George Washington University Program Coordinator interview questions

Initially the interview process was very smooth. The managing director, accounting manager, and previous program coordinator who I would be replacing were all extremely friendly and seemed very transparent. I first had a skype interview with two people, and it was more of a low key conversation to get to know each other. Then, I was invited for an in person interview in DC. The in person interview was with the same two people I skyped with, plus an financial manager. We discussed a few more financial and accounting responsibilities, but again the process seemed very conversational and comfortable. I was provided an offer a week later. I asked for 24 hours to think it over and came back with a counter offer. My initial thoughts were that our interactions were so comfortable and my conversations with the hiring manager seemed so flexible and transparent that having a conversation about negotiating an offer would be totally OK. I was wrong. Two days after I sent a counter offer, I got a letter rescinding my offer. There was no explanation; it was just an email with two sentences saying they were going in a different direction. When I asked for further explanation, I was given none. I understand this was totally in their right but I felt like not even being allowed to have a conversation about salary offers seemed rather extreme. In today's society, as women, we are taught to never accept the first offer and to always negotiate. I would have thought that a higher educational institution would have promoted this idea. The beginning of this entire experience was great; however I found the end of the process to be extremely unprofessional and rather embarrassing for GW.

Total the process took a month (applied to contacted to interview to offer to start). The interview itself was average in difficulty. It was a panel style interview, the two people I would majority be working with. The interview took about a half an hour to complete (Thursday). They contacted me the following calendar week (Friday) and asked for references and I was contacted less than a week later (Wednesday) with the offer. I started a little over a week after the offer was extended (Monday).