A Memorable Job Interview

My first job ever was with a company that makes artistic glass decorative items. The lady boss was beautiful as she was precise with everything that's done in her company. When I arrived for the interview, she had only spoken a few words and asked a few questions. It was my shortest interview ever and I thought I had blown it when it was over in about 10 minutes. Then in comes her sister and 4 year old nephew. I was asked to join them for lunch before I leave.

The disastrous interview made it hard for me to swallow anything and the lunch invite was something I would like to turn down and in fact I did, but the sister insisted that I sit with them before I leave. Being seated next to the company's only trusted staff who was cold towards me was also a huge dampener to my spirits.

They were all having chinese noodles in soup and I was given a pair of chopsticks and a piece of tissue. Shrugging, I took them all and wished everyone at the table 'bon appetit' and only started eating after the lady boss had her go, just to be polite. Her sister asked me in a very serious voice if the noodles were to my liking. Not wanting to offend anyone and yet feeling I have nothing to loose, I just went right ahead and answered her what came to my mind.

"The soup's nice but the meat's a little too salty, but if at with the noodles, it's not too bad," I said. She looked at me and blinked. The company's staff who had given me a cold shoulder before told me to just eat up. With that, I bent my head over and concentrated on my forced lunch.

As I ate, in less than a minute, I noticed a silence around the table and I looked up, fearful that I might have probably slurped too loud or maybe spilled some soup on the table… All of them stared at me and I freaked out even more – but in a calm voice, I asked them if I did anything wrong.

The lady boss gave a beautiful smile (where she had not previously in the interview) and then laughed. Her sister laughed with her and I was so ashamed without knowing why. Once they were done laughing, the lady boss nodded at me and told me that nothing was the matter & that I should finish my noodles before it goes cold.

Once lunch was done, I offered to clear up the table but I was hushed and told to wait. At the exit, I rehearsed my thank-yous and other pleasantries, quite sure I will not see them again when the lady boss came up to me.

"I expect that you start work immediately," she said, with that serious look on her face.

"What?"

"Yeah, when can you start coming in?"

My knees nearly buckled due to my relief, since my funds were running low and this job would be my life saver then. It wasn't until later into the job that I got to know the boss better and she told me what made up her mind to hire me.

"It's because of the way you used your chopsticks when you ate lunch with us," she told me once day, when I finally had the guts to ask.

"Why is that?"

"You can tell a lot about the character of a person by the way he/she holds and uses the chopsticks," she said kindly and then ended it with a smile.

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