Seconds later.
The Human Resources Manager almost began foaming at the lips. Only the soothing voice of his personal assistance chip and accompanying peaceful music that it played in his mind saved his sanity.
“Alright…” The Human Resources Manager rubbed his temples. Should they just leave this kid alone? Even though the kid had had the qualifications to be accepted into the “special program”, it wasn’t like there weren’t others in the area that also did.
With this kid’s IQ, were his Life:Life stats even real? Had the system bugged out?
If he weren’t recruiting for the “special program”, he would’ve simply scoffed and moved on to the next candidate, but...
After some internal venting of his frustrations, the manager finally turned back to the recruiter. “Have a subsidiary contact him.”
“Yes sir!”
The recruiter immediately reached out to a few of C System’s subsidiary companies. To give them credit, those technology companies really were efficient. In a matter of minutes, the first interview request had been patched through to S.
Hello Jim. Calibre Intellect has sent an interview request.
Ah, a company I’d never heard of. “S, what’s Calibre Intellect.”
The first search result for Calibre Intellect dictates that they are an e-book company. You can purchase and store electronic books on their platform.
“Oh, so it’s just some e-book company. This might actually be legit… tell them I accept their interview request.”
Hello Jim, they have asked for your availability tomorrow at 8 A.M.
“...On second thought, maybe I should look for a better company to work for.”
Minus five personality points for laziness.
“God dammit S.”
Minus five personality points for cursing.
“Fine, fine! Tell Calibre Intellect I’ll be there at… 8 A.M.”
Hello Jim, they have responded in the affirmative and this event has been added to your personal calendar.
“Thanks.”
…
7:55 A.M. the next day.
The autocar dropped me in front of an indiscrete but impressively cold-looking building. I don’t mean temperature, of course. It’s just that it was a square and dark glass building without any flair or even a company’s logo on it.
I walked in as confidently as I could and quickly located the receptionist. I headed over, at which point she smiled and said, “Hello, I’m Addison, what are you here for?”
Which was fine and all, but then she stretched out her hand for a handshake. Don’t you just hate it when they do that? Anyway, my palms were really sweaty, so I went for the quick wipe on the pants as I lifted my hand for the handshake.
“Hello, I’m here for an interview with… Natalie, for 8 A.M.”
Shit, she definitely glanced at my hands during the handshake. She’s totally judged me for my sweaty hands, shit!
Well, somehow I was still sane enough to not run out of the place screaming.
“Hmm, okay. Please take a seat, Natalie will be with you shortly.”
I sat down in the lobby and looked around, trying to take in my surroundings. It was at this moment that I saw the large company logo in the lobby. Calibre Intellect: Management Consulting.
It wasn’t a damn e-book company.
After a bit of waiting, a person came to get me.
“Hello Jim, I’m Natalie. Thanks for coming. Please come this way.” She motioned with her right arm.
“Okay, thanks.”
For some reason, at this point, I started to get cocky with my words and actions. Random surge of fake confidence. I guess this is why some people tend to do stupid things when they’re put in a tough spot.
“So, just as a heads up, the ones interviewing you will be two of the company’s VPs as well as a Senior Director.” Natalie nodded at me with a telling expression.
What the fuck! Wasn’t this just an interview for an internship? Why were there so many high rollers? Do they have nothing better to do than to torment me?
“Okay, that’s fine with me.”
It was definitely not fine with me.
After some twists and turns through the building’s hallways, we arrived at the interview room with three people, two men and a woman, inside.
They were all old geezers of at least 50 years of age. Dammit. At least on the way there, I’d repeatedly wiped my hands on my pants so that they were acceptably dry,
They shook their hands with me and introduced themselves, but I didn’t even register anything they said. For all I know, they could’ve been telling me that they were about to kill me. Sure felt like it.
Anyway, the interview was mostly a blur for me, except for a few parts. These parts still haunt me, but perhaps you’ll get some enjoyment out of them.
One of the old geezers asked me, “So, do you know what we do here?”
“Uhh, management consulting, sir. For the government, I believe.”
Basically all of the jobs in the area were government or tech related, and the tech was usually government related, so this was a pretty simple gamble on my part. Thank god I’d seen the damn company logo in the lobby. Imagine if I’d said e-books...
“That’s right! Now, we…”
He continued to explain some stuff about what they did but I zoned out again.
The second time was when one of them started talking to me in French. This was because I had listed French as one of the languages I could speak, as I’d taken French in school for 6 years.
I couldn’t speak much, but thankfully the person was just asking how I was. Basically the first thing you learn to say and respond to when you take French, thank god.
Well, whatever happened during the interview, I ended up getting hired.
But, not for the reasons I had thought, nor for the position I had thought.
In hindsight, actually, it might have been impossible for me to fail that interview. Oh well.