Close Call

My phone rings this morning, and it's a woman from human resources at the nursing home I visited yesterday, telling me that my coffee date is off. Apparently, my would-be source isn't going to meet with me after all.

Is your spidey-sense all tingly, too?

I'm completely taken aback by this turn of events, especially because I can't figure out what this woman has to do with it. So I ask if she's calling in some kind of official capacity, as his supervisor or something. She says she's not his supervisor but that she's calling at his request. We go around in circles a few times, and in the end I ask to leave him a message, which she volunteers to take. (Yes, I know it's pointless, but I give her the message anyway.)

Of course, now I'm convinced that my official candidate interview will fall through, too. (It's at 4:30PM, so if I do get blown off, it'll practically be close of business, and I won't be able to find anyone else to talk to me, either.) My deadline is tomorrow, and I have every reason to believe I'm going to be totally screwed.

So I seek the wise counsel of Prof. Padwe. Do I call to confirm the appointment?

No, no, no, he says. I shouldn't give them any opportunity to cancel. I should just show up at the appointed time (armed, of course, with lots of other -- and heretofore largely hypothetical -- reporting I can use if, in fact, I don't get the interview). And I should call and let him know what happens.

What do I do about the nursing-home source? Give it up? Call back? Breeze in and see what happens?

Breeze in, he says. So I do. I chat with the security guards again, and they are surprised to learn that my coffee date had been canceled. One very kindly lets me leave a note for my would-be source (which I word very carefully, knowing that it's almost certain to be read by other people), saying that I'm sorry he wasn't able to meet but that I'd still like to talk to him and here's my number, etc.

This prompts a second, somewhat nastier call from the H.R. lady. (Fortunately, it was just a voice-mail message -- I'm not sure I was up for another tense conversation.)

But the day and the story end well. I got to the candidate's office, and she was waiting for me. And though she said she only had about half an hour, she ended up talking to me for 75 minutes. (I willed myself not to look at my watch the entire time -- I figured if I did, it would cue her to wrap things up.) This was my first official interview, and I was pretty happy with how it went.

I called Prof. Padwe and told him I'd succeeded. And then I went home to write.