Priya had for the for three weeks. She had read everything about the company, practised her answers in front of the mirror and bought a new dark blue suit. The job was in the marketing department of a big design company, and it was exactly what she wanted.
She arrived at the building twenty minutes early. The told her to go to the fourteenth floor. Priya stepped into the , and just before the doors closed, a man ran in. He was about forty, with untidy hair, and he was carrying a coffee in one hand and a bag of papers in the other.
“Fourteen, please,” he said, out of breath.
“Me too,” said Priya, and pressed the button.
Between the ninth and tenth floors, there was a loud noise. The lift shook and stopped. The lights went off, and then a small light came on.
“You’re joking,” the man said. He pressed the alarm button. A voice from a speaker told them that an was on the way. “About thirty minutes,” the voice said.
Priya looked at her watch. Her interview was in fifteen minutes. She felt rising in her chest. All those weeks of preparation, and now this.
The man noticed her face. “Important meeting?” he asked.
“A job interview,” she said. “It’s the job I’ve always wanted.”
“Ah.” He sat down on the floor and offered her half of his biscuit. “Well, we’re not going anywhere. Tell me about it. Why do you want this job?”
At first, Priya answered politely. But he asked good questions, and she started to relax. She told him about her ideas for social media campaigns, about a project she had done for a small charity, and about why she loved design. He listened carefully and sometimes made notes on the back of one of his papers.
“And what’s your biggest ?” he asked, smiling.
“Lifts, apparently,” she said, and they both laughed.
Thirty-five minutes later, the engineer opened the doors. Priya ran out and up the stairs to the fourteenth floor. She was twenty minutes late. She was sure the interview was over.
The receptionist on the fourteenth floor looked at her list. “Priya Sharma? Mr Evans is running late too. Please take a seat.”
Two minutes later, a door opened, and the man from the lift walked into the waiting room. He had changed his shirt, but his hair was still untidy.
“Ms Sharma,” he said, holding out his hand. “I’m David Evans, head of marketing. Shall we continue our conversation?”
The interview was short. He already knew most of her answers. A week later, Priya received an email offering her the job. At the bottom, there was a short note from David: “PS: We use the stairs on Mondays now. The lift is still being repaired.”
Words from the Story
- interview noun A1
- a meeting where someone asks you questions to decide if you get a job
- lift verb B1
- a small room that carries people up and down in a building
- prepare
- to get ready for something
- weakness noun B1
- something you are not good at
- engineer noun A1
- a person whose job is to fix or build machines
- receptionist noun A2
- the person at the front desk who welcomes visitors
- emergency noun A2
- used when something dangerous happens and help is needed quickly
- panic noun A2
- a sudden, very strong fear that stops you thinking clearly
Check Your Understanding
- How had Priya prepared for the interview?
- Why did Priya start to panic in the lift?
- What did the man do to help Priya relax?
- Who was the man in the lift?
- Why was the real interview short?