Driving by Wrigley Field on my way home tonight, I saw a flash of light. My first thought was, "Someone just got busted for running a red light!" But, I soon realized it was tourists taking their picture in front of Wrigley. And then I remembered, that was me exactly 10 years ago (well, 9 years and 364 days ago)!
10 years ago this very day, I stayed awake until the wee hours of the morning going back and forth between watching the Bush/Gore election coverage and working on a paper that I had to turn in early on Wednesday. (Some things, like procrastinating, never change.) On Wednesday, I turned in my paper, went to the airport and caught a plane to Chicago for my E&Y interview. Little did I know that this part of the interview process was the "Office Visit," which pretty much meant you would get an automatic job offer as long as you didn't do anything too stupid. It was basically E&Y's chance to sell the interviewees on why we should pick them over other accounting firms. Since I didn't even know what other firms made up the "Big Five" and since this was pretty much my only job interview outside of Wichita, it was a pretty easy sell!
That Wednesday night, E&Y hosted a dinner at Marche. That restaurant is closed now, which isn't surprising given the restaurant turnover here! When I got back to my hotel room at the W (although I'm not sure it was the W way back then since there's a lot of hotel turnover, too!), I tried to get the TV to work so that I could watch even more election coverage. But, none of the channels were working, so I tried pushing every button on the remote and after a while, gave up and went to sleep. After all, I hadn't gotten any sleep the night before and I had a big interview the next day! But, boy was I surprised that all that button pushing ended up as "incidental charges" on my credit card bill for all kinds of pay-per-view movies, and not the good kind!
Anyway, Thursday was the big interview day. I remember that I was wearing black pants and a light pink sweater. I remember two other things from that day:
1. In an interview, a partner asked me, "What are you passionate about?" My answer? "My sorority." Uh, I'm thinking that's one of those stupid answers that should have not resulted in a job offer. But, I pulled my foot out of my mouth and went on to explain that it was the friendships that I had made in Tri Delta that I was passionate about. Apparently, it was a good enough answer.
2. In between the interviews, we had a first or second-year auditor take us around to our different interview locations. I was thinking that these people were supposed to go out of their way to make sure we got everything we needed or wanted, kind of like how WSU hosts were supposed to go out of their way during the Barton and Gore scholarships to make sure the contestants felt welcome. So, when the interviews were over, rather than immediately heading to the airport and sitting there for 5 hours until my flight, I asked Brian, the guy assigned to me, if he'd drive me by Wrigley Field. (He'd mentioned that he lived in Wrigleyville and had driven to work that day and was going home as soon as the interviews were over.) He must have thought I was some crazy, weird dork! But, he took pity on me and drove me up to Wrigley Field. I don't think I had any idea of what to expect, but it was definitely so different than any other ballpark I'd seen. I just knew that I couldn't wait to go inside this big structure that sat right next to a McDonald's, on a city block all by itself without a parking lot in sight!
After that, I somehow managed to get to a blue line stop in Bucktown/Wicker Park where I had planned to meet up with another stranger - the Chicago Loop Group Alumnae Chapter President, Denise Lyons. Yes, she probably thought I was some crazy, weird dork, too! But, we had a nice chat and although I'd planned to take the blue line to the airport, she offered to drive me to O'Hare. She knew the secret that I would learn soon enough...although traffic sucks most of the time, at 8pm, outbound traffic on the Kennedy is smooth sailing. Now, if only that were true at other times of the day!
The next week, I got a voice mail from the recruiter and I returned the call from the phone booth at the Tri Delta house. She offered me the position and told me that the salary was way higher than what I had ever imagined. We ended our phone call and as soon as I hung up the phone, I let out a big excited yell!
Ah, memories.
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