The Chess Game

Wednesday, 23 down 7 to go

I have my now daily training session with my replacement, which is stick-a-fork-in-my-eye irritating, and I receive an email from the hiring manager for the open job. I know this woman as we have gone to two conferences together and I've even had dinner with her office group. She would like to set up the interview for the next morning at 9:30.

I call HR (don't get me started) and double check that my resume and application are over in the hiring department. I tell her I hope that this is a real - and not a "mercy" - interview. She says (and I quote verbatim), "Oh, no..I have no indication that it isn't absolutely a purposeful interview." I ponder the amount of negatives in that statement as it occurs to me that it sounds rehearsed. Now, I must tell you that I am completely addicted to that new show "Lie to Me" with Tim Roth. He always notices things like that. Things like nodding your head in agreement while you're saying, "No! I had nothing to do with her murder!" However, she assures me that everything is on the up and up. Whatever.

When I get home, I get another call from the manager that there's an assignment due (no, I'm not kidding) for the interview and since it's already after 6PM she's guessing I want to move interview to the next day (Friday). This is a test. I will seem over confident and rash if I don't take the extra time. Fine, I'll take your extra time. We set the interview for 9:30 Friday morning.

I may be an old dog, but these are very old tricks. Your move.