Boston Medical Center Interview Questions
& Process

I applied directly on the BMC website. A recruiter called me a couple of weeks later around 5pm to learn more about my experience. She mentioned the hiring manager was interested and wanted to schedule me. Since I had another meeting at 5pm, I asked to reschedule the phone screen. She agreed and emailed me shortly after. I replied with my availability and never heard back. I followed up again and still heard nothing. Over a month later, I saw the job was reposted on LinkedIn. I reached out to the recruiter a third time, asking if I could still talk to the hiring manager. She finally responded, but only to say they were making an offer to another candidate. I was really disappointed to find out I'd been ghosted for a month and missed out on a potential opportunity, only to be told the job they just reposted was apparently going to be taken down. It wasn't the best or worst experience, but it's a sign of company culture, so be aware.

The interview process was professional, warm, and team-oriented. It kicked off with a phone screening. Then, there was a panel interview with some clinical team members. They wanted to know about my experience with trauma-informed care, evidence-based practices, and how I work with other disciplines. The whole process really highlighted cultural humility, flexibility, and working with high-acuity youth.

Submitted an application online. A recruiter got in touch about a month later, and then there was a zoom interview with the hiring manager. The next step, if I were to be selected, would have been an in-person interview. I had to follow up with the recruiter multiple times over two weeks just to get the interview with the hiring manager scheduled. The hiring manager spent hardly 10 minutes asking questions. No one has followed up with me after the interview with the hiring manager to this day.

This was the most frustrating interview of my current search and I will try to write about it without being disparaging. I also want to point out that once I sussed out the situation I was admittedly probably not a good fit for them. I have nothing against the company or those I interviewed with, but it is definitely a drag being pulled through someone else's chaos. The head of the team and her team members are clearly not aligned on the role's description its need. From all of my interviews I got an impression of a team without much established process or workflow efficiency, but that is highly resistant to change or improvement especially from external candidates. I passed the HR and Sr. Director interviews, but then had a group interview with two team members who would be reporting to this position and they weren't having any of it, and here is where this interview process just kind of went off the rails. Somewhat hostile from the get-go, one word answers to my questions and both admitted up-front they didn't see a need for this role with the strong inference that the interview a waste of their time. This feels like a siloed team with vastly differing ideas about its priorities, likely as a result of poor internal communication. (I also picked up that one or both of the reports I interviewed with felt they should have been offered this position-- I've encountered this situation before.) BMC is going to have trouble filling this position until the Sr. Director and her team level set, and either conduct some alignment and prioritization workshops to get on the same page, or be more open to a candidate who intends to bring some much-needed process and methodology with them. I wish them the best of luck. My advice to anyone interviewing for this role is to be aware of the dynamic, have your spidey-sense tuned to assess the situation going in, and make your own judgements.