Just Give Me A Reason — Vientiane/Hong Kong | July 2014
“With a casual swipe, the Hong Kong dream imploded.”
“What’s wrong?” my wife asks as she hands me a steaming mug of coffee. I understand her concern. I can feel all the colour has vanished from my face and there are tears burning in my eyes. I understand her concern but I don’t really understand what just happened. With the casual swipe of an index finger, my whole universe quietly imploded.
“I regret to inform you that we have selected another candidate,” the email I’d opened on my phone read. With these formal dispassionate words, an almost four-month job application process has ruthlessly been cut short. I don’t understand why. It doesn’t make any sense!
Sometimes the universe speaks to us and, early last April, it definitely did so to me. As I was licking my wounds after deciding to terminate my Hong Kong business plans [Read: Spinning Around in the Air], I noticed a small job ad on LinkedIn. A Hong Kong-based think tank was looking for a Project Manager. This got my attention, ‘think tank’ has always had a magical ring to me, work on a project basis suits me well and, best of all, the job was based in Hong Kong but would include travelling all over Southeast Asia. I looked up the organisation online to learn a bit more about the position on offer. It all looked very interesting: the project manager was to write feature articles for major newspapers, be the media spokesperson, conduct training sessions with high-flying business executives, give presentations and develop training materials. It’s everything I like to do and it’s in Hong Kong, a city I love! The universe was screaming at me, I decided to apply.
On Friday 11 April, my father’s birthday, I sent a deliberately crafted cover letter and painstakingly fine-tuned CV via email to the organisation’s Managing Director. I was confident I’d get a reaction to my letter but, as it was a Friday, I wasn’t expecting to hear anything until after the weekend. To my surprise, I almost instantly got a message, not from the Managing Director but from the CEO, “Thank you for your interest in my organisation. I’m off to Tokyo tomorrow, so please bear with me and I’ll get back to you soon.” Well, that was something different from a standard canned response, looked like I was on to something. The following Monday I got a message from the Managing Director with the request for a phone interview on Tuesday.
That Tuesday, with the noise of the annual Pii Mai festival booming outside my office’s window, I anxiously waited for my phone to ring. It rang and I answered — too nervous, I had never done a phone interview before. It was the Managing Director and we talked for about half an hour. It wasn’t really an interview, more a casual talk between acquaintances not yet that familiar with each other. I’d spent hours preparing myself for this ‘interview’ by thoroughly researching the organisation, its strategic objectives and its programmes, but none of it had come up during our talk. The call had, however, ended with the scheduling of another interview the following week so I must have made the right impression.
The next week we had another talk, but this time a bit confusing. “The thing is… we’ve kind of reconsidered the position you applied for,” the director said, “but we are still thinking of hiring one or two team members for other positions.” That sounded great, but he didn’t actually make me an offer. Instead, he told me he’d get back to me later (?)
After a week of silence, I decided to make an all-or-nothing bold move. I’d spoken to the Managing Director twice and he’d made it clear any hiring decision was in the hands of the CEO. After his initial message though, I’d not heard back from the CEO. Rather than waiting for either of them to contact me, I sent both of them a transcript of a fictional interview between the Chief-Executive and myself. The CEO was a busy man, spending most of his time in transit, so I figured that sending him my answers to ten of the most often asked interview questions might help him make up his mind. There was no response.
Another week later I noticed by chance that the position of Project Manager on the organisation’s website had been replaced by an opening for a Director of Research. What!? Two seemingly successful phone interviews and now I was out!? I read the new job description and felt as if it had been written with me in mind, it even outlined some of the things I’d said in my interviews. I decided to send another application and made sure to mention that I’d be in Hong Kong for a family holiday in early July. The response came two weeks later: “Let us try and meet when you are in Hong Kong,” the Managing Director’s email read. Back on track!
On the 4th of July, 9am sharp, all suited up, I stepped into the organisation’s office on the 11th floor of a Hong Kong skyscraper. I shook hands with the Managing Director, the CEO was otherwise engaged, and joined him in the tiny meeting-cubicle located in a corner of the cramped one-room office. We had a good talk, but yet again not really a job interview, and after about 40 minutes he said, “We’re having a press conference later today. Would you be able to attend? It’ll be a great opportunity for you to meet the CEO.”
“Of course,” I said, “I’d love to.” I had felt a good vibe throughout the whole meeting and this really seemed a good sign.
“Great,” the director said, “Let me introduce you to the team.” After a quick round of “Hello, how are yous” and handshakes past the other team members, I was given the details about the press conference and said my goodbyes.
Later that day I finally met the elusive CEO and, from the short conversation I had with him, I learnt he was very much in the know about the whole application process so far. He also told me that, following the press conference, most of his team would be off for a two-week project in China so they’d be in contact with me when they returned. Another encouraging sign.
The following week, when I was back in Laos, I received an email from one of the organisation’s project managers. She was looking for photographers with photos about Laos in their portfolios for an upcoming project, did I know any? I put a message on Facebook and managed to put her in contact with a couple of photographers. A couple of days later I received a message that she’d hired one of my recommendations. Great! I might not be officially part of the team yet, but I’d already shown my worth to the organisation.
Then this morning, 29th July 2014, 8 o’clock (9am Hong Kong) sharp, I got that dreaded message, “We are unable to move forward with your candidacy.” How is this possible? I was so sure I got it! Instead of spending the past two weeks anxiously waiting to hear if I got the job or not, I had confidently been searching for apartments online, figuring out how to most efficiently put together an interchangeable business wardrobe and checking what school my son could attend once we’d move to Hong Kong. Now what!? For the second time in just a couple of months, my dreams have been shattered heart and soul.
P.S. I did not understand it at all, I was hurt, mortally wounded, and I told them so. The CEO’s reaction to this was that “decisions are never straight forward.” More confusingly, for almost six months after rejecting me, no Director of Research was added to the team-page of the organisation’s website. When, late January 2015, finally a short bio of the Director of Research appeared, I looked him up on LinkedIn and was surprised to see that he hadn’t held any of his previous positions for more than a year over the past decade. Within a year he’d left as Director of Research as well and the position has not been filled since or even been opened up for applications. This made me think.
During my interviews a lot of speculative language was used. The phrase that most caught my attention was, “This is the first time we are considering a top management position like Director of Research.” I have no idea if the following is true, but it’s put my mind at ease:
Because they weren’t sure how the position of Director of Research would work out, it would have been quite irresponsible to have me quit a good job and move my family to Hong Kong, only to see the contract terminated a short time later. I have decided that, since they are obviously nice and responsible people who actually took a liking to me, they didn’t hire me because the position was an experiment and probably wouldn’t last. Instead, they hired someone who didn’t have the responsibility for a family and had a track record of leaving within a year anyway.
I don’t know if this is true, nor will I ever be able to find out, but for me it just has to be. Now I finally understand!
Pink ft. Nate Ruess – Just Give Me A Reason on The Truth About Love [CD]. New York, USA: RCA. (2013)
This autobiographical sketch comes from my bundle In the Moment: A Disjointed Audiobiography which is available at Amazon.com. (USD 9.50 for a paperback or USD 4.50 for the Kindle version)
