“I’m absolutely sure. She’s talented, experienced, professional, passionate about the work. Her portfolio is excellent and she clearly knows exactly what she’s doing. She’s exactly what we need. Adrien, I don’t need to see other candidates to know she’s the right person for this role.”
Adrien felt relief wash through him. “Then make the offer. Standard package, standard start date, exactly as you would with any hire.” “You don’t want to wait and compare her to other applicants?” “Do you feel you need to? You just said she’s exactly what we need.” Janet smiled. “No, she’s the one. I’ll prepare the offer this afternoon.”
After Janet left, Grace appeared in the doorway. “Well?” “Janet’s making an offer.” “How do you feel about it?” Adrien considered the question carefully. “Satisfied. Rachel earned that position fairly. She impressed Janet with her talent and professionalism. Whatever happens from here, she got this opportunity on her own merits.” Grace nodded. “That’s exactly what you wanted.” “It is.”
By four o’clock that Monday afternoon, Janet had prepared a formal offer letter. By 4:30, she’d called Rachel to extend the offer verbally and sent the written offer via email. By five o’clock, Rachel had accepted. Her start date was set for the following Monday, December twentieth, giving her just enough time to provide proper two-week notice at both her current jobs.
That evening, Adrien picked Natalie up from her after-school program. As they drove home through the early darkness of winter, she chattered about her day, about a project she was working on, about her friends. “Dad, you seem happy,” Natalie observed. “Did something good happen today?” Adrien smiled at his daughter in the rearview mirror. “Something very good happened at work today, sweetheart.”
“What?” “We hired someone new. Someone really talented who deserves a good opportunity.” Natalie studied his face. “Is it the lady from the grocery store?” Adrien glanced at his daughter in surprise. “How did you know that?” “Because you’ve been thinking about her. I can tell. You get this look when you’re trying to figure out how to help someone. And you said weeks ago that you saw her again somewhere.”
Adrien pulled into their driveway and turned off the car. He looked at his daughter in the rearview mirror. “You’re very perceptive. You know that.” “Mom always said I get that from both of you.” “Your mom was right.” Adrien unbuckled and turned to face Natalie. “Yes, it’s her. I saw her working at a diner a few weeks ago. She’s incredibly talented, Natalie. She’s a designer, a really good one, but she’s been working jobs that don’t use her skills at all, working herself to exhaustion just to survive. So I made sure she knew about a job opening at my company. She interviewed today and she got the position because she’s genuinely qualified and talented.”
“So we helped her again, like with the turkey.” “Not exactly. This time I just gave her information about an opportunity that already existed. She did everything else herself. She had to apply, interview, prove she could do the work at a high level. She earned this position entirely on her own merit.” “But we made sure she knew about it.” “Yes, we made sure the opportunity found her.”