The candidate I had to interview for this week was my high school bully.

I work for a fairly large company in the tech industry. I've worked there for about 5 years now and I have a fairly high up role in management. Over the last few weeks, I got roped into helping build a new team within the company and was also responsible for interviewing and hiring the first candidate for that team. I got the candidate list forwarded to me and saw the name of a man who bullied me ruthlessly in high school. I decided that I needed to do this right, if anymore tasks were assigned to me as far as hiring goes, then so be it.<br><br>The day came to interview this candidate. We chatted for a few minutes about stuff unrelated to work before we got into trade show specifics and I absolutely was hit with how I felt in high school. Suddenly, today, I wasn't a smart, confident kid who could easily hold my own. I was just a scared kid putting my head down on my desk to avoid being noticed. It was a really odd experience.<br><br>After the interview was through, I gave him good marks overall and he instantly got an offer. I felt bad about it, but, he literally and by far shined in his interview. I just couldn't let my feelings from high school matter. He accepted the offer and starts next week.<br><br>I haven't heard him mention growing up or high schools, but if I can give this guy a second chance at life, I am going to. Maybe this turns out to be a really cool buddy movie romance. Either way, what he did to me is staying in the past.