Ghosted After Interview

[HordeStrife]

I am a hospitalist and I have been shopping around for a new job to relocate to a bigger city with my family. My first job out of residency, I received the offer the very next day after my site visit interview. So far, I have been on three site visit interviews since started looking for a new job. I received offers from two of the onsite interviews, but I declined due to the hospitals not being able to meet my expectation on the contract negotiation. The third site visit did not give me an offer as the recruiter informed me literally the day of the interview that the position that I was interviewing for was filled. Since they already booked my airfare and hotel, they wanted me to still interview but for another position in a different hospital nearby in case I was interested. I was not but decided to go ahead with the interview since I was already there. It was a surprise, but hey free vacation. All three of the onsite interviews went well in terms of how nice they treated me and how courteous the whole process was. I wrote thank you emails to some of the people at the interview including the recruiters and they all responded and wished me well even when I declined offers.

Then I went on my latest site visit interview (non-academic position at a hospital near downtown of a big metropolitan city from a non-profit large healthcare system). I thought the interview was good, but then I don't hear anything for almost two weeks. I sent thank you emails to the people at the interview including the recruiter and heard nothing back.

I am a US citizen and grad of American med school (no visa issue). I am also board certified with about 2 yrs of experience. No malpractice complaint, no criminal history....nothing that would garner any alarm. And I am pretty sure I have adequate social skills as I get along really well with all the people at my current work and the interactions in previous interviews went well. So far, I have always received feedback within one week after the interview whether it is to inform me that they are reviewing and will get back to me or to give me an offer. I am bewildered at being ghosted after this interview.

I would appreciate some insight from you to shed some light on my situation. Should I reach out to them one more time and ask them straight forward on why there is no communication after my interview and if there is something that I said/did during the interview that might have possibly offended them? Or is this just the new norm for interviews to wait two weeks or more with no response? Or is it the case that jobs at big metropolitan cities are a lot more competitive, so they care less to be professional to candidates? I am the type that will try to analyze and understand something even if it doesn't work out. Admittedly, I am just simply shocked that I am being ghosted as a physician and want to know if this has happened to anyone else.

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[whoknows2012]

I am a hospitalist and I have been shopping around for a new job to relocate to a bigger city with my family. My first job out of residency, I received the offer the very next day after my site visit interview. So far, I have been on three site visit interviews since started looking for a new job. I received offers from two of the onsite interviews, but I declined due to the hospitals not being able to meet my expectation on the contract negotiation. The third site visit did not give me an offer as the recruiter informed me literally the day of the interview that the position that I was interviewing for was filled. Since they already booked my airfare and hotel, they wanted me to still interview but for another position in a different hospital nearby in case I was interested. I was not but decided to go ahead with the interview since I was already there. It was a surprise, but hey free vacation. All three of the onsite interviews went well in terms of how nice they treated me and how courteous the whole process was. I wrote thank you emails to some of the people at the interview including the recruiters and they all responded and wished me well even when I declined offers.

Then I went on my latest site visit interview (non-academic position at a hospital near downtown of a big metropolitan city from a non-profit large healthcare system). I thought the interview was good, but then I don't hear anything for almost two weeks. I sent thank you emails to the people at the interview including the recruiter and heard nothing back.

I am a US citizen and grad of American med school (no visa issue). I am also board certified with about 2 yrs of experience. No malpractice complaint, no criminal history....nothing that would garner any alarm. And I am pretty sure I have adequate social skills as I get along really well with all the people at my current work and the interactions in previous interviews went well. So far, I have always received feedback within one week after the interview whether it is to inform me that they are reviewing and will get back to me or to give me an offer. I am bewildered at being ghosted after this interview.

I would appreciate some insight from you to shed some light on my situation. Should I reach out to them one more time and ask them straight forward on why there is no communication after my interview and if there is something that I said/did during the interview that might have possibly offended them? Or is this just the new norm for interviews to wait two weeks or more with no response? Or is it the case that jobs at big metropolitan cities are a lot more competitive, so they care less to be professional to candidates? I am the type that will try to analyze and understand something even if it doesn't work out. Admittedly, I am just simply shocked that I am being ghosted as a physician and want to know if this has happened to anyone else.

This is not necessarily an uncommon occurrence- if I were you I’d send them an email reaffirming your interest. Don’t be weird and ask if you offended them or anything like that. I’m sure they just haven’t made a decision yet

 

[HordeStrife]

I guess my ego grew a bit after being catered to so well by all my past interviews. The heartfelt responses to my thank you emails and how fast they reply to me when I have any questions after the interview in the past gave me the expectation that finally, after all those interviews for med school and residency, I no longer have to deal with people not getting back to me after an interview. I waited two months to hear back that I was waitlisted for a spot at med school after emailing and calling. Now that I am an attending, I just thought that I am important enough to them to reply to me when I email them. My physician friends are telling me that if a place is not professional enough to reply to their emails for two weeks, then it’s a red flag and they would not want to work there. But then again, they all have interviewed or worked only at hospitals in suburban area or small college town like me. So maybe this is a norm for big cities? They just have too many qualified candidates for one spot, so they don’t cater as well to the physician?

