Things didn't look good. I'd lost my job a few months back due to the economy, and I was having the toughest time finding something else. My wife Sanyukta didn't work (she's a stay at home mom with our two kids, a 6 year old boy and a 2 year old girl), and we'd been living on our savings. But those were about gone.
About a month back Sanyukta started looking for a job too. She got good grades in college, but she never worked (we got married right after college, and she got pregnant on our honeymoon). With the rough economy, nobody was hiring a 28 year old mom with 2 young kids and without any experience.
"You should apply where I work," Vidhushi said as we sat around our kitchen table sipping wine and trying to figure out what to do. Vidhushi's was Sanyukta's best friend, and she worked in one of the largest advertising firms in the city, IBM. "They are looking for an executive assistant."
"Do you think he'd hire me?" Sanyukta said hopefully. She shrugged, looking a little defeated. "I mean, I was hoping for something more than being a secretary, but at this point I'll take anything."
Vidhushi put her hand over Sanyukta's. "Honey, you'd be an executive assistant, not a secretary. With him there's a big difference. You'd have a lot of responsibility, and I hear the pay is really good."
Sanyukta and I both looked at Vidhushi with interest. This could really help us, tide us over until I got a job. "But do you think he'd hire me?"
"I think you have a good chance. I mean, you majored in marketing and got good grades in college, and you're smart and a hard worker. But there's one thing ..."
"What?" both Sanyukta and I asked almost simultaneously.
"Well, you'd have to work evenings and weekends a lot."
"That's okay," I said. I saw the look in Sanyukta's face and I held her hand. "I know it'll be hard being away from the kids, but it'll only be temporary until I get a job."
Vidhushi held up her hands in warning. "You can't let on to him that it'll only be temporary. He got so mad when his last admin left, because he'd just finished training her. She got pregnant and then quit after having the baby."
"Okay, well, I just won't say anything about how long I'll be staying," Sanyukta said shrugging.
"It's more than that," Vidhushi said. "The rumor is he's only considering single women without kids."
Sanyukta gave her friend a look. "I'm pretty sure that's illegal."
Vidhushi shrugged. "I know, but what can you do? He's too smart to ever get caught. Anyway, if you want a chance at the job, you'll have to pretend you're single and your career is your life. But the pay is unbelievable. I heard his last admin got almost 100000 last year."
My eyes bugged out. That was more than I made in my last job. "You're kidding, how does an admin get paid that much?"
Vidhushi shrugged again. "Well, like I said, it's a demanding job, you're essentially on call all the time. But you get commissions on the deals closes, so the more he makes, the more you make."
