ArtFlow

He had prepared for every question. Strengths, weaknesses, where he saw himself in five years, why he wanted this particular role at this particular company. He'd rehearsed in front of the mirror for three days, adjusting his answers until they sounded confident but not arrogant, ambitious but not unrealistic. He was ready.
They asked him none of those questions.
The interviewer — a quiet woman who seemed slightly bored by the whole process — looked at his CV for a moment and then set it down and asked him what he would do if he could start his career over from the beginning knowing everything he knew now.
He opened his mouth to give a polished answer and nothing came out. The real answer was there immediately, clear and inconvenient: he would have studied something completely different, worked somewhere smaller, spent less time optimizing and more time paying attention to what he actually liked doing.
He said some version of that. Not the full version — he wasn't that brave — but closer to the truth than he'd been in a long time. The interviewer wrote something down and nodded slowly.
He didn't get the job. But driving home he felt something he hadn't felt in years — like he'd actually been in the room.