Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 102479 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 512(@200wpm)___ 410(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102479 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 512(@200wpm)___ 410(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
“Do you know who you’re mentoring yet?”
He smiled. “No, but I’ve been hoping for a certain intern since Saturday night.”
I smiled back, but inside I silently hoped he was assigned to someone else, though I wasn’t quite sure why. I finished making my cappuccino, said goodbye, and went back to my desk. Not long after, the rest of the interns arrived, and then finally Ellie Loring—the manager I’d interviewed with. The other interns seemed really friendly, and I’d started to relax by the time ten o’clock rolled around. We were given a fifteen-minute break before a kick-off meeting for the mentor program. I ate a granola bar, went to the ladies’ room, and grabbed a notepad to take with me to the conference room.
Jack was already inside, standing at the front of the room with Ellie and a few older people we hadn’t met yet. I joined the other interns seated around the table.
Tyler was seated to my right. He leaned in. “I heard the guy who does this program from the IT department is a hardass and gives you homework assignments no one else gets. I’m hoping I don’t get him as my mentor.”
“How do they match people up?”
“I asked that during my interview. She said they go through the candidates’ resumes and profiles and look for commonalities with the mentors—like schools and experience or whatever.”
Ellie called the meeting to order and began with introductions of the executive team members who would act as our mentors. There were only five people up there, aside from Ellie, so I wondered if one of us would be assigned to her. She told a little about how the program started and how it’s evolved over time. Then she explained some of the logistics of how it worked.
“It’s really up to you and your mentor how often you’ll meet. There’s a weekly meeting at a prearranged time that has already been set up on all of your calendars, but we encourage the mentors to involve you in as many things as possible, whether that’s accompanying them to a meeting or allowing you to take part in an ongoing project. Today you’ll also be having lunch with your mentor offsite to get to know them a little better. But you’ll get to know each of the executives. They’re the group that will be deciding which of you will be offered a spot in the Apex executive training program, which begins at the conclusion of your summer internship.” She gestured to the people standing beside her. “If it’s okay with you all, I prefer to hold all questions until the end and move on to having each mentor participant tell you a little about themselves.” She smiled. “When they’re done, I’d like to play a little game and see if you can figure out who you’ve been matched up with and why.”
The first executive to speak was Jim Matthews, the vice president of human resources. He gave an abbreviated version of his resume and then talked about his hobbies and family. Considering his hobbies included golf, geocaching, and coin collecting, and nothing on his resume had anything in common with mine, I didn’t think he would be my mentor.
Three more executives took their turns. One had gone to Stanford like me, so I thought perhaps he might be the one I was assigned to, but then Jack stepped forward.
“My name is Jack Gallo, and I’m a managing attorney here at Apex. I’ve been with the company for five years. It was my first full-time job out of law school, but my interest was always corporate law. I did internships at the SEC in the compliance department, and also at the law firm of Simon and Rugg in their transactional division. My boss, Kirsten Volpe, is usually one of the mentors, but she’s going to be out for a few weeks, so one of you unlucky interns is stuck with me until she returns. My hobbies include skiing, snowboarding, mountain biking, and rock climbing.”
Of course, the one person I didn’t want to be matched with was the only person I had a hobby in common with. At least if I were assigned to him, it would only be temporary, until his boss was back.
Ellie looked at her watch. “And we have one more executive mentor. He’s also a fill-in. Our VP of sales went out on maternity leave earlier than expected, so this morning we had to scramble to find someone. I guess he couldn’t make this meet—”
She was interrupted by the conference room door opening. And my heart nearly stopped.
Ellie smiled. “Perfect timing. Here’s our final mentor now. The founder and CEO of Apex, Jagger Langston.”
CHAPTER 6
* * *
Sutton
His hair was slicked back in an old-Hollywood way, and he had on yet another bespoke three-piece suit. I imagined he had a full wall of a walk-in closet lined with them, probably color coded. Jagger Langston looked every inch the powerful CEO he was, and my mouth went instantly dry. His eyes scanned the interns seated around the table, and when they landed on me, the slightest hint of a smirk curled his lip.