A candidate for a senior position prepares for three weeks. He researches the company extensively, anticipates questions, and rehearses answers that present his experience in the most favorable light. He is genuine about some things and strategic about others. He frames a failure as a learning experience. He adjusts his affect to match what he reads in the interviewers.

He gets the job. In his first month, he realizes he cannot maintain the level of poise he projected in the interview. He finds this unsettling.