Tarantino

Five people fighting for the same job couldn't have been any more amiable then how we were this morning.

I got a phone call early this week asking me to drop by for an interview at a production house that needs an editor. I said yes, of course.

So today morning I drove my Satria to one of the Damansaras early for the interview. When I got there. the receptionist gave me a piece of paper with a few personality questions printed on it, not unlike the ones you'd find in those girly magazines.

Your presence bring life to the crowd. Agree/Disagree.

Disagree.

You enjoy talking to strangers. Agree/Disagree.

Hurm...

At the end of it they even asked me to totaled up my points, which I happen to get 45 and three quarters. Unfortunately, unlike the magazines they never told me what sort of person I was. So sad..

Anyway, after that the nice lady took me back into the boardroom which was interestingly named 'Tarantino'. I was thinking that I would probably get a chance to ask the what does Marcellus Wallece look like. Probably.

Seated inside the rather empty and cold room was another lady, her spectacled eyes turned to focus on me. Okay, third lady interviewer in seven months. Interesting.. So I walked in, put my envelope on the table and excused myself.

Anxiety.

"I wanna go wash up for a bit, hold on", I said and out I went towards the washroom with a rather naughty sign of a stick figure boy peeking at a stick figure girl. Cool company.

After a couple of minutes I got back in the boardroom and sat down at the seat on one end of the table. That's the nearest, and I was rather pragmatic. The lady was still there, her eyes still ever focussed on me as if she was waiting for me to say something smart. Instinctively I put both my hand on the table while rubbing them together and said, "So..."

"Hi, my name is Susan (bukan nama sebenar), and I was called to come to this interview for the post of video editor" she said.

"Oh, cool.. okay" I replied. She's not the interviewer, she's here for the job too. "Where were you before?"

"I was working at This Company since the last few years"

"Oh nice, I really like that magazine you guys make" I said. "Why did you quit then?"

"Oh, they closed shop. We were all retrenched" she replied. "That magazine too. It won't be printed anymore"

"Really? Alaaa..", too bad I guess. I just bought a copy yesterday and it doesn't really show any sign of getting discontinued. Maybe that's why I couldn't find it at Kinokuniya.

Then, dead air. I suddenly at lost of things to ask her as my mind wonders to whether what she said was true. I didn't read anything about it in the news. But then again, I don't really read financial news much. Well, at all actually.

But but.. I listen to BFM News daily. I didn't hear anything about that there. What's gonna happen to Tapai?

Then as I was rocking the chair back and forth, staring at the ceiling lost in my thought, she broke the silence.

"It quite a nice place you have here"

Wait, what?

"It looks very professional, it's quite a big company right?"

Oh..

"Err.. you thought I was interviewing you is it? Hahah.. I'm so sorry! I'm here for the job too!" that was probably what I thought I said. At this sort of embarrassing moments you can't really be sure.

Wait, why was I embarrassed? Oh well. It happened.

"Laa.. Haha. I thought you're the boss or something, you know, with you sitting at that chair instead of this many other chairs" she said, her face now flushed red. "No wonder you're quiet je, macam blur"

"Well, to be honest at first I thought you were going to interview me"

"Ah, then we're on the same boat la" she said. Lega I guess.

"Shh, let's not tell anyone"

"Agreed"

Then a few minutes later came in another guy, thankfully he announced as he stepped in that he's here for the interview, so no one needs to guess.

Then, another guy, and another guy.

So there we were, five people for one post, sitting together in a room, each examining the other to see who got the upper hand, sizing each other up. Cool. This is the first time I've been to a non-solo interview. Most of my other interviews were just me and the bosses chit-chatting.

The clock is at 11:30 and yet there's still no interview going on. We got bored so we started to talk and talk and talk until at one point I imagined that the boss would just come in and say something like, "Okay, thank you for participating for the interview. We're developing a new form of interview where we remotely monitor how you guys interact with each other total strangers whom you know is after the same job as you. You can go back now and we'll let you know".

My eyes began to scan the room for any such device, hopefully poorly concealed inside the aircon like the one in Nasha's home or something.

Too bad that didn't happen. The boss came in soon after and quickly trimmed the selection down to just two guys in a matter of some 10 minutes. Bang bang bang, ending all tensions just like one of those Tarantino's signature Mexican standoff.

But then again, what tension?

For 40 minutes, five strangers sat together, talked and laughed. Enjoying each other's company. Now, why can't the world try to be that simple for once?

Five people fighting for the same job couldn't have been any more amiable then how we were this morning.

Thinking back at the questionnaire:

You enjoy talking to strangers. Agree/Disagree.

Agree.

So at the end, I didn't get to ask the boss what does Marcellus Wallace look like, but I did get some much needed laughs and a rather nice experience to remember.

That and someone thinks that I have a boss-like swagger.

Nice.

Thanks people!

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