The Best Thing That Happened In My Interview

Years ago I was interviewing for a new role with a PR agency. I wasn’t certain it was what I wanted at the time and the person interviewing me knew that, but we still agreed to meet over coffee. We small talked for a bit, played that game of ‘who you know’ and then jumped around frenetically from management styles to client experiences to the business itself. It was a great conversation.

And then, something in his face and demeanor changed. It was like a light went off. I replayed the last 60 seconds of conversation and couldn’t think of anything polarizing or off putting. We looked at each other across the table for a beat. I decided to ask.

What just happened?

He said he decided he needed someone with more extensive agency management experience. I didn’t believe him. I still don’t, and for the life of me, years later, I don’t know exactly what transpired there. But I do know, it was the best thing that happened at that point in my career. Clearly this person stopped being interested in me for this role. And I was ok with that. If I had to to guess, it was that while our conversation was great, we were very different people. We would have been peers and we didn’t have that chemistry that great organizations often have with their leadership.

So I was ok with it. I didn’t try to backtrack or try even harder to convince him that I was the best person. That’s definitely something I would have done earlier in my career. But it’s taken me this long to realize that sometimes you need to let it go. If it doesn’t work, maybe it really is for the best.