Reclaim the Stars: Jasmine's Ultimate Gamble

The news that Jasmine had finally received was as surprising as it was disappointing. Her first startup, a voice activated search engine for dating advice and relationship issues, had been acquired by one of the big players in the field. At first she was excited, but then she realized that the only reason she'd been acquired was to be buried within their massive workforce and give them the appearance of being more innovative than they actually were. Unable to bear the thought of being a cog in a machine which churned out soulless products, Jasmine quit and joined an even smaller upstart, hoping to at least make some significant impact that way.

That startup had failed miserably after barely a year, and this time around her job prospects were looking bleak. She looked at her résumé and couldn't believe what she saw. One company after another had labeled her experience as "insufficient". Insufficient for what? She'd built the first dating site on top of the AI platform that was now being used by most of the biggest players in the market! But somehow they were all claiming that her experience was not enough to put them on the fast track towards success. It didn't make sense, but then again these companies weren't exactly known for making sense. One even claimed that they would hire her if she had more experience with Javascript! As if she hadn't worked on both frontend and backend for her previous two startups!

It seemed that every startup focused primarily on one thing; artificial intelligence or blockchain technology or virtual reality or computer vision or augmented reality or some other futuristic technology that made little to no sense to anyone who didn't have exposure to tech from childhood onwards. They just hired whoever had a few years of experience in whatever technology they wanted to use and gave them a title such as Chief Blockchain Officer or Chief AI Officer or similar nonsense.

It wasn't like there weren't any non-tech startups any more. There definitely were, but none of them seemed to be able to gain any traction. They were still stuck using boring old technologies such as databases and websites. Something had changed recently however; all those cool new tech startups suddenly started banning anyone who had a history with non-tech startups from working with them! They claimed they needed people who understood how weird their products were instead of people who would ask questions about why things would be done one way instead of another way.

Jasmine had hoped to find employment with one such startup today, so she rushed over there as soon as possible while trying not to think too much about how stupid the whole process was becoming. In fact, she tried not thinking about anything at all except maybe occasionally wondering if it was possible for someone's brain to explode from stress because everything around her was so dumb!

When Jasmine arrived at the office building where the startup supposedly existed, an unmarked door caught her attention. The door didn't have a sign with any information about what might be behind it either! A bit surprised by its existence amidst all the offices belonging to tech startups, she opened it hesitantly only to find herself face-to-face with a middle aged man wearing glasses wearing slacks and a white shirt sitting behind a desk covered in empty cans of Red Bull and other trash thrown on it in various states of decay while he typed away on his laptop without looking up once. He just gestured towards an empty chair opposite him without saying anything while continuing his typing spree uninterruptedly. She took a seat right away since it seemed like he wasn't going to stop anytime soon and decided to wait until he did before asking him anything. After all, it wasn't like he could stop typing even if he wanted to anyway!

After almost half an hour of waiting silently for him to say something or for something else interesting to happen, Jasmine couldn't take it any longer and asked him "so...who are you?" The middle-aged man stopped typing immediately upon hearing her question and looked up at Jasmine with an expressionless look on his face before replying "I'm Victor." Then he continued typing again without another word while Jasmine stared at him speechlessly wondering if this guy was serious!? Sitting behind an unused desk in an office building full of tech companies dressed like how people used to dress back when computers were used in offices instead of everywhere else 24/7 while calling himself Victor!? That read nothing like someone who'd named himself after an American superhero! It read more like someone who'd named himself after an accountant's assistant whose only claim to fame is keeping track of everyone else's work hours!

"So does this mean you're hiring?" Jasmine asked nervously after deciding it might be better not press Victor any further about his identity unless it became absolutely necessary! Victor stopped typing again after hearing her question and looked at Jasmine with eyes still devoid of emotion before answering "I'm always hiring." His reply caused Jasmine's spirits to rise immediately although she didn't show it outwardly until Victor added "as long as you're willing do whatever I tell you."

His words caused Jasmine's smile disappear instantaneously as she wondered what sort of fucked up job interview this was supposed to be! What kind of job required you go through this sort of ordeal!? But then again none of these tech companies ever seemed interested in making hiring processes easy so maybe this wasn't really supposed to be a job interview after all? Maybe this guy just liked making people wonder what the hell they were getting themselves into! Then again maybe he really did want someone desperate enough to do whatever he told them too? Or maybe both!?

But regardless, there was no point backing out now even though Jasmine knew down deep inside that whatever would happen here wouldn't necessarily turn out okay in the end...at least not for long anyway! Not when these tech companies tended to burn through employees quickly anyway despite all their talk about wanting experts in their fields rather than generalists! And especially not when opportunities for employment elsewhere seemed so limited these days...or at least so limited that someone afraid for their future might think they are limited despite having plenty available really! And besides even if things went south here, there probably weren't many jobs left where people could get paid well enough where they wouldn't need some sort of side hustle anyway! Even if doing work outside regular hours were frowned upon by employers, there probably weren't many jobs left where they wouldn't have already expected workers employed there already working outside regular hours anyway! So why not see this thing through? Things couldn't get worse than unemployed anyways...could they?