My wife was at an interview last week for a medical position that is similar to her most current role.  She walked into the lobby to find 4 other candidates there.  They were all called in to a conference room by the HR person.  They were then asked questions individually and asked to answer in front of the other candidates!

The 5 of them were then asked to role play certain situations while the rest observed.  Finally, they were given a tour of the clinic and then had to provide their own tour to a staff person.  The point, I guess, was to see how they handled prospective patient visits.

Suffice to say, I was laughing my way through the story as she told me later that evening.  But what of this?  What is the purpose for running a group interview?  Personally, I have never heard of such an approach.  The HR person was quite young and perhaps only a handful of years removed from college.  My wife was offput by the fact that she was not provided the opportunity to ask questions of the hiring manager regarding the position or the company.  Her characterization of the entire experience was that it was more like a silly game than a professional interview.

I personally think this was some textbook theory that sounds “progressive” in college but fails in the real world.  My experienced wife was not impressed.  In fact, she was laughing about the comical nature of the entire event.  She has shared her experience throughout much of her network (to their great delight).

I appreciate new approaches, but I find this one to be a bridge too far.

Comments(0)