 

[IMGASMD]

Agree if they don’t answer for weeks, not good sign. Also big city, means they may have enough candidates for the spot, and don’t and won’t care about you.....

 

[gutonc]

A little insight from someone on the hiring side of things right now.

About a year and a half ago, I took over as the interim director of the group I've been with since I finished fellowship. The previous director had basically given up, run it more or less into the ground and then lit the house on fire as he walked out the door. As a result, over the next 9 months, 4 docs (including 2 that he had recently hired more or less on his own, without having them interview with the bulk of the group) left the practice and I was left to run 5 clinics with 8 docs.

So, for the first year or so as director, basically every minute I wasn't spending on clinical work (including extra coverage for the docs that had left) was spent on recruitment. I was interviewing 4 or 5 people a month, hassling HR daily for updates on offer letters and contracts, responding to emails/calls/texts from candidates and our recruiting firm within minutes, etc. Patient care became my side gig and recruitment was my FT job.

Fast forward 18 months or so and I've gotten my staff back to a stable level. I've hired 5 new docs, every single one of which I wanted to work at my clinic site because I think they're that good. But I'm still interviewing and hiring because we've got tremendous growth potential and I want to expand our reach. But it's no longer an emergency for me. And I've now got 2 dozen other admin related projects that need my attention (which went more or less ignored for the last year and a half) and I just don't have the time and bandwidth for instantaneous responses. So what used to be a reply in an hour or 2 will now be a day or 2. I will definitely cop to having slacked on the constant updates I was giving candidates, but not to going incommunicado for weeks. I won't do that. I'm fortunate to have still have a surplus of great candidates, and since I've got some wiggle room, the time pressure is off on my side.

Bottom line, send an email or make a phone call. It won't hurt and it might help. Don't take this personally, it's business.

 

[xoggyux]

I think if you like the job a lot, insist a little bit. Just enough to clarify that you didn't fall through the cracks. It is entirely possible that they filled the position, that you are not the right fit for it for whatever reason or any other dozen possibilities.
After 2 decades of conditioning that we are "not good enough" for college X, medical school Y, residency Z, fellowship H, etc it is sometimes hard to realize that at this point it is your time to choose.
Anyhow, I bet in 2-3 years you will not be staying in whatever place you end up going next.

 

[tantacles]

Having just applied for jobs, there is tremendous variability, much of which is unlikely related to you as an applicant, that I've seen from recruiters, chairs, and hiring physicians.

At one job, like you, I interviewed and was offered a position the very next day. The recruiter and the docs I talked to were incredibly communicative.

At a second, again, the person I interviewed with was accessible and communicated clearly, concisely, and promptly.

At a third, I would go three weeks between responses. The recruiting physician would respond reasonably promptly whenever I sent my initial response. My counter response would usually go un-responded to. When they offered me a per-diem position and I said yes, they said the recruiter would get back to me next week. Four weeks later, I e-mailed the recruiter and he had forgotten who I was! He quickly remembered and said he would send a contract, but I will admit that this soured me a bit.

I interacted with these places in largely the same way, and I had vastly different responses. It happens.

 

[Piebaldi]

I guess my ego grew a bit after being catered to so well by all my past interviews. The heartfelt responses to my thank you emails and how fast they reply to me when I have any questions after the interview in the past gave me the expectation that finally, after all those interviews for med school and residency, I no longer have to deal with people not getting back to me after an interview. I waited two months to hear back that I was waitlisted for a spot at med school after emailing and calling. Now that I am an attending, I just thought that I am important enough to them to reply to me when I email them. My physician friends are telling me that if a place is not professional enough to reply to their emails for two weeks, then it’s a red flag and they would not want to work there. But then again, they all have interviewed or worked only at hospitals in suburban area or small college town like me. So maybe this is a norm for big cities? They just have too many qualified candidates for one spot, so they don’t cater as well to the physician?

