Eleven

"Hello, everyone. My name is Tony Stark and above all else, I am an engineer. Today I have a Q&A – my social media team tweeted out some questions and included some of their own so that is what we will be doing today!"

"What is your full name? My name is Anthony Edward Stark."

"What are my favorite things about myself? Well, I do like my creativity. It has gotten me to where I am today."

"Biggest accomplishment? This tower! Self-sustaining power source but personally, I am most proud of the fact that I got sober."

"My biggest fear is space."

"My favorite childhood memory is of my mother teaching me piano or teaching me how to make pasta."

"My favorite color is orange."

"My favorite music genre is rock – ACDC, etc."

"All time favorite city…hm… I think I'm gonna say New York."

"If you had more courage, what would you do differently in your life right now? If I had more courage, I think I would be more honest with the people in my life. I wish I could be painfully honest but I don't."

"Do you think you're too wealthy? Well, that's a loaded question. Sometimes, yes. But I was born into it and I do a lot of good with the money I have."

"Do you donate some of your money? Yes, I donate a very big portion of it actually."

"If so, what is your favorite charity? Well, I donate my money to Maria Stark Foundation, which I am on the Board of Directors but I do not make the decisions where the grants go. But a lot of SI employees elect to donate some of their paycheck there, for a tax write off. We have to help out those who need it most."

"Well, I have a few, funnily enough. 'Playboy, billionaire, genius, philanthropist.' And 'I am Iron Man.' Plus the one I have for the channel."

"Yes, I do. James Rhodes, who I call Rhodey among other nicknames. He's been by my side through a lot of shit. He's the best."

"Who is my favorite Avenger? Well, Rhodey bear of course!" He grinned easily at the camera."

"Where are the ExVengers?" Tony looked up from the list. "Well, I have told this person this. Secretary Ross, I have no idea where they are and even if I did, I wouldn't tell you." He shrugged.

"Who aligned with the Avengers haven't you met yet but would like to?" Tony scratched his chin. "This is a great question. I have heard of King T'Challa's sister, Shuri. I heard she made a lot of his stuff, we've talked, of course. But I haven't met her. Shuri, open invitation to New York."

"What do you like the most about the Avengers. And then they're listed. Alright. Well, I can't skip over any, so here we go: Captain America – I like that he's firm in his beliefs. Black Widow – I like her femme fatale thing she's got going on. Winter Soldier – I like that he's resilient. Black Panther – I like how he brought Wakanda into the spotlight, sharing their knowledge. Scarlet Witch – I like that she's very passionate about what she thinks. Vision – I like that he has JARVIS guiding him with his decisions. Hawkeye – I like that he is unwavering in his loyalty."

"And the second part is what I dislike. Well. Captain America – I dislike that he is unmoving in his beliefs. Black Widow – I dislike that I don't know if I can trust her at the end of the day. Winter Soldier – He knows what I don't like about him. It's between us. Black Panther – I dislike his need for vengeance – it doesn't make the loss of his father any better. Scarlet Witch – I don't like that she messed with my mind in Sokovia. Vision – I dislike that he doesn't want to live with me, as I miss him. Hawkeye – I think he's stubborn and that can be a good thing but, in his case, it isn't."

"MIT! Massachusetts Institute of Technology!" Tony shot a thumbs up at the camera.

"My favorite car I own is one I didn't show but it is a 1980 Aston Martin, which was my mother's. I have had it restored and impeccable. Sometimes I drive it to the Maria Stark Foundation meetings."

"My oldest AI is Dum-E."

"My celebrity crush is Angelina Jolie. Man crush is Brad Pitt, I suppose. Not many can compare." He shrugged.

Tony laughed. "DaWolfyDaWolf asks or rather demands who I am dating. No one at the time. I have gone on a few dates but I am way too busy with the Accords, healing and working on staying sober to worry about that."

"Social Media. We got a lot of questions about this; my notes say here. So, I technically have a twitter, you know the Tony Stark official one but I am not allowed the log in." He rolled his eyes. "Legal and PR says I am not allowed to be on social media as I might start a war with someone and apparently I rub people the wrong way, who knew? So, my legal and PR team tweets things, puts things on Instagram, Facebook, etc. and if you see me respond, it isn't usually me. This channel is how I communicate and I am frankly shocked that they allow me to have such free reign. Unfortunately, I get it. Lawsuits bad. My legal team works hard enough as it is. And as for Tumblr and Reddit, I do not have a Tumblr but I do have a Reddit – technically not social media." Tony winked. "My username is something I won't disclose but my favorite subreddit to go on is TonyStarkIsAwesome, which I am not the moderator for but I should be!"

"Onto the SI questions: What is your favorite department in SI? I know I shouldn't pick favorites but I think everyone here is aware that I am an engineer and that is my passion, that is what I have done with my life. I love Research and Development, I love seeing what my people have created and often times, they're better than what I could have come up with."

"What advancement are you the proudest of in SI? Well, I think the StarkPhone is the bestselling advancement we have. We boast close to Apple's sales on the iPhones and I am constantly trying to improve it, come out with cheaper models, new features, higher resolution screens, better cameras…I think that brings in the most money."

"What college majors does SI look for when hiring? Well, we look for the majors that match the departments that we have. Accounting, Engineering, Computer Science, Law are the usual suspects although sometimes some other majors can have a life experience that would make them fit a job that wasn't necessarily what they went to school for. We are interested in Economics, Business, Physics…it takes a lot of people to make SI as successful as it is."

"What type of skills do you look for in an employee?" Tony rubbed his chin. "Well, we look for consistent attendance in previous employment, high intelligence – not just grades from college but general intelligence – you can be book smart and get a 4.0 but suck with real life situations. An employee has to be a healthy combination of both book smarts and street smarts. Which is harder than you'd think in New York. We also look for excellent communication and independence. A lot of our employees work on their own, on their own projects and are only communicating with other people during meetings and group projects. An employee of SI needs to be able to be self-disciplined enough to get their task done correctly and efficiently. We look for people with creative problem solving. We don't necessarily look for a certain extracurricular or internship but those do help. Sometimes, students can't necessarily take an internship and lose their weekend job and we understand that. We usually take those people in as an intern and then keep them on as a full-time employee."

"Do you take interns?" Tony read. "Of course, we do! We have intern positions in virtually every department in Stark Industries. We get a lot in R&D, less so in Legal, Accounting, PR all the very essential departments that are much more boring than the fun stuff we get into in R&D. Our internship program boasts at 75% hire rate, which is much higher than a lot of internship programs around the world. We offer paid internships, with medical benefits and experience of a real corporate technology company, the ins and outs. We pay for continuing education and testing fees. Sign up today!" He flashed his thumbs up but laughed. "Joking, joking. Not about any of those facts but we have a very competitive internship program – high grades, good extra curriculars, inventiveness, good problem-solving techniques, good communication…all those look very good to our internship program reviewers. We are always looking for good talent and new minds, new ideas."

"Onto the final question, do you take high school interns from FlashThompson." Tony looked at the camera. "We do not." He paused. "But I made an exception for a particularly exceptional kid. He's my personal intern."