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 pretty good job with a lot of independence and a lot of opportunities for growth. I got to design my job role when I was promoted 5 years ago and manager chose to not perform any re-orgs when they knew the change was coming, which is pretty unheard of. <br><br>So when you first join this company, you go through a pretty intensive interview process with a lot of different people and a large number of interviews. After that, you sit down with my boss for a sit down conversation and a take a tour of the actual floor where you'll be working. <br><br>This floor is known as the gold floor because no matter what position you're in, you will have the opportunity for growth, it's very collaborative, you get whatever equipment you need in order to do your job, and a very comfortable work environment. <br><br>This floor is also only composed of men. <br><br>A few years ago, the company decided to grow and they wanted to create an identical second floor and have an equal number of employees on each floor. The issue was, the second floor was going to be more geared towards creative thinking. So when applying for a job on the silver floor, the first 8 interviews were all on the gold floor. The first 4 were logic/gmath/verbal based tests (like the gmat). The next 4 were actual interviews with current employees from the gold floor. Then if you made it past that, they would take you on a tour and have a lunch with current employees from the silver floor. <br><br>This was the process for the gold floor, and I believe this is the process for the silver floor as well. <br><br>So this former classmate of mine applied for a position on the silver floor. She got in on the first round of interviews. Which means she'll be here to interview in a few weeks as well. <br><br>I was an assistant teacher in high school. I was one of the people who had to switch between these 20 person classes when we had over 400 students and had to act like we were actually teaching. <br><br>She was one of the ultimate bullies. Always picking fights, always getting into trouble, and always getting away with it. <br><br>She would get into fights with me almost daily and always managed to get out of detention by playing the sweet little girl act. <br><br>I was never mean to her. I never tried to pick a fight. I never tried to single her out. I didn't even remember her name until this moment. But for the sake of this story, we'll call her Janet. <br><br>So Janet would always pick fights, always push the boundaries, and get into trouble. I had to write her parents not once but twice because she would destroy things in her classroom and claim she didn't do it. She had a lot of problems, but being a girl in a class of boys playing sports wasn't one of them. <br><br>Its been over a decade since I graduated high school and I didn't graduate with Janet. I was already in college, was an intern at this company, and had student visa. So when I hear that one of my interviews for this week is Janet, I can't believe it. <br><br>This company does actually hire a lot of ex-cons, people with felony convictions, etc. They truly are a company that cares about giving second chances. But I cannot believe that they are giving a second chance to someone who caused thousands of dollars worth damage, pushed hundreds of people out of their lockers, stole hundreds of dollars worth of school property, and threatened hundreds of people. <br><br>I know this because she was caught and expelled after stealing a van full from a school exhibit that was being held at our school. But I cannot believe that she has managed to stay out of trouble for this long. <br><br>Its also weird because the gold floor truly had 0 turnover. Once you were on the gold floor, you stayed on the gold floor, except for 2 people who were promoted to the board. But that means the only way she would have been hired is if she went through the first 8 interviews and placed high enough to have a shot. That not only means she would have gotten through all 8 interviews, but she would have done well enough to have additional interviews. <br><br>I can't believe that someone who has done the many things that Janet has gotten away with over the years could make it through an interview with us. And to make it past 8 interviews? And to make it to this point where she'll be here to interview me in a few weeks? Everything I thought I knew about her was a lie and I cannot fathom that the company I work for is giving her a second chance. <br><br>If I were to give her a chance and she ended up on my floor and I didn't say anything, I would never be able to quiet my conscience. I would have to say something because this person does NOT NEED A SECOND CHANCE.