One of my first interviews when I was just starting out looking for a job went similarly to Chuck’s interview here. I was a little less dressed up (ties are for fools) but I’ll never forget the confusion that filled my mind when the manager looked right at me and goes, “So, what do you look for in a job?”

I panicked. I couldn’t think of a single answer that wasn’t, “well, money!” I mean, I was still in high school, I didn’t know or care what I wanted to do with my life, I was just trying to pay for stuff — it didn’t matter what I did, as long as my bank account rose slowly out of the red.

I even started to say something similar to that effect, then, after seeing the anger in the manager’s eyes, I realized, “oh, thats the WRONG answer…” so I tried to turn it into some kind of joke, then made something up about “looking for a challenging opportunity” or some such nonsense. The truth was, I wasn’t looking for a challenge, I was looking for something easy and mundane so I could sit around, do some repetitive task, and count the pennies as the minutes went by.

In case you’re wondering? They didn’t hire me.