1
“She says it’s not a job, it’s a mission. That the organisation has to be your priority for the next five years, minimum. Not a pit stop. Not a line on your resume.”
“What does that mean, exactly?”
“I think it means no birthday dinners.”
—Overheard at a family dinner, shortly before the phone was put face-down on the table.
2
“They want someone who doesn’t believe in work-life balance. Apparently weekends off are a Western cultural import.”
“What are they?”
“A start-up.”
“What kind?”
“The kind where the founder has a lot of opinions about Western cultural imports but uses Notion, Slack, and a MacBook.”
—Overheard near a standing desk that nobody was standing at.
3
“The application asked me to upload my resume. Then asked me to retype my entire resume. Then asked me to upload it again in a different format.”
“Did you?”
“I did. And then it said the session had timed out.”
“And the job description mentioned AI-driven innovation?”
“And automation. And the future of work.”
—Overheard at a laptop, the specific expression known only to people who have lost a form after filling it in.
4
“The listing said they’re looking for an organised mind and an intellectually curious heart.”
“That’s nice, actually.”
“The salary details said there is no salary for the first year.”
“…”
“The intellectually curious heart is expected to fund itself.”
—Overheard at a café, one person staring into the middle distance.
5
“The job description said ‘high agency, low ego.’ I’ve been trying to figure out what that means for three days.”
“I think it means you do a lot and say very little about it.”
“So, parenting.”
—Overheard on a Sunday morning walk, both parties nodding slowly.
6
“Apparently if you don’t send a video with your application, your mail gets auto-rejected.”
“A video saying what?”
“Why you want to join, and what you bring to the table.”
“And if you don’t understand the JD enough to know what you bring nothing to the table?”
“Then I suppose the table is just for them.”
—Overheard in a lift, between the 4th and 8th floor.
7
“She said she got to the eighth stage of the interview process and realised she had created a strategy, talked about how to streamline their processes, and given them ideas on what not to do this year—all before even speaking to the person making the decision.”
“What did she do?”
“She continued the process, she was locked in at this point.”
“Did she get the job?”
“She did not.”
—Overheard outside an office building, someone putting their phone back in their pocket.
8
“The listing said the role wasn’t about putting food on the table—it was about purpose, impact, and building something meaningful.”
“And the salary?”
“No range mentioned.”
“So it is actually about putting food on the table.”
“But spiritually, no.”
—Overheard at a lunch that someone had packed from home, for financial reasons.
9
“The post said you’d get 10x more learnings than a two-year degree from a top management school.”
“More learnings than a degree.”
“Yes.”
“They also said you’d be working with the brightest minds of today.”
“The brightest minds of today are allowing this?”
—Overheard at an alumni meet, while someone quietly updated their LinkedIn to ‘Open to Work’.
