The Bikepacking Journal Issue 11

“Ushered to a seat and told to wait, I look around at the fluorescent-lit office space and try to imagine spending my days here. Every now and then, a worker pops up from their cubicle and wanders over to the copier to collect a printout. The smell of various reheated cuisines and microwaved plastic lunch containers permeates the air. A sharply dressed twenty-something man walks through the waiting area, thanks everyone within earshot, and walks out. He’s clearly the previous interviewee, and seeing him immediately makes me regret not wearing a tie.

The interview panel members come out to introduce themselves, and I follow them to a meeting room. Sitting down at a table 30 seats too large for the task at hand, I smile and do everything expected of me. I’m asked the same mundane questions from the same nine-to-five interview playbook. My head says “yes,” but my heart says “no,” and this feeling transfers to my answers. The questions are a blur until I hear one that stands out among the rest: “Can you tell us about a time when you faced a challenge and how you overcame it to succeed?” I pause to consider the question before answering. I believe they want to hear about an instance when I had a customer complaint, uncovered the issue, and communicated the solution with the customer, reaching a win-win. But the story I really want to tell them is this…”