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One or the other.
Maybe both.
One interviewee was so detestable, so predictably awful, that I nearly just walked away from the table and tried to hunt her down. He was pushy and arrogant and kept using phrases he clearly learned online to sound like he knew the business. And he kept complimenting me.
He was a suck-up, and what was worse, I watched him in the little office immediately grab the assistant’s chair. Not because he naturally gravitated toward it, not because he wanted to establish himself in that chair and be seen there so it looked natural. No. He ran over to it and jumped in the chair, pushing people out of his way because he clearly felt like he deserved it. He was entitled to it.
I hated him from moment number one, and it was gratifying to shut him down in the middle of some droning speech about how he was voted most likely to succeed by his private school classmates to tell him that I didn’t give a fuck about any of that, and for him to get out of my office.
He looked like a deer in headlights. I was positive in that moment he had never had anyone tell him no before. I relished it.
Welcome to the world, dickbag.
When he finally walked out, the last of the contestants on The Job Is Right, Bobby came and sat in his chair again, letting the silence fill the room while I turned back to the window.
“They were terrible,” I said. “Except one.”
“The first girl?” he asked.
I nodded.
“She didn’t seem like she wanted to be here,” he said. “Went storming off.”
“Because she knew she was better than the process,” I said. “She was right. She’s qualified, more so than any of the other people you brought in or any of these other résumés you dropped off. She’s overqualified, if anything. But she read me like a book. Instantly knew how to handle herself with the others in a small room. She stood out.”
“Indeed,” he said.
“So, it’s her then. She’s the one.”
“She… left,” he said. “Quit, as it were.”
“You can’t quit a job you don’t have,” I said. “She elected to end the interview. She was right to do so. She knew she was better than everyone else and didn’t have to go through the steps.”
Bobby stared at me for a long moment, and when he spoke, he was direct, eyes locked with min. “Why do you want her, other than her qualifications on paper?”
“Isn’t that enough?”
“Two other candidates had double degrees. So, no.”
“The way she carried herself, Bobby. I want to see how she handles herself in the actual job. If she can bring that level of confidence to it, can you imagine how much freedom that would give me to focus on other things? If I knew I didn’t have to handle any of the menial stuff at all?”
He nodded.
“I can see where that would be enticing. However, I want to make sure of something, and it’s a delicate subject. I want you to hear me and not react immediately, if you can.”
“I’ll try.”
He cleared his throat, clearly struggling with whatever it was he was about to say. “She is a very attractive young woman,” he said. “And you have been single for a very long time.”
“Bobby…”
He shrugged, putting his palms out toward me as if to ward me off. “I’m not saying that itisa factor in your choice, but I am asking to make sure itisn’t.”
“And what if it was?” I asked. “Why would wanting an attractive woman around be a bad thing? Let’s not mince words here, pal. Beautiful people get shit done easier. It’s a fact of life. She could smile at someone and get them to do something for her that I would have to bribe them for. She could walk into a room and get the attention of someone I needed to get a message to faster than any courier, faster than any text message or email. They would pay attention. That kind of confidence with those kinds of looks? The world would kneel to her.”
“That’s precisely my worry,” he said.
“You think it would affect my work?” I laughed. “Bobby, you can’t be serious.”
