My favorite interview story from many decades ago.
On their nickel they fly me off to the corporate HQ for a final interview.
The hiring official had already told me “You are our most qualified candidate. We are going to have lunch with a couple of the senior people to make sure they are ok with your hire—and if you don’t spill food on your tie you should be good to go.”
Good news: Everybody was very friendly at lunch. I did not spill food on my tie. The body language was great and we all had a good time.
Bad news: A few days later the guy calls me and said “sorry we picked somebody else”.
Arghhhhh.
A truly depressing time for our kid, but sometimes bad stories have happy endings. Seems the person who was hired into the managing position has been awful. Even that person's friend can't mask their poor work performance.
In the meantime, a position in a special projects department opened up, and our kid was elevated to that position. It ended up being a much preferred position in the company.