Most sterile processing interviews don't fall apart over technical questions. They fall apart because candidates don't know how to handle uncomfortable information without putting the interviewer on defense. One of the most consistent mistakes SPD candidates make is directly confronting a hiring manager about negative reviews they've read on Indeed or Glassdoor before accepting an interview or during the conversation itself.
If you're applying to a hospital CSD or ambulatory surgical center and you've seen a pattern of bad reviews, your instinct to pay attention is correct. You are also one wrong sentence away from ending an otherwise strong interview.
Employee reviews are not neutral data. They are emotional snapshots left by a specific subset of people at a specific moment, and in sterile processing that context matters more than most candidates realize.
SPD departments run second and third shift operations with lean staffing, high physical demand, and limited visibility to hospital administration. When working conditions deteriorate, whether that means chronic short-staffing, a lead tech or supervisor with poor management skills, broken sterilizer equipment that never gets repaired, or a department caught in health system consolidation, the techs who burn out and leave are far more likely to document the experience online than the techs who stayed, advanced, and built a career there.
A significant portion of negative reviews in sterile processing trace back to one of three sources: a single bad supervisor or lead tech, a period of departmental instability tied to a hospital merger or system acquisition, or a staffing crisis that stretched the remaining team past a sustainable point. The problem is that reviews don't expire when the underlying issue is resolved. A health system can replace CSD leadership, hire to full staff, upgrade sterilizer equipment, and rebuild department culture, and still carry a poor rating for years because the people who had the worst experience were also the most motivated to write about it.
On the other end, some facilities manage their online presence by encouraging new hires to post during onboarding, when the job still feels like an improvement over wherever they came from. That inflates the rating without reflecting the actual working conditions six months in, especially on overnight shift in a high-volume trauma center.
Reviews are a signal. They are not a verdict. They require context.
How much do you need or want this position?
If you're currently uncertified and trying to get your first hospital-based CSD role to sit for your CRCST through IAHCSMM, a department with some operational dysfunction may still be a calculated step forward. If you're a credentialed tech with two or three years of high-volume surgical instrument experience trying to move into a lead position, your leverage is different and your tolerance for a problematic department should be lower.
Also be honest about how you actually function in a difficult environment. Some sterile processing techs can operate effectively inside a turbulent department, stay focused on their decontam workflow and sterilization documentation, avoid the politics, and keep building their skills and certifications regardless of the surrounding noise. Others cannot, and there is no shame in that. The work itself is demanding enough without absorbing departmental dysfunction on top of it. Know which type you are before you walk into the building.
Asking "I saw some negative reviews online, can you walk me through those?" is almost never the right move.
If the person responsible for the problems you read about is sitting across from you, they will not confirm it. If they're aware of a previous leadership or culture issue but were not part of it, they will default to rehearsed language about improvement initiatives and positive team culture. In either case, you get nothing useful and you have introduced distrust into the room before the conversation has moved past introductions.
From the hiring manager's perspective, that question signals that you arrived skeptical and ready to challenge rather than ready to evaluate the role professionally. In central sterile, where department cohesion and communication directly affect patient safety outcomes, that framing is not a good start.
Instead of referencing reviews, ask a question structured to invite candor without creating accusation.
Ask this: "Can you tell me about the strongest parts of your department culture, and also where the team has had to work through challenges in the past and what's changed since then?"
This does three things simultaneously. It does not assume wrongdoing. It creates space for a self-aware answer. And it signals that you're experienced enough to know that every department goes through difficult periods, which is simply true in any hospital-based CSD.
Then stop talking and listen carefully, not just to what they say but to how they say it.
A sterile processing supervisor or manager who can speak directly about past staffing challenges, a difficult period during a system merger, or a previous lead tech situation that required correction is telling you something important: they have enough self-awareness to discuss it, which is also the trait you want in the person you'll be working under. A manager who responds with nothing but enthusiasm and generic statements about team culture is giving you less than the question deserves, and that is its own data point.
Healthy SPD departments, including busy ones inside large academic medical centers and high-volume ASCs, have been through hard seasons. The ones worth joining can talk about it plainly.
The verbal answer matters less than the texture of it. Pay attention to whether the interviewer becomes evasive or uncomfortable when you give them room to be honest. Watch for deflection into abstract values statements when you asked a specific operational question. Notice whether they acknowledge that second or third shift has historically been harder to staff and describe what they've done to address it, or whether they present the department as uniformly excellent regardless of shift or role.
You are not committing to anything by being in that interview. You are gathering information to make a decision. Treat it that way, and ask questions that give you something real to work with.
A single bad lead tech can damage a sterile processing department's culture and reputation for years after they're gone. One strong manager can turn a struggling CSD into a functional, well-run operation in the same amount of time. The reviews you read online may reflect a version of that department that no longer exists, or they may describe exactly what you'll walk into on day one of orientation.
The only way to tell the difference is to ask the right question and watch what happens.
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