It was the start of a new week and I was ready for it. I had found the ten people that I wanted to interview. Carys was as annoying as ever now that she knew that Blair and I were trying dating thing and my mother was bothering me with wedding plans. My father kept trying to get me to sell the business and I just was not in the mood for him. Blair was good I guess, the attention was still at its peak because we had been seen having lunch together so, it further solidified the notion that we were getting married.
The office was abuzz with the graduates waiting for their interviews and my staff was betting on who would get hired or not. They knew me better than most so it would be interesting.
I called in the first candidate and as soon as they walked in I told them to leave. They were walking as if they owned the place. As soon as they saw that I was younger than them they snorted and I knew that I don't want them. They were not happy but I could care less.
The second candidate was nervous, too nervous they stuttered through the whole interview and bearly strung together a sentence. I was not pleased, this person was good on paper but unfortunately, I need someone that can command a room with confidence as soon as they walk in.
The third and fourth had potential. They answered my questions well and they were confident. They were not cocky but they just did not have leadership skills, they were followers. Not what I was looking for.
Candidate number five walked confidently into my office, answered my questions with well thought out answers, never hesitated and they were smart. On paper they were good and in person, they were better. Candidate number 5 was a shoo-in.
Candidates 6-8 were bores, they talked too much and were self-involved. They thought little of the people they worked with and only seemed to care about what they could gain.
Candidates 9 & 10 reminded me of candidate number 5. They were each different in their own right but they all had what I wanted. They would definitely be shortlisted.
I was tired after the interviews but it was a fruitful day. I had three possible candidates and I wanted to test whether or not they had what it takes. Each was sent an email to come back tomorrow for a final interview.
I spent the rest of the day going over reports and signing documents. I went to the gym, then after dinner, I went to my home office and spent a couple of hours looking through old documents on Fields Corp. They were haemorrhaging money and I wanted to know why. There was a possibility that someone was embezzling from the company. I hoped that was not the case.
The morning came and I had a plan to test the three candidates from yesterday. They would do menial jobs all day and the ones that stayed would move on if none stayed then I would have to start the interview process again. It was a risk I was willing to take.
I started them off by making coffee for the whole floor, if they can't handle the simple task of taking a coffee order how can they handle other things. It was chaos but 5 was persevering, they were doing their best. 10 was a little peeved but trying to keep it in. They would not last the whole day. 9 was also off to a good start. After coffee was done they ran around making copies, faxing documents and being runners for a few hours.
Around lunchtime 10 was fed up and came to my office, pissed off at the prospect of being used as a runner when they had a great degree under their belt and had other offers on the table. I told them to take the other offers then, that if they cant handle small tasks like making copies correctly how can they be trusted to review important documentation that can make or break a business. They were shocked at my answer but they left still. Now I was left with 5 and 9. They seemed to understand that in order to be at the top you must start at the bottom, 5 understood it the most because they were even offering their help when they had a moment of quiet while 9 sat and waited for work to be given to them.
After lunch I took them off the floor and had them take notes for one of my meetings, I needed to know what they thought was important to note down and what could be left out during these meetings. They sat quietly in the corner for two hours taking notes and being good students. I was impressed by their diligence.
I took in their notes and looked them over, they both seemed to have a good understanding of business and note-taking. While they had different noting styles they noted down similar things and made sure to note down even questions and answers from the meeting. They noted down things that were not part of the presentation but had been mentioned in the meeting. They also noted comments that were made during the presentation.
I was rather impressed with them and I told them such. I had a meeting with them after going through the notes and explained why they did everything they did today. I mentioned that in order to be at the top you must not underestimate the work of the people working under you. From the janitor to the tea lady. Everyone had a part to play and they were all important. I wanted to see whether or not they understood this concept. I also told them that I was impressed with their note-taking because they managed to note a lot of important information from the meeting. I then told them that they got the internship and would each be receiving a stipend monthly. It was lower than my average employee salary but higher than most internship stipends because of the nature of the job.
They were over the moon, I would now learn their names to be 5 - Adrianna Brown and 9 - Shaqueal Thomas.