When Tim arrived at Wayne Tech, all the preparations for conducting the interviews had been made. Candidates were seated in the hall beside his office where the interview was to be conducted. Apart from him, two senior members of Wayne Enterprises were supposed to be there to judge each candidate's caliber.

It was time for them to start the interviews and Tim was already prepared with his list of questions. But his partners for the interview were caught up in a meeting at the parent association of Wayne Enterprises.

So in order to cover up the time which would otherwise be wasted in wait, Tim had come up with a short activity for all the candidates. 

"Good day everyone," stepping in he spoke in a rather casual tone, noticing that most of the candidates were feeling slightly nervous. "I am Tim Drake and it's absolutely lovely to meet all of you."

Tim had a habit of analyzing the situation and using the correct approach. Sensing the outlook of the candidates, he had decided to go with a friendly approach to connect with his audience.

"Now I know most of you are nervous but relax, guys, it's just an interview. And as I like to call it, another memorable experience," a friendly smile danced on his lips as he resumed, "we were supposed to start the interview by now but couldn't and I really apologize for that. My partners for today are running late so in the meanwhile we will have a fun interactive session."

Hearing that most of the candidates had straightened, probably thinking that this was a new trick of interviewing. And they weren't wrong in thinking that either. Because Tim wanted to get to know them in an indirect manner by subtly judging them himself.

"Think of this like a question answer game. And I won't be the only one doing all the questioning. All of you are welcome, no, encouraged to take part in asking whatever you want from me and I'll do the same. Let's go with the easy questions first. How many of you honestly have an interest in technology?"

Almost all the hands had gone up in the air.

"Right. And how many of you are interested in inventing? Like modifying already existing technology into something innovative."

A considerable amount of hands were raised.

"Great, oh and there's no fixed pattern to the questions so anyone of you can ask anything at whatever time they please. The one who wants to ask anything may stand up and that's all. Just make sure not to interrupt anyone."

A candidate from the audience stood up, "what kind of skills are you people looking for?"

He nodded, "to be honest, we do not require a lot of skills right now. Because we are keeping interns at Wayne Tech, so most of the skills that you people must have been advised with are those which we will teach you ourselves."

A very noticeable exhale of relief was heard from the audience at which Tim chuckled a little.

"Right now, we're just looking for a basic know how of technology, a fast pickup level and a capability of problem solving. I know many people would have recommended you to apply for advanced computer courses beforehand, but even if you haven't done that, it's completely fine with us."

Another person stood up, "and what will happen after the internship ends?"

"After the internship will be successfully over, all the interns will have an equal choice to either stay at Wayne Tech where they will be offered a permanent job or leave to work in any company they desire and put the skills they've learnt here to use."

"So there's no compulsory work for a specific time feature here?"

"Not at all. Our main goal is to provide you with an opportunity to learn about technological innovation. After that whatever you want to do with your experience totally depends on you." 

He knew his answer had eased most of the tension among the candidates. Since no one stood up for questioning, he decided to take the session to the next level.

"Now I will present you with some hypothetical situations where you are supposed to put your common sense and problem solving to use and deal with it. And trust me, when you will start working with us, I'm sure you will be faced with such problems on a regular basis."

Most of the audience had straightened again, paying full attention to Tim.

"The key to getting the answers right this time is being a little logical."

Tim was enjoying that part of the session where he would build up a whole scene and ask the person of his choice to answer what he/she would do in the given situation.

"So suppose the coffee maker broke..." Tim spoke up and noticed how a boy sitting in the second row had a very similar reaction to that statement which he would have had himself, "ah you there, you love coffee, don't you?"

He was a little flustered but nodded.

"Good, we're going to be coffee buddies if you get selected today. So make sure to do fantastic on the interview."

By then the audience had become really friendly with him and laughed at his joke.

"Yeah so the coffee maker broke and a new one has to be installed. What will you do?"

"Nothing," he replied.

Tim rose an eyebrow skeptically and a smile threatened to break on his face, "but you love coffee and in that case you won't be getting any for the whole day."

"Well, you love coffee too so you'll make sure the new one is installed way before the day ends. So I would definitely get coffee by lunch break," the boy replied confidently.

Tim's smile widened, "that's so true. I can't even go for a second without coffee. What's your name, coffee buddy?"

"Jared Mason."

"Nice answer, Jared."

He conducted the session until the other interviewers arrived at which he concluded it, "we all had a great time today and I wish you best of luck. As for those who are thinking that just because you did well in this session, you'll get an automatic leverage in the interview... Thankfully, that's not the case. The final word on who gets selected and who doesn't will not depend on me and rest assured that all of you have a fair chance at doing great in the interview. Even you, Jared, no favoritism here."

Jared nodded in approval and Tim gave the audience a last parting smile.

"I hope you all do great."

Throughout the interviews, Tim asked the least questions since he had overall judged the candidates through his session. Though for those who had given him good responses in the previous session, he made sure to ask trickier questions to judge them further.

By the end of the day he had a clear list in mind of who would qualify for the interns posts. But he left the final decision upon his senior fellow interviewers. However, there was one name that hadn't yet showed up for the interview.

But Nancy, the one responsible for managing the candidates, had informed him that all the candidates had given their interview according to the list she had for calling them.

"Are you sure?" he asked, "there was one girl, Irina, she answered a few questions earlier when I was doing that interactive session. I don't recall her turning up for the interview."

Nancy checked the list again, "but Mister Drake, we do not have any candidate registered under the name Irina. Did she give any surname?"

"No," he mused, "it's okay though. Maybe she left without giving the interview."

"Maybe. Oh yes, a girl came and joined the candidates just for the tour of Wayne Tech. She said she hadn't known it was an interview day so she didn't have the credentials but requested to join the tour instead. She left just when the interview started."

Tim nodded, "yeah, maybe it was her."

"Is there any specific reason for you asking about her?"

Tim offered her a polite smile, "oh no, not at all. She just did great at the session so I had prepared a lot of tricky interview questions for her."

He had managed to disguise the slight wave of disappointment that had washed over his features. He had really been hoping to have her on the intern team because she had a quick mind and Tim wanted to judge her further. 

But since she didn't give the interview and wasn't even on the list, that solved the mystery altogether and he knew that he would have to remove her name from his own final candidate list.

***