In her cramped apartment in downtown Boston, Nina Avanthika scrolled through job postings on her laptop, her stomach knotting with desperation.
Her Women's Studies degree from Boston University felt like an expensive piece of paper.
"Unemployed and still liable to pay my student loan payment next month!" she snarled to herself, scrolling down posting after posting that required a STEM degree, which she did not have.
Her brown-skinned fingers with short, neat nails devoid of polish trembled with frustration as she searched for a job that would pay her enough to cover her student loan payments and rent.
Her fingers paused as she came across a job posting for a Personal Assistant.
"Bachelors degree in any field. Event management experience preferred. Six-figure salary. Full coverage of health insurance. Tell me I'm not dreaming!" she exclaimed, mashing the apply now link.
Nina's jaw dropped as the application form loaded. It was from Sirius Software.
She vividly remembered the release of their first violent and sexist game during her 10th grade:
Master of Arcadia was a massive hit among the boys in her class. Nerds and Jocks alike sang its praises, and compared notes on which of its female characters were the most attractive.
Their crass comparisons, and the game graphics had caused several cases of body image issues, and was extremely distressing to her and her female classmates.
She had quickly rallied the girls and allies in her class to protest the game on campus, convincing the principal and school board to ban discussions of the game and any student caught playing or possessing the game was suspended.
It had made her the enemy of almost every boy in her class, but fortunately, the school's strong anti-bullying and anti-harassment polices protected her from any negative consequences.
"Personal Assistant to the CEO. Yeah, right! Fetching coffee for some loser nerd who thinks he can get away with turning women into blow-up dolls in his games!" she thought to herself, her anger raw from the recollection.
"Still, this is a job that pays six figures, and I need the money. I can change Sirius Software from within!" grumbled Nina, her anger giving way to a fierce determination.
She quickly filled out the first section of the form: contact information, social media links, education, and work experience, but then it launched an IQ assessment test, annoying, but not out of the ordinary.
"OK this is going from unusual to downright creepy! Even dating apps don't ask for this much information!" she thought to herself, as the form requested her height, weight, shoe size and tailoring messages, and that only SI units are accepted, her fingers trembling as she converted and entered her measurements in centimeters and kilograms.
After making her take a selfie with her webcam, the application form finally spat out a message that an email would be sent to her with further instructions.
"I never knew that a damn job application form would make me feel so violated! Ugh! I need a shower." she growled, as she closed her laptop and headed to the bathroom.
----
In the pitch-black CEO office at Sirius Software Headquarters, Aaron Zakhrov sat in his plush leather chair, his face illuminated from the glow of his massive computer screen.
He stretched, the sleek black leather of his business suit creaking against the chair.
It had been a long day of coding, business meetings, and more coding.
He took a gulp of coffee to clear some of his fatigue, and launched his job application program.
The sophisticated program, one of his best creations, initialized and processed the new application profiles, enhancing them with related data mined from social media and other online activities, along with sophisticated tracking to find alt accounts.
When it came to female employees, Aaron had a very specific vision in mind: conventionally attractive, compliant, discreet, demure and deferential.
Most women didn't survive the filtering process that he had designed, and those that did, had their defiance to his will ruthlessly crushed.
"Well, what do we have here? Women's studies graduate, self-proclaimed activist, and considers herself my nemesis." he mused, his blue eyes scanning the application profile of Nina Avanthika.
Her IP address was the only one that could connect to his application form back-end, and that was suspicious in itself. Somebody wanted her in. Somebody powerful, and influential.
He skimmed through her data, her body measurements indicated a slender hourglass figure. The selfie she had submitted showed a young woman with short-cropped black hair, dark brown skin, and wide black eyes that were filled with anger and defiance.
A smile formed on his lips, and he felt a stirring in his loins.
He pulled up his interview email template: directions to Sirius Software HQ, a compulsory dress code of a skirt-suit and high heels, and a warning that rescheduling will not be entertained.
He filled out the template with the interview date and time, and hit send.
"Let's see what you are made of Ms. Avanthika" he thought to himself, as he shut down his computer and retired for the night.
----
Nina returned from the bathroom, to find an email notification from Sirius Software on her phone.
"A skirt-suit and high heels! No business casual! No Just be decent. Nope! Just straight up 60s secretary chic! What the hell?!" Nina exclaimed, her voice rising in disbelief as she read the email from Sirius Software.
"Well, at least I've made it to the interview stage, though with that application form, I wonder what questions they will ask me" she thought grudgingly, checking the date and time of the interview.
"Tomorrow at 10 AM. And in-person too! No video call! What is this? Nearly every tech company does video calls these days!" she grumbled, as she checked the directions and the balance in her Uber account.
"OK, I've got enough cash to get there and back a few times over, but there's no way in hell I'm forking over what's left of my bank balance on a damn skirt-suit!" she growled, tossing her phone on the bed.