A Final Interview

Sunset Stories Part 1

Why this matters

Interviews are often treated like one‑way auditions, but they’re actually mirrors. They reveal how a company sees people long before anyone signs an offer. This story is for leaders, recruiters, and candidates who’ve felt that disconnect—the polished brand on the website versus the disrespect in the room—and still choose to stand in their own integrity. How we show up in those moments quietly shapes the cultures we build and the sunsets we’re willing to walk toward.

A brutal interview, a blank stare, and the beginning of my final corporate sunset

In 2020, during Covid‑19, I was furloughed and then severed from my last hotel manager position. It was the third time in a 40‑year career that I’d been severed. Crazy, right? Just another sunset.

At 62, I told myself I was done with the drama of interviewing. Since 2017, the process had grown strangely hollow. The “human” in Human Resources—at companies known as hospitality leaders—didn’t feel very hospitable. Call‑backs and updates became rare. Zoom interviewers could be downright rude. After a tough 19 months in my last role, I was ready to be on my own.

Then a thoughtful recruiter reached out. He described a senior community role, reporting to a newly appointed vice president who wanted to bring true hospitality to a life‑plan community—a place offering a continuum of care: independent living, assisted living, and memory care. The vision was to hire a General Manager with deep hospitality experience to oversee the independent living resident experience, while partnering with a clinical administrator focused on regulations and healthcare. The General Manager would also lead housekeeping, dining, facility maintenance, and sales for the entire community.

The community decided to “take me for a test ride.” I worked six weeks as a consultant alongside the new VP and acting president. The independent residents were not thrilled about this idea of a “General Manager.” They’d always had a “president.” One resident told me, “We don’t need a General Manager—we’re not a baseball team!”

It was tough knowing I was essentially on a six‑week interview, but I understood the assignment.

After those six weeks, I went through a three‑part interview day: first with the Board President, then with residents, and finally with senior leaders. I felt good about the first two. Then I walked into the last one.

In that final interview, I faced a clinical healthcare VP, the HR director, and another director. It was immediately clear the clinical VP did not support the idea of a hospitality‑focused General Manager—or me. It became one of the most negative interviews of my career. The VP was rude and openly hostile. I remember thinking, “If this is how you treat a candidate, what does this say about patient experiences?”

The HR director and the other leader just watched as I looked to them for a lifeline. Crickets. The recruiter and my potential VP were in the room as observers.

Afterward, I was upset. I had worked hard for six weeks to earn the trust of a skeptical resident base. The recruiter and my potential boss didn’t reach out before I left for the evening. I went home and stewed.

The next morning, I heard nothing until 11:00 a.m. My potential VP stopped by my office and asked how I thought the interviews went. Based on the tone of the final interview, I assumed he was about to tell me they were “going in another direction.”

I was direct but respectful about my disappointment in the tone and negativity of that final session. I did not hold back.

He stared at me and said, “I was about to extend an offer to you for the position.”

One might say the lesson was to hold back and not assume, but I would not change a thing. That final interview was unacceptable. Full stop. It gave me a clear view into the current leadership mindset—and an equally clear vision of the hospitality and culture I wanted to model for the residents.

I accepted the offer as General Manager.

And so began my true and final corporate sunset. For three years, I had the honor of knowing and serving the residents of that community. It was a privilege, a joy, and an experience that deeply enriched my life.

It also confirmed something I had long suspected: hospitality and corporate culture don’t start in the lobby or the dining room. They start in the interview chair. How we treat candidates is how we treat people. The tone of the questions, the respect in the room, the follow‑up—or lack of it—all tell the real story.

In the end, that sunset interview taught me this: every interview is a mirror. It reflects who we are long before we hang a mission statement on the wall.

The Sunset Series

This series describes my last professional Sunset and the profound impact this experience it has had on my life. I invite you to explore my final Sunset:

Tracing the Horizon of a Career (Introduction)

1. A Final Interview

2. A Community of Blessings

3. Queen of Hearts

4. Heartfelt Farewells