A long time ago, in a land far away, when The Only Girl was in her mid-twenties, she worked for a mid-sized Canadian company. And at this time, she unwisely decided to move. There may or may not have been an asshole ex-boyfriend involved.
Fortunately, the mid-sized Canadian company had a branch in the neighbouring city where she was headed. And fortunately she worked for the President of the company at the time as the very-best-ever Executive Assistant. And he agreed to transfer her to a conveniently timed job opening at the other branch.
But she wasn’t very happy at her new job. She went from working with City Mice to working with Country Mice. And she didn’t really like mice.
Then one day she happened to be speaking to her old boss and filled him in on her tale of woe. As luck would have it, he had recently been speaking with a good friend of his, who just so happened to own his own company in the very town The Only Girl had re-located to. And he was indeed looking for a very-best-ever Executive Assistant.
So the old boss hooked our Girl up with his buddy for a job interview. Perfect! Until Mother Nature stepped in and took Father Fate for a joy ride.
The interview was arranged for 8:30am. The Only Girl slid out of bed at a respectable 7:00 to prepare. The drive would only take about 15 minutes, so that would leave her plenty of time to shower, dress, put her face on and deal with the hairs.
Except she hadn’t counted on a very unexpected snow storm. A very big snow storm. Almost Washington-ish. So she kicked the morning preparations into high gear and got in the car as fast as she could to begin her drive. But instead of taking a mere 15 minutes, it took two frustrating, hair-pulling, tear-inducing, scream-prompting hours! 2 hours! Which made The Only Girl very, very late. For a job interview. Which is typically frowned upon.
Now, had our Girl been a little older or a little wiser, she would have realized that the gentleman who would be interviewing her, this President, would very likely have understood that the weather conditions were to blame for her tardiness and not hold it against her. She might have called ahead and explained the situation before politely asking to reschedule the interview for a later time.
But no. Our Girl was young and stupid. And somehow she got it in her mind that lateness = bad interview = no job. So when she finally did arrive – 2 hours late – she had mentally thrown in the towel and had already given up any hope. She gave what can only be described nicely as a bad interview. A heartless, pathetic, drab, humdrum, dull, mundane interview. Which is SO not our Girl. She usually shows really well.
And so, as expected, she didn’t get the job. The job working for the President of a fancy high tech company. A company called Research in Motion. The company that designed and manufactures a little device known as the BlackBerry. You may have heard of it?
And you know what they say . . . behind every successful man is the very-best-ever Executive Assistant. And it was almost me.
Have you ever had a brush with job fame?
(BTW – The Olympic Opening Ceremonies are on tonight – Friday Feb 11th – 6:00 Pacific / 9:00 Eastern. See ya there?)
12 Responses to “My Brush With Job Fame”
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February 12th, 2010 at 8:46 am
Oh poor you!!! I didn’t know that story. But look at it this way, if you did get that job , you wouldn’t have met Willie!!!!!! Right??? Things happen for a reason. right? You wouldn’t have been happy there, any-way right?…. Oh who are we kidding, it would have been the perfect job, a kick ass job, and who knows where you would be in the company now!!!!! Sigh!!!!!!
February 12th, 2010 at 8:50 am
Oh RIM…I’m a die-hard Blackberry fan…even though the Storm is killing me a little bit each day. But when the time comes to re-up, I will indeed get another Blackberry because they are very, very smart little phones…and AT&T is the devil.
I can’t say that I’ve ever had any brushes with job fame. I worked as an office manager once for a very successful investment banker in Louisville. But it’s not like it was Edward Jones himself. But I gave a massage once to David Archuletta. Does that count?
Cher
Replied:
February 12th, 2010 at 10:59 am
Yes – totally counts!
February 12th, 2010 at 10:40 am
DAMN mother nature……
February 12th, 2010 at 11:53 am
How about a “brush with fame AT my job”??!! Nope, not telling
February 12th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
That’s terrible! The only thing I have to offer is…you wouldn’t be where you are today, doing what you’re doing with the people you’re doing it with, had it not been for that snowstorm and lack of poor planning.
Thanks so much for stopping by my blog.
Kristi, Live and Love…Out Loud
@TweetingMama
February 12th, 2010 at 8:34 pm
Oh gosh. I often think what would I have done in certain situations when I was younger if I knew then what I know now (sorry, that was really wordy).
February 12th, 2010 at 7:38 pm
I would have done exactly the same thing you did. Jumped in the car and drove like mad. I wouldn’t have thought to call ahead. Who does that?
Probably people with Blackberries. I don’t know. I’m not one of those people.
I’ve never almost worked for a company as exciting as the one you almost worked for. I’ve worked for plenty of businesses that have closed down which makes them kind of famous for a little while in small towns.
People love to talk about things that were there and now aren’t there any more in small towns.
February 13th, 2010 at 1:50 pm
Haha at Scoman. He always makes me laugh.
So you should be known as the Blackberrry queen but instead known as The Only Girl. I prefer this because you would be too good to hang with me if you were all job famous and whatnot.
Did you know the population of Canada is less than the population of California?! That is wild! And I am jealous.
February 13th, 2010 at 9:44 pm
Great. Now I am depressed, there is no chocolate left in the house and a winter storm warning is coming here…to Kentucky.
BLARGING CRIPES!
February 14th, 2010 at 7:37 am
I would have done the same thing.
I was late for an interview once. There was a car accident on the highway and I was taking te bus to the city. I was totally freaked out. Luckily the interviewer was coming in from the same direction and she was later than me!
February 18th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
Now why does it have to be a brush with job fame? My brush with fame was sitting in a taxi cab sandwiched between Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield of a little band called Metallica. It’s true. Did I ever tell you about it? Oh, I also hung out a George Bell’s condo when he was in Toronto. Did I tell you about that one?