I was at an interview a couple weeks ago, and got stuck in an elevator with 15 other people -- and this wasn't a big cargo elevator. The interviewer asked if anyone was claustrophobic, and I said that I was, so everyone said, "Oh! Quick! Move her to the front of the elevator." Great. Now I'm stuck near the front of an elevator with 15 other people instead of being stuck near the back of the elevator with 15 other people. As Dr. Henry Jones Sr. says, "Our situation has not improved."

I asked the interviewer if she knew the phone number for security, and she didn't, so I asked her if she knew the main number, which she also didn't. She called her secretary, who called security. Meanwhile, the people on the other side of the elevator were trying to get the elevator phone to work. Someone answered, and said they would call security, who would call the elevator maintenance people...

I figured that if I wasn't out of there in five minutes, I was calling 911 and telling them I was about to have a baby in the elevator.

I told someone to pull open the doors, which they did, and he was able to open the door about five inches before it snagged on something metal and wouldn't open further. We weren't between floors, so I told him to pull harder, but was vetoed by the other people in the elevator who didn't want to break anything.

A few minutes later, someone on the floor where we were stuck apparently pressed the elevator call button, and Ding! the elevator doors opened. We all poured out of the elevator and took the stairs to our destination.

If it had just been me in there, I would have been out of that elevator in about 30 seconds flat by forcing the doors, but it's a more delicate situation when there are other people present, and one of them is there to interview you.