A nice young woman comes to my studio for an interview. The first I hear of it is when I’m invited to lunch with her and a colleague of mine.
“Where do you want to go eat?”
“How about ***?” I suggest.
“Like Asian food?” I ask the interviewee. “Sure” she responds.
So we sit down, chat a little and we order; the woman and myself both order different maki roll dishes.
We start getting into the lunch interview and things are going well. She’s a very sweet girl but quite inexperienced. We get to a question about some of her course work and our food arrives. My friends food looks good, my dragon roll looks fab, and her dish looks equally appealing if a little large. Her maki have a dimeter of about 2.5″– 3″wide and she starts to answer our question.
I can see that she’s struggling a little trying to pick up the first piece with her chopsticks, but she manages it.
She got as far as… “Well I liked this this class about….”
And this is when she starts choking.
My eyes widen as hers does, and I start to realise that her pause isn’t a strategic moment of reflection, but a result of a blocked air passage.
I look around. I don’t know what to do.
Her mouth stays open the whole time.
She starts to gag a little and I’m already thinking “Please don’t die!”
She starts to gag with a little more effort and still nothing has changed. She still can’t breathe.
I move my hand to her face with my napkin and rub her back.
She stands up now. I’m now thinking “Please don’t throw up in an interview!”
Then, as tears are running down her face from the panic, she coughs up golf ball sized bolus of wet rice and fish which plops wetly into my hand. Air rushes into her lungs as I feel the weight of the soggy food.
We all sit back down and I put down the napkin and grab a fresh one.
To her credit, she was really, amazingly well composed for almost having died. I think she even managed to finish her lunch.
I’m so sorry that she had to go through that. I can’t imagine anything more embarrasing/awkward/traumatic to happen during an interview.
I remember going to Toronto’s Chinatown for a job interview in my very young days; trying to manage a conversation while screwing around with chopsticks and messing rice all over the plate. It was kind of embarassing but I made a joke about it, of course.
It was a long time ago, believe me, but I still have moments where food comes to the table (i.e., Hot Pot in Hong Kong) and I think this would be terrible for a job interview. I was definitely marked from that experience.
But no potential loss of life in my situation (does your young friend know the finger-across-the-throat gesture to indicate she is choking so Heimlich can be administered?)
Comment by Steve Portigal — February 3, 2006 @ 4:19 pm
Wow.
Ok so that’s really embarrasing interview for her but what about the interviewers, how do you think of the throw up interviewee? She still make good impression for the job after that little choke up…rather did she get a job?
I just pray that never happen to me.
Comment by mayvelous — February 4, 2006 @ 8:58 pm
So, not only did you not help this girl, your biggest concern for her was that she did this during an interview?
Maybe you should take a CPR and Heimlick class and become a better person?
Comment by anders — February 5, 2006 @ 3:05 pm
That story is hilarious. Please DO NOT become a better person.
Comment by Gienna — February 15, 2006 @ 11:34 am