It's all a matter of perspective - Michaelnus.com

It's all a matter of perspective.

The other day I had what has to be the most interesting job interview. Before I go on I will say in advance that I don’t know why I even go to these interviews knowing that I will in all likelihood be gone in September for a bit. I guess I just do them to keep my claws sharp and because lately I seem to be without the ability to say no to anything.

Anyway I walk in and am greeted by two people, a woman and a man. The woman seemed nice enough but the man, who was the executive director of the place was the no-nonsense type. In fact he didn’t seem to be in possession of a sense of humor at all. His questions to me were along the lines of “do you find yourself to be cynical or arrogant?” to which I replied “yes and yes.”

I don’t know what possessed me to say what I said next, but out it came and it sounded like this: “you seemed to be troubled that I answered in the affirmative to a question that is almost rhetorical” …awkward silence. I apologized and explained that I am usually able to read people pretty well in a way that was desirable to an employer. To which he replied: “so am I. I used to work in the secret service and I have a feeling you have some history with a similar organization.”

Shit. How did he know? In that moment I took some time to pause and assess the situation. Had I known that I would be talking to an ex secret service agent I would have prepared a little differently. Perhaps armed myself? I mean with some better questions… The thing is that the organization he now heads is quite the opposite of his former station. A non-profit, charitable organization is quite a far cry from the world of spies and subterfuge. I didn’t have the audacity to ask him what he was doing here considering the latter, but he sure had the gall to ask me. The rest of the interview was a write-off. We just sat there playing our strange game of mental chess as we tried to read each other while his assistant looked on in bewilderment. Although I expended a significant amount of brain power to hold this conversation with the Israeli Sean Connery, any leftover braincells were conjuring up little images of how hilarious he would look if he was in a tutu and hooker boots.

The next part of the conversation is classified but what I can tell you is that, despite the exceedingly awkward interview, it all ended up with a few laughs and, surprisingly, a serious job offer on the table and he wanted an answer within 24 hours. Ultimately I called back the next and declined because it was not for me but despite it all I kind of liked the guy, even if he reminded me of a cold war holdout. Although I’m sure that in his eyes I reminded him of some overqualified joker with a smart mouth at when we first began to talk.

Fair enough