The Ashwell Challenge: An Anthology

The Interview

by T. L. Ashwell

"Jesus replied, 'A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead,'" Otto muttered to himself. He couldn't stop his hands from shaking. He thought reading the Bible might help him calm down a little bit, but it was too hard for him to keep his cell phone stable. He put his phone back in his suit pocket and closed his eyes.

"Deep breath," he whispered to himself.

The cold air went into his chest, "Deep breath."

Otto was surprised that he had lost the feeling of part of his body. The shaking was not only in his hands. His feet were also trembling, "Deep breath."

He felt his fancy shirt around his armpit getting wet, "Deep breath."

He could hear the music from someone's earphones beside him, "Deep breath."

His feelings on his muscles were coming back, "Yes, just like that. Keep deep breathing."

Finally, he could set his feet on the floor, "Deep breath."

The door opened, and a young lady said, "Thanks for waiting. You guys can come in now."

Even though Otto's eyes were still closed, he could feel the mechanical smile on the lady's face.

Otto opened his eyes. Seven young people were sitting around. Four of them were standing. For a moment, the air was frozen by an awkward silence, until a girl broke it, "Excuse me, do you mean all of us together? Or one by one?"

"Sorry, my bad," the lady's apology didn't affect her smile, "It is a group interview. Everyone can come in together."

Otto's hand was shaking again. He waited for a second to fall behind another interviewee, then walked in through the glass door. It was a big meeting room with a dark red table in the center and some luxurious black leather office chairs around the table. Two middle-aged men and one lady already sat at the end of this room. The young lady leading them picked one chair to sit on, followed by the interviewees. She might have already introduced herself, but Otto really couldn't remember her name at this point. To hide his nervousness, Otto picked up a piece of paper and a pen to hold in his hands. He might be a little bit sweaty, but grabbing the pen and keeping his muscles tight could stop the shivering a little bit.

He didn't notice everyone had already sat down until he heard one of the gentlemen in a navy suit say, "Thanks for coming and joining the interview. My name is Steve, the manager of the group. Our team is focusing on analyzing customers' behaviors through recorded data. As you know, we are looking for a data scientist to join our team," his eyes touched on his other colleagues, "Why don't you introduce yourself too?"

"Alright, my turn now. I'm Bob. I am the manager from the marketing department. Steve's team and my group have a very close connection. So if you can join his team, you will need to contact my group a lot."

"My name is Julie. I am a data scientist from Steve's team." Julie's words were not many, but her voice was soft and gave people a comfortable feeling. Her voice had the power to encourage others to talk more.

Steve looked around at everyone, "Why don't we begin with introducing yourselves?"

"Hi, I'm Anna," immediately a short but energetic girl began, "I just achieved my Ph.D. degree. I funded a small business for food delivery at school with my friends. I worked on data analysis and marketing."