So, I’m about to graduate with my master’s in health administration in a couple months. I have 5 years of relevant experience, and I applied for an “administrative specialist” position at a top university/research institute in the country for a specialized surgery unit. The job required at least a bachelor’s degree with experience, and it described high-level administration responsibilities. Perfect, exactly what I’m looking for.
I went through three rounds of interviews, all of which required me to take time off work at my current full-time job, and all of which were intense behavioral-based interviews but luckily were conducted on phone/Zoom. The interviewers could only give me vague descriptions of what they thought the job would be, but I assumed that was normal since it was such a “catch-all” type of job. I get invited to a final interview, which is in-person and over an hour away from me.
I arrive in person and meet the chair of the department, who is an accomplished physician, surgeon, researcher, professor, board member, etc. The interview goes like this:
Dr.: “So, you know how to use Word, right?”
Me: “Yes”
Dr.: “So you can also use excel and twitter?”
Me: “Yes”
Dr.: “And if I bring a student in here to yell at them, you won’t tell, right? We value privacy here.”
(Rinse and repeat for 10 minutes)
Then, he continues:
“We’re looking for a self-starter, someone who can find things to do all day. You don’t need to be told what to do, right? You could just organize those magazines without me telling you to?”
I learn the biggest, most important project of this position will be: planning the company picnic in July. He confirms whether I would be able to call vendors and see if they could cater food for us. I reassure him I think I could do that.
Next, he makes sure I would be able to welcome guests and prepare them drinks, such as coffee. Because, after all, they “have BILLIONAIRES come through these hallways.”
Finally, he tells me they need someone who is able to respond quickly, and asks if I would respond at 6:30 (doesn’t specify am or pm) if he texts me at that time.
After that 15 minute interaction that could have been a Zoom call, I paid the $20 parking garage fee, paid the $16.75 toll road fee, the $25 in gas it took me to get there, and enjoyed my remaining one of eight hours of PTO I had to use.
What do we think? Worth 50K and an appropriate use of my education and skills?