The first handful of candidates were hardly impressive, however. Many of the candidates lacked polish. Others seemed overly concerned with being assured that they could leave promptly at 5:00 p.m.; others did not seem to have the experience or the references to give me confidence that they could fulfill the job's requirements. Then I met Ann.

Ann showed up for her interview precisely at 2:00 p.m.-the scheduled hour. Since I had yet to hire anyone to help me, I was particularly annoyed at the inconvenience of juggling late applicants appearing in my unattended reception area while I was conducting interviews in my office. Ann was about my age, perhaps a year older than I was and extremely impressive by any standard. The first standard I noticed was her appearance. Ann had shoulder-length dark brown hair framing a fair and flawless complexion. Her eyes were brown and she was about 5'6" tall. She had a wonderful figure, at least to my tastes, which meant that she was considerably busty and simultaneously thin waisted. I took note of these things as we talked about her experience (she was managing the New York office of a French chemical manufacturer) and the position I was seeking to fill. My eyes lingered at her chest, I thought discretely, as I noticed the outline of the lace of her bra visible through the translucent fabric of her blouse. We talked a good bit about the position and about my reasons for starting up t he management company. I described my vision of what I hoped to achieve and talked about the role I had in mind for my assistant. Ann said she was interested and I was about to offer her the job, when she said there was one problem-the pay was too low.