Applied at 4am one night, last job I applied to before going to bed. I just finished graduate school, so am just staying up applying to jobs. Am currently unemployed, as I left my previous job to attend school full time. Got a call for an interview at 4pm that day (I was very qualified for this position.) Interview was for 2pm the next day (Friday).
I interviewed with three people (3 interviews back to back), with a department administrator, another coordinator I would be working with, and the director of the program. Each about 30-40 minutes. Generic interviews, each basically repeating what the last person said/asked. Generic questions (tell me about yourself, Strengths/weaknesses, how would you co-workers describe you, etc...) Pleasant people. We were getting along. I asked a lot of relevant questions, as I had had a similar role at NYU Medical Center. Typical, windowless, cold, hospital setting. Went well.
Then it started getting weird. Got a call from the administrator on Monday morning that they wanted to call my references. She left a message, since I wasn't by my phone. Her tone of voice on the message seemed like she didn't really want to leave the message, or was annoyed that she had to leave a message.I called back pretty quickly. She wanted a list of names and numbers over the phone. Already felt weird because I it would have been better to e-mail a list for accuracy. I would expect this more from an older faculty member, not a younger administrative person. I started listing off names, and spelling them, but them stopped, laughed and said that it might be easier if I sent all of this in an e-mail, so she has an accurate list of names, numbers, and correctly spelled e-mails. She was hesitant to even give me her e-mail, but she pleasantly agreed with me that it would in fact be easier to send it in a text form, and gave me her e-mail. I still dont' understand why she didn't e-mail me in the first place for something like this. Scheduling an interview via phone, ok. But asking for a list of references? I would think and administrator would know a little better. What was also strange was that she only wanted references from my last position, not from any other positions I held, which really limited the amount of references I could give her.
At the end of the week, I was contacted by one of my references and she said that they gave me wonderful references! (This is the administrator at NYU, btw, and she contacted me via e-mail.) They hoped I would get the job, and I ended up having lunch with them a few days later to catch up. She even said that if they had a job opening at NYU, they would consider me, but they don't at the moment. To me that especially shows that they gave good references to Columbia.
The following week, I hear nothing from Columbia. I send a follow up e-mail to the one I sent with the references. A few days go by. Nothing, Ignored. Another follow-up e-mail. Nothing. I check the Columbia job portal, the position had been filled. But not by me.
You would think they would at least send me a rejection letter, but, nope. A rejection letter is professional after an interview, and especially if you call references. Maybe if I called for a follow-up, the administrator at Columbia would have responded..... I thought the interview went really well, but the process afterward, completely unprofessional.