Chapter 181 – First Job Interview
“A meeting room here.”
“I’ll book one.”
I went to one of the officials on duty to rent the room we needed. A few minutes later, we were seated in a small, well-soundproofed space, allowing us to focus on our topic without disturbance.
It was my first job interview, but I had dreamed of the situation so often that I didn’t feel like I was out of my element. I had to appear confident since I was on the recruiting side.
“This is how I’d like to do this. I’d like to talk a little about the work first to see if it interests you. If that’s the case, you can speak about yourself. Does that sound good to you?”
“Yes.”
She was very calm, and I couldn’t sense any apprehension on her side. I wasn’t sure whether that was a good sign or not.
“All right. My company, Urtek, is building a small workshop in dome 82, which will serve as the first location to design and produce selnic items. If things go well, I plan to build a factory and start mass production. The way I see your role is simple. You’ll be the main engineer in the company, which means you’ll need to design and build the prototypes yourself first. In the future, you’ll recruit other engineers and technicians to help grow the business. I hope there’s no misunderstanding here since this is a high-level position with a lot of responsibility. I don’t know if it was clear enough in the job ad.”
There wasn’t a single ripple of emotion on her face throughout my talk.
“I understand. You are creating a new business and need a chief engineer.”
“That’s correct. You’ll need to have plenty of experience because this isn’t my field of expertise.”
“And I will need to relocate to 82, right?”
“Correct. I’ll pay for the trip, of course. Do you have any other questions?”
“No.”
“Does the position interest you?”
“Yes.”
“That’s a good start. Could you please talk about yourself, in that case?”
“Yes. I’m the best selnic engineer in all the domes. I have worked for fourteen different companies for over fifteen years. I am more than qualified for the position.”
She said all of this as a matter of fact, as if it were impossible to doubt the truth of her words. There was no way I could just trust whatever she said, though, especially considering her words were contradictory.
“Forgive me for asking, but how can you know that you’re the best selnic engineer in the domes?”
She nodded as if she expected this very question.
“I’ve worked with many different selnic engineers and I haven’t seen anyone better than me.”
“The world is vast, and there might be some great ones in places you don’t know anything about.”
“No, the world of selnic engineering is a lot smaller than one might think. If I were to guess, you tried to recruit someone in dome 82 first, right?”
“That’s right.”
“That wouldn’t have worked. Any decent engineer moves to dome 2 or 7. I know almost all the good ones by now, and none can come close to my level of expertise.”
I normally would have said she was boasting about herself, but the lack of emotions on her face and pride in her voice made me hesitate. It was like she was saying that the dome was orange and sel existed, obvious facts of the world. It didn’t happen often, but I had trouble reading this woman.
“Let’s say that's the truth. Is there any reason why you changed companies so often?”
“I didn’t change willingly. I was fired every single time.”
“Pardon?”
“I was fired every single time.”
I took a moment to register what she said.
“You’re the best in the field and got fired fourteen times? What does that mean?”
“I wasn’t fired because of my skills. I lack interpersonal prowess.”
This was quite dumbfounding. She had given me enough hints, yet I still had to ask the next question.
“You… dislike lying?”
She nodded as a matter of fact.
“Lying is inefficient.”
“You tend to say things exactly as they are?”
“That’s correct. I currently do not appreciate your lack of trust in me and believe your attitude is inappropriate.”
That was definitely not something to say during a job interview. I couldn’t believe someone like her existed. There were many ways to lie, from straightforward lies to ones mixed with truth, or even lies by omission. She could also be another type of pathological liar for all I knew. Claiming one never lied was a typical trick liars used.
I thought for a moment before continuing.
“Please forgive me if I behave in a way you dislike during this interview.”
“I understand. It happens all the time.”
“Thank you. I saw you have a bag with you. Do you happen to have any previous work references in there?”
“I do. Fourteen work contracts and all my work evaluations.”
She opened her bag and took the documents out one by one. I was surprised she allowed me to see her previous work contracts since they probably included information about her salary. Unfortunately, most of them were written in dome 2’s language, which I couldn’t read. Only three were written in dome 6’s language, even though they came from dome 7. It seemed that domes 6 and 7 shared the same language.
“You worked in dome 7?”
“Correct. I had three positions in dome 7 before coming back to dome 2.”
I checked those documents. The work contracts were interesting since they told me about working hours, working conditions, special agreements, and previous salaries. They weren’t what I wanted to see most, though. I was more interested in how the companies evaluated her work. Going through those three evaluations, they were very similar.
In summary, this was what they said.
[“Exemplary work performance but completely lacking in social skills. Due to issues with team members, colleagues, and superiors, we regret to announce that we need to let you go.”]
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