Interview for the rest of your life

A young man wearing Van's shoes, loose-fitting jeans, and a t-shirt knocked on the door. The sign above the building's entrance read Mindspace Headquarters. Security sat at their desk, separated from the youngster by plexiglass. "Help you?" One of the guards said.  

"Yeah, I got called in for an interview..." They cut him off.

"Elevator's around the corner. Third floor." The guard said and then turned his focus to his monitors.

The interviewee muttered to himself as he rounded the corner: "Okay, thank you very much. Come on Will. You got this." Will pressed the up button, walked in, and selected floor three.

Upon opening, Will found a waiting room with a receptionist and one other person sitting in a chair. He checked in with the older lady at the desk. She reminded him of his mother, and so he introduced himself with a warm friendly smile. "Hi, I'm here for an interview."

She smiled back and checked her paperwork. "You must be Will. I'll let them know you are here. You can take a seat. They'll probably be right out."

Will looked around the room. There were several seats to choose from: a hard wooden chair, something shaped like an egg lined with foam, an audubon, the leather recliner, and a seemingly suitable chair that had a mesh trampoline-like material stretched over metal serpentine rails. He chose the mesh chair, glancing at the other man waiting as he sat down.

"Hello," the other man said. He looked much older than Will.

"Hi," Will said back but remained silent for several minutes until the door opened.

"It's just the two of you interviewing today. Let's get started." A younger lady, who could be the daughter of the receptionist, had opened the only other door beside the elevator in that room. "Oh, well this is interesting. I guess you've introduced yourselves already. Both of you have the same name... Can I call either of you Will or do you both go by William?"

"I'd prefer William," the older man said as he stood up from his wooden chair.

"You can call me Will, that will be great!" Will said excitedly and got up to follow them down the third floor's hallway. At his answer, the lady updated their names on her iPad, and unbeknownst to them, marked which seats each had chosen to sit in. She scrolled down to the next question on her survey which was multiple choice: which candidate asks your name first. She left it blank and looked back up to the men.

"OK, great. This way then. We've got a series of tests for you today. You will have to interact with each other and a panel of potential future coworkers. These are situations you are likely to face at work."

Will and William looked at each other. William smirked a little and continued behind the lady. Will asked, "What's your name by the way?"  

"I'm Suzie, thanks for asking!" She smiled over her shoulder as she continued walking down the hall to door #1. She marked Will as the winner to that question on the survey. The progress bar above Will's name extended. The bar above William remained nonexistent, with a score of zero.  

Suzie opened the next door to lead them in. "Let me get that for you." William offered to hold the door for her, but Suzie responded with a courteous "No, no, I insist, after you sir." 

Walking in last, Will looked in to see two office desks, facing each other, in a cramped room. A moderator was opposite the entry door. "Please, come in and take a seat. Later in the day, you will be tested on motor skills, concentration, and stamina. But first, some office work. You'll find a template here of an app we'd like you to create a user interface for. We know you are both familiar with flutter and dart programming code for iOS and Android. Please create a user interface that would allow a technician to enter 3 measurements and press a button to send the data to storage. Clear the data entry fields and read the user interface for the next part to be measured. Any Questions?"

Will voiced up: "Are we free to make this look however we want? Any style guidelines?"  

"No further guidelines. Ok, ready? Begin." The moderator replied and started a timer that was visible on his tablet as well as overhead on the wall above him.

After about 10 minutes, William stood raised his hand. The moderator walked over, looked at William's screen, and pressed play on the development screen. The app preview was compiled and popped up ready for use. "Let's try 5.2, 4, and 6." He said as he entered those numbers each into one of the text boxes William had created. "Ok, now hit enter. Good, ok sir, you have completed this test."

"Do you have any coffee?" William asked the moderator.  

Suzie offered to take him. "Right this way." And as they exited the room Will could hear her congratulating him. "Very well done, William."  

The door closed and Will focussed on completing his app. He was barely finished with the aesthetic and hadn't even started coding the feature to submit the data. His screen was full of swirls and modern looking artwork. There was motion and even audio added to the submit button. A little angry, and in disbelief, Will completed his app.

"Yes, that will do just fine, Will. Thank you. We will record your scores from this first task. Please head out to meet Suzie for the second task. I'm sure she will have a drink available for you as well if you'd like." As Will left, the moderator updated his tablet with the scores for each candidate. William's score jumped up to match Will's.

Suzie motioned for them to follow her after she got a bottle of water for Will.

* * *

The second challenge began as they walked through the next door. It led outside into a forest.  

Another moderator stepped forward. "This task is meant to test your ability to manage risk on a timeline. A thunderstorm is approaching. The temperature will drop significantly. You may utilize any of the reference materials and building materials here." He pointed to a workbench of manuals and basic tools like ropes and hatchets. "You have one hour before the storm hits. Good luck."

