It was the third-to-the-last question. It caught me totally flat-footed.

There I was. I’d recently left the Army after a twelve-year stint as an Intelligence Analyst. I’d only applied for one Federal job in the same line of work. After a few months, I got the call - I had to go to the closest office to conduct a written test, and a telephonic interview by a three-person panel in DC.

I breezed through the written portion, and was then was taken to a small conference room and connected to their HQs for the teleconference with the interview panel. I was clear and concise with my answers to their technical questions, and I was feeling very confident that I was doing pretty well - as I had been basically doing this job for a good amount of time already.

Things were starting to wind down, and I started relaxing a lot more. Then came the question:

“What did you do to prepare for this interview?”

What? I was totally blind-sided. My mind was racing: I didn’t need to do anything to prepare for the interview - I’d been doing this for over a decade and had no reason to ‘prepare.’ But they were expecting an answer….. I’m sure they were expecting something like - I had researched the mission of the agency I was applying for, and familiarized myself with the various aspects of their particular mission. I hadn’t. So I simply blurted out the only thing I could think of - which was the bare truth :

“Well, I got a haircut and a new pair of shoes.”

Dead silence for several seconds…… That’s it…. I blew it….

Then everyone on the panel just burst out laughing - including myself…..

Still chuckling, the person who asked the question said, “Didn’t you know that this was going to be a telephonic interview?” And I replied “Sure, but I was needing both anyway….”

More laughter….

The final question also took me completely off-guard. “So - Michael - do you still wear bolo ties?”

WTF? How on earth do they know I wear bolo ties? Hardly anybody wears bolo ties. It’s one of those anachronisms that I’d picked up from where I had grown up because they were ‘different’ and ‘cool.’

I started getting worried - who the hell were these people? So of course, I again replied with the raw truth - “Only when I’m dressing up for formal occasions or for business attire.”

Turned out that one of the panel members had met me when I was working at a US Embassy overseas (where I had to wear civilian attire), and he was the one who had actually encouraged me to apply for this particular agency in the first place.

Needless to say, I got the job, and have worked for them for the last couple of decades.….

Jeepers! Wow - 3,000 upvotes! Many thanks everyone - that was unexpected!