Like the pilot episode of White Collar, the first story in our AU is about an extraordinary job interview. In canon, Neal is offered the chance to get out of prison and to consult for the FBI if he helps them catch a notorious criminal. In the story Caffrey Conversation, Neal’s help in catching a criminal inspires Peter to offer immunity and a job.
Much of White Collar and the fan fiction the show inspired me to write is pure fantasy. Great artworks and rare books, FBI agents and cat burglars, rich and powerful family members, rock musicians – none of these are part of my day-to-day life. What I bring to the table are the little details of working in a large bureaucracy. The status meetings, the tedium of goal-setting and budgeting, the plethora of paperwork that always lingers, these are where my world intersects with Neal’s.
But as Neal says in the episode “Vital Signs,” what’s really important are the people. The relationships between people, the friendships and bonds, those are the things I can aspire to.
In the pilot, we see Neal “try out” for his job by identifying a thief and tracking him down. We see the boss-employee relationship building alongside a friendship with Peter.
In my first story, Neal’s interview starts with running into Peter at bar, where the FBI agent is undercover to catch the criminal Neal has arrived to meet with. For the next 24 hours, Peter tries to understand why someone of Neal’s talents became a criminal, and whether he can be brought over to Peter’s side. Simultaneously, Neal tries to figure out if Peter is really as decent and honest as he seems to be. By the end they’ve established a bond that gives them the foundation for a friendship and a working relationship; Peter offers Neal a job.
While I’m in the midst of job interviews myself, I feel drawn back to the pilot and my first story. In an hour of talking to a potential boss, how can I judge if I’ll like working for him or her? The reality is that we don’t have the luxury of working on a project together, like Neal and Peter did, to decide if we’ll get along. Perhaps I need Neal’s con artist skills at reading people to guide my choice. And I’d like Peter’s or Henry’s ability to run a background check, and Neal’s charming nature, and Noelle’s sense of calm… If only I could bring my characters to interviews with me…
On the other hand, my decision after my interviews is simply where I’ll work for the duration of a contract – perhaps a year or two. I’m not trying to stay out of prison, so I can’t be too jealous of Neal. He was under a lot more pressure than I was during both the canon and AU versions of his interview.
I’ll be myself in my interviews, but I can bring along the aspects of my personality that are featured in my writing. But not the parts featuring Mozzie. Can you imagine Mozzie’s reaction to being asked to reveal his greatest strengths and weaknesses? No, I must not channel Mozzie during a job interview, not unless I can find a job that calls for inventing conspiracy theories. Okay, that might be fun.
Peter offers Neal the consulting job on AO3
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