Talk Encouraging to Me, Baby

You’re not going to believe this, but THIS REALLY HAPPENED. I was chatting away to my cube mate the other day when I felt a little tap, tap, tap on my shoulder. A woman who had interviewed me about a month ago for an internal position that I didn’t get was standing over me. “Excuse me,” she said, “Can I talk to you for a minute?” Now, I’m not really upset I didn’t get this position I applied for. I knew it was a lateral move, promised no significant pay increase, and was understood to be legendarily boring. But still. If my own company won’t hire me, I thought, who will? So yeah, for that reason I was kind of bummed. But of course, I obliged to converse and we snuck away into an empty office.

I sat down with absolutely no idea what to expect; she closed the door, turned around to face me, and proceeded to…compliment me. She told me I was an excellent interviewee, actually using words like “bright” and “articulate.” She went on to say that when I left the interview, her thoughts were “wow, she was amazing…she’s going to get so bored.” She wanted me to know that I positively shined – so much so that she worried about the future of my career should I come work for her. Needless to say, I was/am flattered, dumbfounded, and utterly euphoric. It’s like someone stepped out of the gun smoke hauling a first aid kit and bent down to bandage my wounds.

Now. What is totally fucked up here, is that the verdict is still out as to whether or not she was breaking any rules by stepping over HR and possibly a series of red tape to just come talk to me and explain why I wasn’t hired. Meanwhile, I had decided that the reason I wasn’t chosen for the job was because there was some sort of conspiracy against me designed to keep a big, fat thumb dangling over my head ready to squash me at the slightest sign of confidence. It makes me think of others out there trying to get ahead by grasping at anything, and who are ultimately shot down without knowing why.

Never in my life has anyone talked so encouragingly to me on a professional level. Not even a teacher. It’s so sad, but I’m literally in awe of this token of good will. It was a sincere message from one partial stranger to another, motivated only by the notion that I deserved to know what happened. What a gargantuan difference it makes to know the reason for not hiring me was not that I was incompetent, but because my demeanor and my very essence reveals that I want to be challenged. I’ve never been so proud of not getting a job or so thankful that there are people out there who will sidestep normal protocol to deliver a very important and much needed message.

KB Cycler

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