Job Interview Horror Story: Beijing

When you move to the other side of the world, you have to expect some hiccups. Language issues, perhaps, or getting lost. Most often, however, it's food poisoning. One world traveler scheduled a job interview for his first week in China, and wound up in a tight spot. Food poisoning + career search =

A job interview horror story: Beijing edition

I woke up Thursday morning feeling pretty bad. I wasn't sure what it was, but I had an interview at 11 a.m. so I was just going to tough it out and see if it passed. Well, at 9:30 a.m., after taking a shower, my stomach turned and I vomited three times. Being an optimist, I took that as a good sign. Often, once your stomach ejects whatever annoyed it, your whole body relaxes and heals quickly. I got my suit on then headed off to my second round interview.

The guy was 20 minutes late (again), and about 10 minutes before the interview I got a fever and had to make a go/no go decision on the interview. I drank some tea, took out my handkerchief and remembered, "This is China. No room for wimps."

The interview went well, he asked what else I was looking at and which way I was leaning. He made his pitch on working internally for a corporation before heading out to other organizations. At that point, my stomach gurgled and I almost crapped my pants, so I excused myself, went to the bathroom and realized I wasn't going to poo, but I wanted to puke again. Thing was, I only had a glass of tea in me since the last vomit so I just dry-heaved a few times. Vomiting is a real full body exercise (especially great for the abs), so I worked up a little sweat. I'm crafty, though, so I had already taken off my jacket, loosened the tie and rolled up the sleeves. After taking a cool wet paper towel to my face and drying off, I reassembled my dapper garb and headed back to the interview.

The interviewed ended, he said he would get back to me in a week or a little more (so Thursday at the earliest). I got a cab, immediately lay down and started moaning in agony--the cabbie asked if he should take me to the hospital. I got home, lay down, drank water, vomited/diarrhea'd for the next six hours. I ate one piece of toast Thursday-Friday. But I took some medicine, got some more rest and finally, Monday morning, feel fine.

Will he get the job?