Psychiatry PGY3 (nearly PGY4) here. I recently started actively job hunting for permanent summer 2024 jobs and have spoken with a number of recruiters and medical directors.

After speaking with the medical director at a state psychiatric hospital, I was offered an interview, which would be a panel-style interview.

I've had 3 other video calls (about 60 minutes each) with medical directors or CMOs at medium sized or larger hospitals for inpatient and CL positions and each one it was implied they would hire without a formal interview.

When I have asked about the next steps, the typical response has been "well, reach out to Sally in HR to schedule a site visit, tour the hospital, have lunch with staff, and if we all like each other we'll send you an offer letter."

I even had one medical director finish with "I hope you choose [hospital name]."

This seems crazy to me. None of these were academic centers but are all parts of multi hospital systems with inpatient psych units and certified involuntary beds.

Is this really the current state of psychiatry that places are so desperate they'll hire after a 60 minute video chat and site visit? They're offering to fly me across the country for said site visits.

For anybody who has recently gone through this process, or if you're involved in hiring, please give me some insight to how normal this is. Should I be seeing major red flags when places take this approach.

Thanks in advance!