Cristal(5)
“Don’t you think you’re a little overqualified for this position? The pay isn’t even half of what Google was probably offering you,” George Beaver had asked him during his interview.
His first impression of the Beav’ was that he looked like a potato-head Elf—his huge bald head balancing on top of his short, stocky body.
It was obvious that Beaver didn’t understand most of the technical terminology he was reading from the interview questionnaire, mispronouncing terms such as GUI interface. In the IT world, it was pronounced “gooey” not “G.U.I.” Ah yes, a Mr. Potato Head avatar suited Beaver. Maybe he’d add a beaver tail that smacked the ground too.
“I never really had a real job before, so I think I have to earn my stripes like everybody else.”
Harry cleared his throat hoping that he had responded in a humble tone. He would bet his last dollar the Beav’ had a Napoleon complex.
The answer must have satisfied Beaver, because he smiled and wrote a few notes on the paper. Then he asked Harry a few more questions and finally he stood up.
“Wait here a moment, Harry,” Beaver said, grabbing his papers.
“No problem.”
Harry took a deep breath and fixed his tie as he waited. A suit and tie guy, he definitely was not.
Minutes later, the door opened and to Harry’s surprise, Shelley Lionheart entered the room. Stylish, in a manly way, she carried herself like an Amazon queen. She was someone who would stand out in a crowd. She was in her mid-forties, wearing a fitted matte black jacket and pantsuit; her raven black hair cut short close to her scalp; blue-black nail polish and lips painted with a dark burgundy color, which contrasted against her dark chocolate skin, and slanted cat-like eyes that seemed to glow like coal-hot embers. On top of all this, at six feet tall, 200 pounds of muscle, she was definitely not one to joke around with.
Quickly, he stood up and stretched out his hand, ready to shake hers. The night before, he had repeatedly practiced in front of the full-length mirrors in his bedroom. A confident handshake is a good first impression, his mom had always told him.
Lionheart looked him square in the eye and squeezed the circulation from his hand.
Satisfied by his lack of response, she turned to Beaver. Beaver quickly pulled back the chair.
“This is Shelley Lionheart, President of Global Nation and GN University,” Beaver stammered.
Harry waited to see if he would pull out a trumpet to herald her regal presence.
Lionheart sat down gracefully despite her size, almost as if she was floating into the seat.
Harry pulled back his hand quickly and sat back down.
“Nice to meet you, Ms. Lionheart,” he said, trying hard not to let his voice waver.
She folded her hands on the table and leaned slightly towards him.
“Let’s get to business. We have GN offices in every continent. We need someone like you to help set up the security firewall for our networks and database servers globally. We had, what we call, an incident at our GN charitable office in Manila, Philippines. Long story short: The web servers were compromised and we experienced breaches in security after the recent riots. The breach involved unauthorized access to personal data of a number of our very important charitable donors. As you can see, this is a delicate matter, which needs to be resolved immediately. Beaver will arrange for you to fly out tomorrow.”
She attempted to smile, but the expression on her face resembled someone who had just taken a bite into a bad burrito.
“I haven’t been offered the job yet,” he said quietly.
“Don’t be cute. Or maybe I won’t offer you anything, Mr. Doubt.” The glimpse of a smile disappeared from her mouth, as she continued, “We both know this job was yours before you walked in the door. The interview was just a legal formality. The job is yours. As you know, we are a non-profit charitable organization. And our GN universities are funded partly by the state with some funds coming from tuitions and fees. Of course, you already knew this, being the recipient of this generosity. We count on our generous donors to help run our charitable and educational operations. So, yes, it’s not a glamorous job and probably the pay won’t be as attractive as what the private sector can offer you, but at least you’ll get to travel. Or, perhaps, you can call it payback. Consider that a fringe benefit.”
Harry tried not to smirk.
“Before I accept…when I reviewed the current support model you have now for IT, it is no wonder that GN offices are experiencing security breaches in their networks. GN doesn’t have a dedicated IT operations team, despite having multiple offices and universities all over the world. Without the proper security systems in place with regular maintenance and upgrades to the firewalls, it is not a shock that the breach didn’t happen sooner. So, Ms. Lionheart, before I can accept, I’ll need you to provide me with the best team of programmers to be able to do my job,” he replied, trying not to sound too cocky.