The Brain Teaser

I have made it to the final round of interviews twice since I started this process. Yes, you're right - that means I've only worn the black skirt suit twice. Sad really because it's actually quite nice. In each case I killed all of the interviews to get there and was preparing to negotiate my 4 weeks holidays because I was sure the offer was coming.

I was called to interview with one company based on an application I submitted online. The job sounded better online than when I spoke with HR over the phone and the cons were now outweighing the pros. Poor Brian had to listen to me bitch and gripe once again about this damn interview I was going on for a job I didn't want.

Cons:
1. 12 month contract to cover for a maternity leave. I started in a contract role 15 years ago and am not interested in doing it again. I'm a grown up now and expect to be treated as such.
2. Distance. 47.5 kms each way. Ugh. This would just give Brian more reason to push for a move to Brampton. Not gonna happen.
3. Money. They were offering a slightly lower base salary than I was making in my last job. By slightly lower I mean $2K - no biggie really, but it still bugged me.

Pros:
1. It's a job, and I could use one of those.
2. It's not in IT. It's a challenge to try to change industries while looking for a senior role. The reality is, PC sales is to IT what the Ford Fiesta is to cars. Although you've been driving it for years, it's the entry level model and there are a lot of snazzy features you haven't been exposed to.

Regardless of the pros and cons, it really makes no impact on whether or not I go to the interview. I always go. Good ol' Catholic school girl guilt takes on a new form in my current circumstances.

The first interview was great! I had the Director believing he could spend the summer at the cottage and I would take care of everything while he was gone. I essentially ran the interview, asked all the right questions and, proved my knowledge of the customer by name dropping whenever I could. He was impressed, and I left thinking that it was the first interview I had been on where I actually had a good time.

The second interview was over the phone with the HR Manager in Montreal. She asked me all the usual HR questions, and I had the perfect answer for each one. We, too, hit it off well and at the end of the hour she told me I would be having a third interview the following week - but they were upping the ante.

When I arrived at interview #3 I was led into the boardroom, provided with a case study, and was expected to present my recommendations to a panel of 4 people. I was given a pile of information to read and digest, 2 flip charts, a box of markers, and 45mins to prepare. (Did I mention this was for a 1 year contract position?) It actually made me giggle. Alrighty then...I'll play your game. I have done a lot of presenting in my day and decided everyone going through this process was gonna be nervous....except me.

I nailed it. I knew that they were evaluating me based not only on my presentation skills, but also on my ability to digest information, determine what was relevant and what was not (there were pages of information that I didn't read because I decided they weren't important and there wasn't time - I was later told this was a part of the test), and relate the fictitious product information to the fictitious company goals to make and defend a recommendation. I greeted the team, gave a brief overview of the situation, ran through the highlights and pitfalls of each option, and recommended one of them. I answered their few questions (in fact, I thought there should have been more) and 45 minutes later my presentation was done. I left feeling pretty good about it.

HR called me a few days later and told me that I had made a very good impression on the team, and was being put forward for the fourth and final interview with the Vice President, who was flying in from Montreal to meet me. The meeting would be 30 minutes max, and was really just a 'meet and greet' so that he could make the final decision. I was told there was a very short list of candidates that had made it this far and I figured it was either only me, or me and one other candidate. I was sure that after three interviews, they weren't going to waste his time by presenting multiple candidates. Out came the black skirt suit. I was up for the challenge. This process felt more like achieving the next level on a video game than pursuing a job that had more cons than pros. I was confident that my charm would win him over (how could it not?) and was already considering what to wear on my first day (yes, you have heard this before....perhaps I tend to get a little ahead of myself).

Our meeting went well over an hour and was the toughest interview I have ever been on, and hopefully ever will. There was no idle chatter and every question he asked me was a test. I had to sell him a PC, I had to justify why I thought taking customers to lunch or a hockey game helped with sales, I had to explain in detail how I build relationships with my customers. He even asked what the specs were on my camera, and I could tell he was judging every word I said.

But wait! there's more! Just when I thought it was over, he handed me a pen, and a piece of paper and gave me what he called 'a case study' to solve right there in front of him while he watched. (For God's Sake!!). In fact, it wasn't a case study at all - it was what we regular folk call a 'riddle'. A friggin brain-teaser that went like this:

A guy leaves his house randomly between 7am and 7:59:59am and goes to the train
station. (I can only imagine the look on my face at this point...). He does this randomly, every day, for months and months. There are 2 trains at the station: train A and train B. Each train leaves 4 times an hour, at regular intervals. (again....my face....). 80% of the time, he gets on train A, and 20% of the time he gets on train B.

Why is that?

Now...before I go any further, I'll tell you that I'm usually pretty good at these things, but imagine the added pressure of this guy, who has already intimidated the hell out of me, staring at me from across the table while I try to figure it out. Not to mention I'm sweating like mad in my ill-fitting black suit jacket, my spanx are feeling extra spanxy and my mouth is as dry as the sahara. Yep - 12 month contract in Mississauga for less money than I want. Exactly.

I scribble and scribble and alas....I am the hero! I pull it together and look at him tentatively with my answer and he confirms that I am right. WHEW!!!! Thank God that's over! But it isn't. There's a part (b). FUCK!!!!!!!!

How many minutes are between train A and train B?

SHIT! Now there's math. Fucker. Okay...I can do this. I focus, and start to scribble some more. He looks at my paper and tells me that I'm very close. I tell him to give me a minute....in a very professional way. At last, I have an epiphany. I come up with the right answer and I'm thankful for my black jacket that is covering up the ginormous sweat stains under my pits. He confirms that I am correct and with a smirk on his face tells me that I'd be surprised at the number of people that give up. AS IF I'd be surprised! I was one nanosecond away from throwing down my pencil and either walking out, bursting into tears, or reminding him that this was for a 12 month contract position and who the FUCK did he think he was.

I leave, completely spent, and search desperately for a place to buy a bag of chips. I deserve it. I have absolutely NO idea how the interview went. Yes, I solved the riddle but it wasn't pretty, and how were the other answers I gave? I had to justify everything I said and I don't know if I did it well enough. I go home and sleep for hours. That night I call almost everyone I know to tell them about my horrendous day.

I call the HR Manager the next day to follow up. I tell her that it was NOT at all a 'meet and greet' but a 75 minute gruelling test including a brain twister. She gasps in shock - she knows his fondness for giving riddles to candidates, but did not expect he would do it with me in what she was told would be 30 minutes. She tells me that 65% of candidates either don't get it right or give up, and it is certainly a good sign that I solved it, however ugly it may have been to get there. She's hopeful and rooting for me. I'm still wary.

I follow up with her regularly and after two weeks she finally tells me that since it's a complicated product they sell, and only a 12 month contract, they've decided to just move someone internally into the role. I'm stunned and honestly....I'm pissed. All those kilometres, all those hours, all that stress. I considered asking for compensation for my dry cleaning bill.

The boy liked me, his mother liked me, the extended family liked me. Yes, I could cook and clean but, at the end of the day, it wasn't enough. Don Corleone put the kaibosh on the whole thing.

I couldn't make this shit up if I tried.

Lisa

(p.s. Let me know if you figure the riddle out. I'll post the answer later.)