Emma’s Big Interview

Emma woke up at six o’clock, two hours before her interview. The job was a marketing position at a small company in Seattle, and she wanted it more than anything. She had prepared for a week: she knew the company’s products, she had answers for fifty questions, and her blue suit was clean and ready. “Today,” she told her mirror, “nothing can stop me.”

The rain started at seven. Emma waited for the bus with her umbrella in one hand and her bag in the other. The bus was twenty minutes late, and when it finally arrived, it was completely full. She stood all the way downtown, holding her bag above her head so the papers inside would stay dry.

At the coffee shop near the office, disaster struck. As Emma reached for her cup, a man turned quickly and knocked it over. Hot coffee ran down the front of her blue suit. The man said sorry ten times, but the damage was done. Emma stood in the street with a brown map of coffee on her jacket, and the interview was in fifteen minutes.

She called her friend Lisa, who worked two streets away. “Don’t panic,” Lisa said. “Come to my office. I have a spare jacket in my locker — we’re the same size.” Emma ran. The jacket was black, a little tight, but clean and smart. She arrived at the company at five minutes to nine, wet hair, borrowed jacket, and a heart beating like a drum.

The interviewer was a woman named Clara. She looked at Emma’s wet hair and smiled. “You look like you had an adventure this morning,” she said. Emma took a deep breath. She could invent a story — or she could be honest. “My bus was late, a stranger spilled coffee on my suit, and this jacket belongs to my friend,” she said. “But I am here, and I am ready.” Clara laughed. “That,” she said, “is the best start to an interview I’ve had all year.”

The questions were hard, but Emma’s preparation carried her through. At the end, Clara stood up and shook her hand. “We need people who solve problems and tell the truth,” she said. “You did both before nine o’clock.”

Emma got the job. On her first day, she brought Lisa a new plant for her desk and returned the black jacket, washed and folded. On her own desk, she kept a small note. It said: “Ready is not perfect. Ready is honest, prepared — and on time, even in borrowed clothes.”