REVENGE
Third interview round, my office for a one-on-one. Unanimous thumbs up from my team for Joachim, raised in Berlin and Beijing, Stanford MBA. With our China market growing, my team needed his Mandarin language expertise. Andy and Angie, my Harvard twins, gave him five stars—unusual for them to agree on anything. I loved stacking my team with first borns (ambitious and confident like me), so my final question for Joachim, “Do you have siblings?”
“One older brother, three younger sisters,” he said.
I broke eye contact, stared at my stapler. “Were you close to your brother?”
“No way. He’s gay.” Joachim bit down on the pen he had carried in.
I crushed my Tic Tac, swallowed.
“He’s not part of our family any more, so I like to say I’m the oldest.” The pen came out of his mouth leaving a smear of ink on his bottom lip.
With hands flat on my desk, I forced a polite, “Thanks for coming in.”
“I’m excited about this job,” he said.
I nodded, picked up my phone, and waved him off. In my desk drawer, for the Joachims of the world, I had a stamp: NO HIRE!
Note to self: another work story to share with my two moms.
“One older brother, three younger sisters,” he said.
I broke eye contact, stared at my stapler. “Were you close to your brother?”
“No way. He’s gay.” Joachim bit down on the pen he had carried in.
I crushed my Tic Tac, swallowed.
“He’s not part of our family any more, so I like to say I’m the oldest.” The pen came out of his mouth leaving a smear of ink on his bottom lip.
With hands flat on my desk, I forced a polite, “Thanks for coming in.”
“I’m excited about this job,” he said.
I nodded, picked up my phone, and waved him off. In my desk drawer, for the Joachims of the world, I had a stamp: NO HIRE!
Note to self: another work story to share with my two moms.
