SUMMONING up a cyclone to test a job candidate’s initiative may seem a bit much.
But for new Air Mauritius regional manager UK and Ireland Chris Gilbert this appears to be what happened.
Chris was asked to fly out to Mauritius to meet the airline’s chairman, but discovered with horror that a cyclone was due to hit the Indian Ocean paradise while he was there.
On landing, he was immediately told he could not leave for at least two days while the cyclone raged.
This is okay if you have time to spare, but not if you have job to do and have not told your current employer where you are.
After much fretting and many frantic phone calls, Chris finally secured a very quick chat with his future boss, despite the man having an audience with the Prime Minister, and raced back to the airport to escape before the boisterous cyclone struck.
He tells Backchat it was touch and go to make his flight.
The rain was lashing down, palm trees were being bent double and there was only 45mins to go when he got to the terminal before the flight left.
Luckily, a member of staff had been tipped off about his tricky predicament and grabbed his ticket and passport to rush him through security and immigration and on to the Airbus waiting on the tarmac.
Breathing a huge sigh of relief, he gazed at the disappearing island to see it being battered by the winds.
A few days later he found out he had got the job – and the two other candidates had been stranded on Mauritius.