The Worst Job Interview, Ever!

I think she was roughly 8 feet tall and incredibly intimidating, her eyes bored into me as I looked up at her from an awkward semi-squatting position. I was interviewing for a sales job at an upscale men’s clothing store and it seemed doomed before it even started!

As I pulled into the parking lot that morning I developed hiccups, not your normal run of the mill hiccups, no, these were massive that forced my head back as each one erupted out of my mouth. I glanced at the clock I had a few minutes to spare. I held my breath until I was dizzy, it didn’t work. The hiccups kept coming. I got out of the car and bent over drinking my diet coke upside down the bubbles stinging my nose. Since many workers were returning from lunch I got some odd stares. I am not sure if it was the drinking or if extreme embarrassment works to chase away the hiccups, but it did it for me.

I walked into the interview room the other interviewees gave me smug looks, since they had just passed me drinking upside down in the parking lot, I didn't seem like much competition. I was in my early twenties, and everyone else looked sophisticated and so put together. We all took an assessment and were interviewed one by one, for the single available position. I was last.

I was taken back to an office and the interviewer came in over six feet, 4 inches of hair on top of that, perfectly dressed, hawk -like eyes that bored through me. We chatted briefly and she asked if I would like some coffee. As we walked toward the coffee area something horrific started to happen. I was wearing a two-piece sweater skirt with a slip underneath with each step my slip rode further down my hips, then to my thighs. I tried taking longer strides to keep it from falling further. It did not work.

The hawk was walking in front of me I was behind desperately trying to decide if I should try to pull the slip up, or step out of it and quickly stuff it in my purse. The waistband was now around my knees. She turned around to find me squatted down halfway in-between pulling it up and stepping out of it, I had not quite made up my mind.

The hawk’s eyebrow raised quizzically, “Is there a problem?”

I looked up at her and said the first thing that came to mind, “I think first impressions are so important, don’t you?” I would like to say I then gracefully stepped out of the slip and put it in my bag, but that is not what happened. The slip tangled with my shoe and I had to take that off to get the slip off, it was mortifying to say the least. I stood up took a deep breath and we finally continued.

I somehow managed to answer her questions and talk a little bit about the exciting changes in men’s fashion. I got the job! As terrible as that interview was it taught me an important lesson, no matter how bad things may seem don’t give up. My first week at the job I was the top salesperson for the site.