The young man ran out into the woods, surveying the trees. "I need one long and straight." He found a dead tree, half-fallen already. Ten feet or so remained. It was about as thick as his forearm. He leaned into the tree and lunged with all the might his legs could produce. The tree toppled. "Now a couple of Y branches to prop it up," Will said to himself.  

Will looked back at the workbench. William was reading one of the manuals. "Come on, Will. Back to work." There were a couple of larger Y-shaped branches on the ground. He picked each arm length branch up, locked their Y's together, and pressed them into the ground slightly to stand like a tripod missing one leg. Then he went to get the ten-foot pole for that third leg. Hauling it into place, he had a nice start to his shelter. "I'll have this done before the storm, for sure," Will confidently said to himself.

William was reading a page titled "Log Cabin." He flipped the page. The next said "Spider Shelter." He read through that and thought to himself "This would do fine. But..." He turned one more page: "The ultimate Wickiup." William nodded and started following the instructions.

1.) Clear the area. William found a large opening in the trees and removed a few downed branches and larger rocks. "Ah, shit!" William stood up after tossing a stone out of the 12-foot perimeter for his hut. "Damn, that hurt." He continued. 

2.) Construct a tall tripod. William brought three long, wrist-thick branches to the center. The manual described a knot "similar to the one used to tie a raft together." William wrapped his tripod poles in the knot and stood it up.

He glanced over at his opponent and saw the minuscule shelter he was building. Although Will was almost done covering his with leaves and other debris in the woods, William was confident that his would hold up to the storm better and be more comfortable. "Back to the steps."

3.) Plan to face the entrance door east. Storms come from the north, northwest, or southwest, so an east-facing door prevents any of the sideways rain or other storm elements from coming into your shelter. "Ha!" William said. "This book has it all covered." He looked at Will's shelter. "South, eh? Interesting choice, kid. Could get lucky." He looked up to the sky. Clouds were moving: "North to South," he said.

4.) Place approximately 60 small trees around the tripod to resemble a teepee. Because you have no leather or tarp, you must complete this labor-intensive step with more branches or small trees the same size as your tripod legs. Lean them against your shelter, leaving the door uncovered.

"Shit." William got to work. After 5 more branches were collected, he could not find any more on the ground. After ten branches cut with his hatchet, he could not reach any more suitable for this task. He started cutting larger trees. One tree about 8 inches in diameter proved too much for him. "I can't even get halfway through this thing." William sat down against the tree and put his hatchet down. Exhausted, he thought to himself, "let me shut my eyes for just a moment."  

Will finished his small shelter, scuttled inside, and smiled at what was a ten-foot sleeping bag made of trees and leaves. It was about waist high at one end and angled down to the ground at the end of his one long tree. The debris-covered this wedge in a foot-thick layer of insulation. heavier branches were laid on top to keep things in place against the wind. "Not bad!" Will said.  

But then he looked over at William. "Oh, no. He didn't fall asleep did he?"  

Will ran over to the older gentleman. "Sir, sir? The storm's coming. You've gotta finish this."  

William woke up, shocked he dozed off. "You're telling me, kid!" He got up by pressing his hand to the ground, getting up on one knee, struggling to push off, and stand upright. Will wondered how the old man could get this done in time.

"Sir, if you don't mind, I could give you a hand here."  

William looked around for the moderator, but he was nowhere in sight. "That sounds just fine by me, son." They got to work, eventually narrowing the original 12-foot diameter design to half the size and piling debris around it. It was a good shelter, and much more roomy than Will's sleeping bag design. "Hey, do you mind if I sit in here with you to ride out the storm?" Will asked. William smiled, for the first time all day it seemed to Will. "Sure thing, I owe you big time, kid."

They stayed up half the night telling stories and howling at the storm like a couple of old friends.

The next morning, the moderator and Suzie greeted them. "Well done, both of you. You showed real teamwork in a time of great risk and uncertainty. However, now we need to complete the interview. 

* * *

"The final task," a new moderator said, behind door number three. "Here you will need to present to your colleagues why you think the other person deserves to be let go."

Will asked a clarifying question: "Did you say we have to pitch against the other person to get the job? You don't want us to sell ourselves, but put the other down instead?"

"That's correct."

"Well, I'm sorry but I don't think I can do that." Will turned to look at William.  

"Agreed. There's no way I'm doing that. I mean what kind of job is this anyway? Why would you ask that? I can tell you why I would be great for any job at MindSpace, but to say Will shouldn't work here; it doesn't seem right."

"You should hire both of us," Will said, and laughed. William turned and put a hand on his shoulder, laughing along with him.

* * *

Bill Anderson woke up. "What a crazy dream. Hey honey, you up yet? I just had the craziest dream. An older and younger version of myself were interviewing against each other for a job at a company called MindSpace. Ha! And both of them had really good qualities. I think they became friends. I wonder what that means."

His wife sleepily suggested: "Can you tell me about this later, Bill? I've gotta get to work."