Is this normal in the professional field for searching for a job?

Very, very bad form. Your boss should have told the wife that s’he would speak only to the job seeker. How did she really know that it was the doctor’s wife? She could have been his mistress, a call girl or the cleaning lady, for all anyone knew.

Sheesh. No, it’s not normal and it probably cost him that job.

The guy’s mom should just call the hospital and clear the whole thing up.

Oh dear. It is not at all the thing. Of course, the spouse is concerned. but her questions, if any, should be rendered through her husband. I, too, fear this might cost him the job.

To follow up on @gailcalled‘s good observation, there isn’t any way of knowing that the original caller really was a doctor, either, unless he was known to someone there just by the sound of his voice on the phone. It’s unusual all around.

I will say that I got my last job (the one I have had for the last 12 years now) primarily via a phone contact, but that was because I had heard from family that a place I worked for ten years earlier had had a couple of ownership changes and was looking for people with my skill set. Hearing that, I called one of my old friends here who put me in touch with the guy who was looking (we had never met, but we each knew of the other because of our associations – and it’s not a very big industry). Two weeks later I had interviewed and landed the job.

So that’s not very uncommon, because we have other field people (whose jobs change with each project that they complete or that we start), who are “known to us” and call in, but to have another family member do the calling and interviewing? Sounds bizarre.

I don’t know about wife’s, but I took a seminar about hiring millinials, (spelling? You know, Babies born around the turn of the century,) and we were told that if we want to hire the cream of the crop we shouldn’t discount applicants whose parents want to be involved in the application and interview process.

But this is not even close to that, @Judi. The oldest kids you could be talking about would be 13 now. The OP was asking about an adult.

I know. It’s slightly off topic but equally as nauseating to me in employment. If someone can’t stand on their own to get a job how are they going to perform?
And I think maybe they were referring to millinials as people who were growing up in the beginning of the century, just coming into the job market. I don’t quite remember. The helicopter parent generation

(“Millenials” is another name for “Gen-Yers”.) Dictionary.com

Perhaps after his wife and mother, his nanny could reinforce his qualifications.

I’ve never heard of a partner doing this and I would find it very odd if I took a call like that from the wife of a prospective employee. I also wouldn’t be keen to discuss the job with them in relation to their partner. I would talk generally about the job, but not specifically about the partner’s application.

Holy hell, I would kill my husband if he did that ‘for’ me. Definitely not normal! What did your boss have to say after the wife’s phone call? I sure wouldn’t hire the guy.

My boss is a nut job and thought it was perfectly fine. She has periods of manic behavior.
I’m now imagining this guys wife parking herself in the office while he does his rounds if we hire him.
<shudder>

A little off subject, but still on strange bosses….at a business I worked for for 4 years, I found myself to be the unofficial boss. People just looked up to me. Even the gal they appointed as manager (a job she hadn’t asked for and didn’t want) turned to me. So she asked me to sit in on an interview. There was a list of 10 questions to be asked. Suddenly, on question #3 the interviewee had a nervous braakdown. She started sobbing about her recent divorce and telling us all the details of her ex-husbands awful behavior. She cried and cried and cried. I assumed that was the end of the interview.
I was totally shocked, however, when my boss resumed asking The Questions after the interviewee got herself under control…and my boss actually HIRED her!
Yeah, well, she needed to be fired about a year later. Guess who got tapped to give her THAT news. All by myself.