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to say that I viewed her as a mentor - I mean she had a "wealth of knowledge" and she loved sharing it with me. The fact was, as far as self-image had been concerned, she had the "educational advancement" part down pat.

The more I thought about how this could've happened, the more I began to realize the fact that I would be moving up but she wouldn't - despite her knowledge - because she had a "low perception of herself" and I had a "high perception of myself". Self-image had allowed me to succeed where she had failed despite the knowledge-based assets she could've given the company.

So there you have it. My former coworker's self-image did not, in its entirety, match who she really was. Her lack of seeing who she was - of appreciating the potential she had - interfered with her ability to move up the ladder. In time, it became evident to me that each time she'd praised me and criticized herself - negatively - she'd been denying her own self-worth. It became clear to me that my efforts to get her to stop putting herself down had probably been a little too late for her because she'd been belittling herself for as long as I'd known her.

Upon further analysis of the situation, I concluded that a major reason she hadn't been hired was that the positions we sought required frequent contact with multileveled employees - both within and outside the firm. During the interview process, the coworker had given the impression that she'd be incapable of dealing with workers in this regard. As I said, however, I'd spent many a times with her when she'd done exactly that. The interview panel however hadn't seen her in that capacity; and during her interview, what they saw was her inability to deal with all levels of workers because she was unable to deal with them. She'd presented herself as someone who was nervous and disorganized with her thoughts. Her low self-image had prevented her from "acting" the part they'd expected of her.

At this point, I must force myself to disclose a few details I'd been trying to avoid. However, in order to be helpful to others, I suppose I must reveal them. While the coworker was telling me about how she'd bombed the interview, we were sitting across from one another. I was sort of staring at the black mascara that had dotted her eye-shadow and how her eyeliner wasn't as straight as it could have been. This wasn't too long after the interviews had occurred so I was pretty certain her makeup had looked about the same way while she was being scrutinized

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