I would say that it's a likely no. I recently went on a job interview for a position I thought was interesting and I was definitely qualified - I got an interview the day after I applied I believe and the practice owner was super nice, drove me around to the other clinic he has, etc. Even suggested during the interview that I should join the practice, etc. But parts of the interview were odd - there was no discussion of the actual job specifics, times, salary, etc.
I sent a thank you email to the practice manager about a week after the interview since the practice owner doc told me he'd send me the specifics in the following week, since it was during holiday season.
Never heard back. It was a bummer, but it doesn't seem like they hired anyone.
Sometmes that happens with the budget and they don't hire. Sometimes they find someone else particularly in a large city. Sometimes they don't care to let you know if they found someone else - just as when you apply to residency interviews and dont' get an invitation - they don't necessarily reject you.
Unless you absolutely love the job, I wouldn't stress and move on. Getting weird or suggesting you did something wrong is not a good idea -

 

[Piebaldi]

A little insight from someone on the hiring side of things right now.

About a year and a half ago, I took over as the interim director of the group I've been with since I finished fellowship. The previous director had basically given up, run it more or less into the ground and then lit the house on fire as he walked out the door. As a result, over the next 9 months, 4 docs (including 2 that he had recently hired more or less on his own, without having them interview with the bulk of the group) left the practice and I was left to run 5 clinics with 8 docs.

So, for the first year or so as director, basically every minute I wasn't spending on clinical work (including extra coverage for the docs that had left) was spent on recruitment. I was interviewing 4 or 5 people a month, hassling HR daily for updates on offer letters and contracts, responding to emails/calls/texts from candidates and our recruiting firm within minutes, etc. Patient care became my side gig and recruitment was my FT job.

Fast forward 18 months or so and I've gotten my staff back to a stable level. I've hired 5 new docs, every single one of which I wanted to work at my clinic site because I think they're that good. But I'm still interviewing and hiring because we've got tremendous growth potential and I want to expand our reach. But it's no longer an emergency for me. And I've now got 2 dozen other admin related projects that need my attention (which went more or less ignored for the last year and a half) and I just don't have the time and bandwidth for instantaneous responses. So what used to be a reply in an hour or 2 will now be a day or 2. I will definitely cop to having slacked on the constant updates I was giving candidates, but not to going incommunicado for weeks. I won't do that. I'm fortunate to have still have a surplus of great candidates, and since I've got some wiggle room, the time pressure is off on my side.

Bottom line, send an email or make a phone call. It won't hurt and it might help. Don't take this personally, it's business.

Some places simply do ghost unfortunately. What do you do if you have 2 equally qualified candidates who are both personable and would be a good fit but only one position open?

 

[gutonc]

Some places simply do ghost unfortunately. What do you do if you have 2 equally qualified candidates who are both personable and would be a good fit but only one position open?

I wasn't suggesting that places don't ghost, just that I don't.

To your 2nd question, I'd start at the "top" (no 2 applicants are perfectly equal) and move down from there.

 

[HordeStrife]

Sorry, a bit late on replying. But here is the update: after two entire months of back and forth communicating that usually takes about 2 weeks on their side to respond each time, I declined their offer. The salary was about 210K with 20K loan repayment and 20K sign on bonus and annual bonus up to 40K (day hospitalist for big Midwestern city). It is definitely not the best offer I've seen, but my family likes the location a lot. Well, after 2 months of communication, they told me they can't change anything on the contract including my request to state my specific shift and call schedule in the contract. A waste of my time.

Thank you all for your responses. These advice will help me in my continued job search.

 

[IMGASMD]

Sorry, a bit late on replying. But here is the update: after two entire months of back and forth communicating that usually takes about 2 weeks on their side to respond each time, I declined their offer. The salary was about 210K with 20K loan repayment and 20K sign on bonus and annual bonus up to 40K (day hospitalist for big Midwestern city). It is definitely not the best offer I've seen, but my family likes the location a lot. Well, after 2 months of communication, they told me they can't change anything on the contract including my request to state my specific shift and call schedule in the contract. A waste of my time.

Thank you all for your responses. These advice will help me in my continued job search.

Good for you to walk! Good luck.

 

[DrMetal]

Sorry, a bit late on replying. But here is the update: after two entire months of back and forth communicating that usually takes about 2 weeks on their side to respond each time, I declined their offer. The salary was about 210K with 20K loan repayment and 20K sign on bonus and annual bonus up to 40K (day hospitalist for big Midwestern city).

Just outta curiosity, how hard would it be to make that 40K bonus. b/c if easy, then base 210K + 40K = 250K. For a midwestern city, that'd be about right, no? If the bonus is too hard to make and your take home is closer to base 210K, then that's pretty lowball.

 

[MD46]

Just outta curiosity, how hard would it be to make that 40K bonus. b/c if easy, then base 210K + 40K = 250K. For a midwestern city, that'd be about right, no? If the bonus is too hard to make and your take home is closer to base 210K, then that's pretty lowball.

Could pick up some extra shifts or weekends and can easily go over 40k.