Prepared. Poised. Perfect.

Interview day. Up at 3. No point trying to sleep.

Picked up my prep notes. Reread them again as the kettle boiled.

Had a shower. Still looked a wreck. Pallid. Eyes like stained glass windows in an abandoned church.

Took something to pick me up.

Cleaned the sink. Vacuumed the hallway. Wiped the kitchen. Avoided the bin cupboard. Had another shower.

Got the early train. Didn’t need to, but left nothing to chance. Not today.

Old woman sat next to me and started eating a banana. Loud. Could hear smacking lips over my headphones.

Arrived 45 minutes early. A reliable worker. Gets up and gets stuff done. The building was glass and steel. Reception smelled like cucumber. Knew it.

A large glass beverage dispenser filled with cucumber water sits on a marble reception desk. The clear jar displays floating cucumber slices and has a silver spigot at the bottom. In the softly lit background, a cactus sits on another counter in a modern, glass-walled office lobby.

There was a cactus by the far wall.

Announced my arrival at reception and took a seat. Very comfy. Sat up straight, focused on my breathing until the rhythm made sense.

Had to use the bathroom a couple of times. Hope the receptionist didn’t notice. Winked and told her I was powdering my nose.

Went one last time a couple of minutes before 9. Made sure I was going in alert. Sharp. Ready to win.

They called me in at 9:01. Three of them. Two men and a woman, arranged by height. The woman smiled. One of the men had a laptop. The other gestured towards a chair.

My audience. About to see magic.

I shook their hands firmly. The last one winced. That settled my nerves. Had his number right off the bat.

The chair wobbled. Didn’t matter. I leaned forward a little, hands on knees. I’m the man who listens. Nods along like you’re saying something important.

Laptop man said he went to Oxford. Asked me which college I was at. Told him I studied at a university in Oxford and gave him the gun fingers.

My leg started bouncing. Moved a hand to still it. Spilled some cucumber water. Changed position. Don’t think they saw.

Straight into it, they asked me about my core values. Had this locked down. My time to S.H.I.N.E.

S for Self-awareness, H for Honesty, and I for Initiative. Couldn’t remember N. Or E. Blagged my way through it. Said E for Empathy.

“E for Energy, perhaps?” The woman asked. She got it. Could tell she liked me.

“Empathy without energy is indulgence, and energy without empathy is just noise.” That seemed to land.

Went off script when they asked about leadership. Ad-libbed an answer about long-term vision. The Egyptians built pyramids without Slack, weekly meetings, and clocks. Yet they delivered something that’s lasted thousands of years.

“That’s leadership. You set the base. Others add the bricks.”

Left a pause to let that sink in.

Made eye contact with the woman again. Something there, for sure. I held it a beat to see if she’d look away. She didn’t.

Smiled at her. Said how rare it is to meet someone who listens. That shifted the whole dynamic. I was on fire.

No one interrupted my cross-functional alignment and hybrid engagement models. Spoke for twenty minutes without notes.

Before they could wrap it up, I said I had to leave for another meeting. Power move. Stood and thanked them.

Considered giving the woman my number, but will have plenty of time for that when the gig starts.

Told them I hoped they’d taken something from this meeting, too.

Sweat was trickling down my arms and chest, so I stopped in the toilets on the way out.

Wiped myself down. Blew my nose. Looked at myself in the mirror.

Fucking smashed it.

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