Lunch interview

A close work friend from 5 years ago had reached out a few months ago for two different job opportunities. One of them was with her husband. He’s the president of a high-end luxury brand that sells B2B and B2C. He wants to expand their eCommerce as they are primarily using distributors.

Kind of similar to my last job.

He was in Australia for work when I talked to her. I sent her my resume. Checked out the company for 30m. Sort of dreamed about it.

I checked in two weeks later. He ended up reaching out to me. Blah blah.

So we arranged that we would meet for lunch down in Irvine next to his work. He sent over the meeting invite on a Thursday, spelling my name wrong with a Ch, and putting the restaurant choice of Thai food.

Argh. Thai food.

I spent a few minutes over-thinking it.

I spent a few minutes on the Saturday before with my hair stylist, joking about it. Do I email him? Do I bring my own food and play it off? If I email him, I’m going to look fussy… if I play it off there, I’m going to look another way. Yes, I’ve spent 15 years lightly laughing about my weird dietary habits, so I’m used to it, but this was a job interview.

Impressions matter.

I decided on Sunday that I would email him to change and find a comparable place to eat. Starting with Gemini.

It gave GREAT options! It looked next door. No problems, awesome.

I started to write the email.

But I paused. Let me go check Google Maps. Just to be sure.

Gemini is an asshole. The places were not even close.

I spend another 10 minutes looking up options. There are no good options. He was either walking, or driving from extremely close and driving farther would be annoying.

Then I look at the Thai food place again. Chicken and rice. Ugh.

Mmm, rice. I miss rice.

But ugh, that won’t work.

But wait! They have veggies!

And hmm, their chicken is super plain and it doesn’t look like they have sauce on either the chicken or the veggies.

This feels promising? It actually looks kinda good.

Can I get over my absolute paranoia of trying new foods? Maybe. If I react to it, it would probably be an hour or so after. It probably wouldn’t be that bad. It’s plain. It says plain. I should be fine.

Okay. So chicken and veggies, no rice, looked doable. I was going to do it.

I would bring my safe food and leave it in the car. Even if I just picked at my food at the table, it would be fine. We would be talking.

I spent another chunk of time pulling together research, questions, and prep. I was ready for the next day. In the morning, I ended up having an “earlier” breakfast – for me – and throw a few snacks in a cooler but not really ‘arranged’ in an actual lunch meal type of thing.

I drive down there. I’m 12m early.

5 minutes before, I walk up and find a seat at the patio. I have my Spindrift. I left my food in the car. I have my folder of questions. I’m scanning the people walking up – cursing the fact I didn’t scrutinize his photo better…

But 5m after the hour, I see him walking up. He is the guy. Awesome. We shake hands. I chat a little. He gestures over to another part of the patio he wants to sit at because it’s out of traffic but heads inside the food joint.

We are casually chatting and the register opens up. He walks up to order.

I’m hanging back behind him, looking up at the menu. Once he finishes, he turns around and walks past me over to the door.

I had a quick moment of panic. What do I do? He didn’t ask me if I wanted to order anything. He didn’t wait and gesture me to order after him. He was heading to the door and opening it up to hold it open for me so I could walk through.

Okay then. I didn’t know what to say! So cool. I wouldn’t eat, and that was easy. All is fine.

We head over to the shady part of the patio that’s less trafficy and I start grilling him. I mean, nicely. But I have my questions and I figure I should ask them now while he’s not eating. We talk for 5, almost 10 minutes. He starts to turn it around to ask me questions and I say, “Did you want to go grab your food?”

And he looks SO SURPRISED. “Did you not order?”

Ummm????

I guess he thought I ordered before him? And then he’s HORRIFIED that I didn’t have food. It would be SO RUDE to eat in front of me!

I, of course, babble about dietary restrictions. I have my water. I’m absolutely fine. I’m horrified that he’s not going to eat now.

Sigh.

He walks back to the restaurant and comes back with his in a bag and moved it to take-out. I’m cursing myself for being ridiculous but move on.

We continue.

Sigh. Whyyyyyy.

So classic. Total overthinking and I should have just been me and brought my lunch so I was comfortable. It will would have been awkward either way.

We ended on a good note – the entire thing went well besides that – but I didn’t feel fantastic about it. I mean, his poor food sat in a bag for 50 minutes. Sigh. I wasn’t super excited about the job since the salary is basically what I’m making now. It’s not as big of a team as I have now. Why would I want to leave? I mean, there are definitely reasons.

But I was still interested in following up.

He told me next possible steps – where he would have to decide if he wanted to build this role into something that fit me. It could go in two directions. He put 2 weeks on it.

The two weeks flew by and I was so shocked that on Sunday evening, I had an email from the HR manager. Following up!

Ha!

Now, the silliness that came from that call is another story as she was calling from Australia and I thought she was spam. AND that explains why her first email came in on a Sunday evening. But we shall see if the next step pans out.

Even if I’m not sure about the opportunity, I’m glad that my silliness didn’t prevent me from moving forward. Also, it’s a good reminder to always be myself. It’s also a reminder that impressions are so important. He spelled my name wrong. He didn’t ask me if the restaurant was fine. He didn’t ask me if I had already ordered.

So weird. I would be reporting to him. He seemed nice though. And I like his wife.

Now to hope that meeting with the CEO is not over lunch!