an in person interview after the phone call.

 

[Isoval]

I always start with a phone interview (or coffee meetup for people who are local) before the full interview. Gives me a chance to tell the candidate more about the job and see if the position is something that is of interest to them. It should be pretty low key but that doesn't mean you show up drunk for it.

I have never not offered a candidate an in person interview after the phone call.

I appreciate this, it makes me feel a good deal better!

I've consistently heard that interviews are "vibe checks" at the attending level (for the most part) but I still always feel like I have a tremendous ability to screw it up.

 

[DrMetal]

Hello!

I have a phone interview coming up with the apparently chair of recruitment and a practicing hospitalist of a large academic institution near me.

This is my first interview while on the job trail and I was curious what to expect from a phone interview and how the phone interview may be perceived moving forward and what things I should be expecting and what things I should be asking at this point in the interview cycle. I presume there will be an in-person interview after this phone interview if things go well enough, but this hasn't yet been mentioned.

Thanks!

Meh . . . who cares. Better question is what kind of contract are they going to be offering you, what kind of numbers? Hospitalists are getting screwed every which way right now.

You wanna be bold? Ask him/her if there's a decent chance some other corporate or private equity entity will be taking over the hospitalist service in the next 1-2 years, thus jeopardizing your job.

 

[dozitgetchahi]

Meh . . . who cares. Better question is what kind of contract are they going to be offering you, what kind of numbers? Hospitalists are getting screwed every which way right now.

You wanna be bold? Ask him/her if there's a decent chance some other corporate or private equity entity will be taking over the hospitalist service in the next 1-2 years, thus jeopardizing your job.

I agree with this.

I have been to a number of interviews where everything seemed great, location seemed good, etc - and then the offer comes and the numbers are insultingly low. It makes you feel like you wasted your time going to an interview with a place that had no intention of paying you appropriately.

I’ve learned to ask about numbers much earlier. Places that have competitive compensation (or other good attributes) will often boast of these at the interview, or even in the job listing. Places that won’t pay well will be curiously silent about this until after the interview.

 

[HemeOncHopeful19]

In my experience in Oncology things I typically try to ask about in the phone interview, sometimes the recruiter won't know all the answers but usually they have either found out and gotten back to me or scheduled me for a phone call with someone who does

- How many different clinics are there (do you just cover one or do you have to drive to multiple)
- How many docs are there, and what is the call setup like
- How many clinic days per week, and how many patients per day
- (Depending on how the conversation is going, I might ask the $/RVU rate but in my experience the recruiter will either volunteer this without asking if it is a good number or they may not know)

Generally if I like the answers to that I'll move forward with the next steps.

You could probably tailor that info to whatever is relevant for hospitalist jobs

Instead of asking them if there's a decent chance some other corporate or private equity entity will be taking over the hospitalist service, you might instead ask something like I have heard this might be a big issue in hospitalist medicine, I was wondering what your thoughts were and what are their plans to resist / defend themselves against CMG/PE takeover as a group.

 

[DrMetal]

I agree with this.

I have been to a number of interviews where everything seemed great, location seemed good, etc - and then the offer comes and the numbers are insultingly low. It makes you feel like you wasted your time going to an interview with a place that had no intention of paying you appropriately.

I’ve learned to ask about numbers much earlier. Places that have competitive compensation (or other good attributes) will often boast of these at the interview, or even in the job listing. Places that won’t pay well will be curiously silent about this until after the interview.

Right on. In the words of the late Ray Liotta (Goodfellas), "**** you, pay me!"

 

[gutonc]

In my experience in Oncology things I typically try to ask about in the phone interview, sometimes the recruiter won't know all the answers but usually they have either found out and gotten back to me or scheduled me for a phone call with someone who does

- How many different clinics are there (do you just cover one or do you have to drive to multiple)
- How many docs are there, and what is the call setup like
- How many clinic days per week, and how many patients per day
- (Depending on how the conversation is going, I might ask the $/RVU rate but in my experience the recruiter will either volunteer this without asking if it is a good number or they may not know)

Generally if I like the answers to that I'll move forward with the next steps.

You could probably tailor that info to whatever is relevant for hospitalist jobs

Instead of asking them if there's a decent chance some other corporate or private equity entity will be taking over the hospitalist service, you might instead ask something like I have heard this might be a big issue in hospitalist medicine, I was wondering what your thoughts were and what are their plans to resist / defend themselves against CMG/PE takeover as a group.

I was operating under the assumption that this phone interview was with the medical director or other lead physician, not the recruiter. If it's with a recruiter, ask whatever you want and just assume they are either wrong or lying to you and try to get a phone call with actual medical director.

Otherwise, the questions are all reasonable and appropriate. I'm a big fan of placing things like this in the SWOT* framework as it really helps you focus on the good and bad and what matters to you the most. It's also an easy way to bring up things like compensation, buyout risk, etc.

* Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Threats

 

[Isoval]

I was operating under the assumption that this phone interview was with the medical director or other lead physician, not the recruiter. If it's with a recruiter, ask whatever you want and just assume they are either wrong or lying to you and try to get a phone call with actual medical director.

Otherwise, the questions are all reasonable and appropriate. I'm a big fan of placing things like this in the SWOT* framework as it really helps you focus on the good and bad and what matters to you the most. It's also an easy way to bring up things like compensation, buyout risk, etc.

* Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Threats

This is right! It is with the "chair of the recruitment and retention committee" and is a physician hospitalist with the hospital/University. The interview is not with the recruiter; the recruiter(?) reached out in response to my application to offer me the phone interview.