Healthcare Consultant

Note: This consulting group is a virtual company, so employees are located all over the US (and mostly work from home), so interviews are conducted remotely.

I was contacted by the company president about 2 weeks after submitting my resume. We scheduled a time for a Skype interview the following week.

This preliminary interview was...interesting. The president's Skype handle has the word "annoyed" in it, and that is definitely what he emoted. The first thing he said was, "I would normally ask you to tell me about yourself, but first I want to ask, do you even know what a consultant is? Could you define it for me?" This was then followed with, "My company focuses on three types of services. Tell me what they are and describe them to me." As I tried to regurgitate the About Us page of their website, he kept accusing me of "looking up the answers" even though we were talking via Skype and he could see my hands weren't even touching the keyboard. Later, I said something complimentary regarding the company's recent growth and success, and he answered, "Hmph. I know."

That was pretty much the fit interview. He mostly babbled about his company and its history, quizzed me on the website copy, and all-around acted condescending. We may have talked about my background and skills at some point, but I don't actually recall that happening. He had me send him a sample of a .doc, a .ppt and a .xls. and said he'd get back to me after looking at them.

So, I sent him the requested materials, and I guess he approved because he had me set up three more interviews. Fortunately, these interviews were pretty professional and boilerplate as far as basic interviews go: "take me through your resume," "tell me about what you could bring to this position," "what are you strengths and weaknesses," etc. Each person gave me some form of skills test, comprising brain teasers, market analysis exercises, and writing assessments. Because everyone was rather busy, it took almost a month to get through all three interviews and finish their assignments. It took another week to hear a decision.

Overall, there was a pervasive "overworked and underpaid" attitude, and it didn't seem like any effort was put into supporting company morale. The pay (which is hourly) is pretty low considering industry standards--even when you factor in the work-from-home aspect.