He lost his first interview within 4 minutes.
Radu had worked at the same company for 14 years when a restructuring put him back on the job market, at 51. He had run warehouses, launched the business in 2 countries and rescued 3 failing operations. On paper, he was the kind of person that companies say they're looking for.
His first interview was a disaster. The question was simple: "Tell me about a time you turned around a team." Radu had a great answer. In fact, he had 5 of them. So he started with the context, then the background of the context, then the year 2009. When he finally got to the result 4 minutes later, the interviewer was looking at the clock.
Then there were the 2 questions that he dreaded. The first was "What are you looking for?" He knew the answer: a team to build, a hybrid week and a fair package. But saying it out loud felt like asking for too much. The second was the question that everyone thinks but doesn't ask out loud: isn't he a bit old for this, a bit overqualified?
"The stories had to be mine. I needed my best ones in the right order, at the moment when my nerves were trying to scramble them."Radu
Chapter 2 · The Saturday that changed itAll 22 years in one folder.
His daughter set up OnSubject.AI on his laptop. Radu spent one Saturday building a Scenario called Job Interview · Northwind for the interview that mattered most. He put these files in it:
- His CV, all 4 pages of it, and the job description.
- A new document, my-career-stories.docx. He had never written one like it before. It held 12 real situations, each with what he did, the number that proved it and what he learned.
- Northwind's annual report, and his notes from the call with the recruiter.
In START-HERE.md he wrote, in plain words, who he was and what he wanted: a team of about 30 to lead, 2 days a week from home, a package around €110,000 and room to grow. He also wrote how he wanted to sound: "Start with the result. Use one real story and one number, and keep it to 90 seconds at most. Sound warm and confident, but never arrogant. Never criticise a past employer. Never invent anything that I haven't done."
The evening before the interview, he rehearsed. He typed the questions that he feared into the box and read the answers aloud. Whenever an answer didn't sound like him, he fixed his stories document instead of the answer. By 10 p.m., the stories sounded like him again.
Chapter 3 · The interviewHe answered in 70 seconds, and the CFO wrote the number down.
The interview was a video call with the CFO and Ana, the hiring manager. At the start, Radu asked: "I keep my notes open so that I get my numbers right. Is that all right?" Ana smiled and said, "Of course."
The first real question was the one that had sunk him before, about an underperforming team. Radu pressed his keyboard shortcut. Before he had finished his "Good question", the answer was on his screen. It was the Constanța warehouse, story 4 from his own document. In 8 months he had brought the error rate down from 9% to 1.2%, without letting anyone go. He told the story in his own words, in 70 seconds. The CFO wrote something down.
Then the CFO threw him a curveball: "Honestly, aren't you overqualified for this?"
- ONSUBJECT.AI · 0.6 sSay: "I'd rather call it ready. I've turned around operations 3 times. The last one went from 9% order errors to 1.2% in 8 months. You're opening 3 countries next year, and I've done that twice. I'd love to do it once more and build a team that won't need me in 2 years." · Smile, then ask which country worries them most.
The CFO laughed and said, "Romania, honestly." Radu had launched Romania. For 10 minutes, it stopped being an interview and became a conversation between two people who were solving a problem.
Near the end, the CFO shared a slide with the third-quarter numbers and asked, "What would you fix first?" Radu pressed the shortcut for a part of the screen, drew a box around the chart and pressed Enter. OnSubject.AI read the chart. Returns were 14% in the new country, against 6% at home. The suggested answer was: "It's usually the packaging or the quality of the addresses, and both can be fixed in a quarter. I'd start with a 2-week audit of the top 50 return reasons."
Then Ana asked the question that he had been dreading: "What are you looking for in your next role?" This time the words were simple and specific, and he said them calmly: a team of about 30, 2 days from home, a package around €110,000, and flexibility on the structure. The second line of the answer gave him one more piece of advice: stop, and let them answer first. He stopped talking, and Ana said, "That's very clear. Thank you."
Chapter 4 · The offer"I still sounded like myself."
The offer came 8 days later. It was for Head of Operations, with a team of 34 and 2 days remote. The package was €4,000 above what he had asked for.
"I still sounded like myself, on my best day."Radu, Head of Operations
Using it in interviews, honestly. Radu asked whether he could keep his notes open, and you can do the same. Rules differ, and you should respect them. Some interviews welcome notes and some don't, and assessments and exams usually forbid outside help. OnSubject.AI only ever works from what's true about you. It helps as much the night before as it does live.
An illustrative story: the names and companies are fictional. OnSubject.AI works the way the story describes.