Mini Test Reading: Just Be Confident

“I’d love to work there,” Alan whispered. “But I never do well at interviews.”

“Just be confident!” said Alan’s mum.

Alan rang the bell outside the tall office building. The sign above the bell said ‘Super Software Ltd’.

Inside the building, Tanya, the company owner, heard the bell. She rubbed her forehead. Alan was the twelfth, and final, candidate.

All the other candidates had answered her questions perfectly. Any of them would be a good Junior Software Developer. But she couldn’t tell Alan to go away. She had to interview him as well.

Tanya read Alan’s CV while she walked to the front door. He had studied at the best school in the country, and all his grades were excellent. ‘People like that think they’re better than everyone else,’ she thought. ‘And they’re always too confident. Over-confident people make mistakes.’

Then she had an idea. ‘Alright, Alan,’ she thought. ‘If you’re so clever, I’ll make the questions more difficult.’

The door opened and Alan shook hands with Tanya. He followed her into a meeting room and they sat down.

After some small-talk, Tanya said, “Let’s talk about your experience.”

Alan felt nervous: he didn’t have a lot of experience. But then he remembered his mum’s advice: ‘Be confident!’ So he sat up straight, and said, “I have a lot of relevant experience.”

“Great. Tell me about a time when you accidentally deleted everyone else’s files. Why did you do it?”

“I’ve never done that. I would never cause that kind of problem.”

“You sound very confident about that,” said Tanya.

“I am.”

Tanya wrote a note: ‘Thinks he never makes mistakes.’

“Next,” she said, “let’s think about a difficult situation.”

“No problem!” said Alan with a smile.

“Imagine that our software has completely stopped working. Would you panic?”

Without hesitating, Alan responded: “Not at all. First, I would log in and —”

“In this situation, all our computers have stopped working as well. Now would you panic?”

Alan didn’t pause. “Absolutely not. I would arrange a meeting —”

“The problem occurred at midnight.”

“I — I — I would come to the office and —”

“You can’t get into the office. We’ve lost the key. The office is on fire.”

“Well, in that case, I’d stay calm, and —”

“We’ve discussed this situation enough,” Tanya interrupted. She made another note: ‘Doesn’t take problems seriously.’

Thirty minutes later, both Alan and Tanya felt exhausted.

“I’m sorry, Alan,” said Tanya. “You’re not the kind of person I’m looking for. Thank you for your time.”

Alan looked down. “Thank you for the opportunity,” he whispered.

Outside the building, Alan called his mum.

“I didn’t get the job,” he said. “I think I was too confident.”

“I’m sorry I gave you bad advice,” said his mum.

“It’s ok,” said Alan. “You were only trying to help. But I should have been honest. I’m not very confident. I don’t have a lot of experience. But I do learn quickly, I do work hard, and I did want the job. Nevermind. At least I don’t have to work with Tanya.”

Alan put the phone down, turned around, and saw that Tanya was standing just behind him. She was leaving the office to go home. Alan walked away quickly.

“Alan!” Tanya shouted. She ran towards him. “I have one more question.”

“Uh… ok?” Alan mumbled.

“Tell me about a time when you went to an interview at Super Software Ltd.”

Alan laughed. “I pretended to be someone that I’m not. It didn’t go well.”

Tanya held out her hand. “You admitted that you made a mistake. So can I.”