The next morning I had the day off so I spent my time searching through the internet for smosh videos to see what I was getting myself into. Admittedly most of their content was very funny, and they seemed to be doing pretty well as a YouTube-based company. I made my way through each of their three channels when I came to the games channel, there was something different about this one. I didn't realize how versatile a singular company could be in terms of content, but they managed to make it work. Whoever was in charge of running that aspect of Smosh was doing great, the editing style and direction of those videos just give a completely different vibe compared to the other channels.
At around noon I went out to get some groceries because I had been running low on practically everything. I got in my car and headed to Trader Joe's, trying to get the idea of getting a new job out of my head. I was so stressed about possibly being able to leave food service behind me, but then again what if they didn't like my work? What if they didn't think I was experienced enough? There were so many what-ifs going through my head that I found it hard to do something as simple as grocery shopping. I looked at my phone every two seconds to see if I had gotten an email back, but there was nothing. When I walked out of the store I ran straight into someone who had a full cart, knocking both of ours over. My groceries were rolling down the parking lot and the guy whose cart I bumped ran after a bottle of Mountain Dew that had rolled out along with cans of premade soup and pints of ice cream.
When I was about halfway through refilling my cart the guy walked back over and knelt down next to me. "Sorry about that I should really pay more attention to where I am going." He said chuckling.
I laughed, "No you're all good that's my fault, I've just been so distracted today."
"Don't blame yourself, we all have off days." He said with pure sincerity in his voice. "I'm Damien by the way."
"Vienna," I said, shaking his hand "Thanks for helping me clean up."
"No problem! Do you work at Buca di Beppo by any chance?" He asked.
"Hopefully not after today!" I said giggling lightly. After I finished picking up the contents of my cart I helped him gather what spilled out of his. "How'd you know?"
"My company was there last night after VidCon, I'm pretty sure you were our waitress."
"Oh, so you're part of Smosh?"
"Yup!"
"I knew you looked familiar," I looked at his cart for a moment, "Five tubs of mayo and 8 jars of pickles, sounds like an exciting video."
He laughed "Guess you'll just have to keep watching to find out."
"I guess so." I lightly laughed and began to walk back to my car, I couldn't believe that I just happened to run into one of the cast members, small world I guess.
On my drive back to the apartment I heard my phone buzz and knew it could only be one thing, but I had to keep my composure until I got home. I pulled into a parking spot and bolted into the building, only to be stopped by the elevator. I know I could have checked my email while I sat there waiting, but I wanted to look at it on my computer. The moment I arrived in the car park I raced to the elevator and jumped in! I sat there for a solid thirty seconds pressing the elevator button like a kid in a hotel, just waiting for the doors to close.
When it hit the sixth floor I calmly walked to my door and sat down at my laptop. I opened my email and saw the unopened message from Ian Hecox at Smosh. The email read:
"Dear Ms. Susage, we at Smosh have taken careful consideration of your material and we have decided that we would like to have you come down to the 'Smoffice' for an interview. The editors here enjoyed your content and would like to see what you are like in terms of private and professional relationships. Being personable is a large part of the community here at Smosh and it is important that we maintain an easy-going and professional work environment, especially because we do tend to get a little silly over here. We would like for you to come in tomorrow at 12:30 pm in order to complete your interview. There is no need to dress up, this will be a casual event, and feel free to bring a meal if you feel so inclined seeing as our interview is around lunchtime. We look forward to seeing you. -Ian Hecox (President at Smosh)"
I spent the next hour absolutely freaking out, I couldn't believe that I got an interview. I was about to leave my time in food service forever, I would never have to bring an ungrateful customer a bowl of spaghetti again. Was this going to be my ticket to making it big, I know that most film companies don't care much about your education, they care about experience and that is exactly what this job could get for me. Not to mention I've had a hard time making friends, and maybe this was my chance for that, from the videos they have all seemed so nice and Ian is definitely a funny guy. Although I had only seen the cast members so I had absolutely no clue who I was going to be working closely with, I just prayed to God that they were nice.
After freaking out and panicking for about two hours, I gained my composure and began picking out an outfit for my interview the next day. I grabbed my favorite Converse and paired them with my wide-leg corduroy pants and a large hoodie. Even though it was only 7 pm, I wanted the interview to get here as fast as possible so I made a can of soup, had my dinner, and went to bed. The next morning I woke up and immediately ran to the bathroom to take a shower, for a few minutes I just sat there with the water running down my back, trying to gather my thoughts for what was about to happen. I had known about the existence of this company for two days and I was already so nervous, I had never been interviewed for something like this before. After I got out of the shower, I brushed my hair back into a messy bun and started on my makeup. I didn't go too heavy, Ian did say that it would be casual so I had no reason to.
Before I knew it, it was 11:45 and time for me to head on out. On my way out I passed the same dude who pushed me out of the way at the elevator a few days before, I didn't think much of it at first but the entire car ride to the office he was following me, even into the parking lot. At this point I was scared to get out of my car, why was he following me? After I waited a few minutes I realized that he didn't even know I was there, but I still waited for him to get in the door before I decided to get out. At 12:20 I headed inside for my interview, scared to death but excited nonetheless. The first person I saw was a woman with short brown hair sitting in a rolling chair holding a binder. She could obviously tell that I was lost and had no idea what I was doing because she immediately hopped out of the chair and ran over to me.
"You must be Vienna Sausage," she said
"It's Susage actually," I corrected her, "I get that a lot because of the first name."
"I'll make sure to watch that in the future, I'm Lisa by the way." She said holding out her hand. "Are you ready for your interview?"
"I guess," I said nervously.
"Well if you're sure, it's right this way," she said as she led me down a hall, "Today you will be meeting Ian, who you know, Anthony, Lizzy, and Spencer. Anthony and Ian are the owners of the company, Lizzy is our senior manager, and Spencer is our lead editor and the Smosh Games channel manager."
'Okay so, this doesn't seem so bad.' I thought to myself. Lisa brought me into what I assumed was either Ian or Anthony's office. A girl was sitting in one of the chairs across from the table, leaving two open. Ian stood up and greeted me at the door, "Nice to see you again Vienna, I'm glad you decided to take the opportunity for the interview. This is Anthony and Lizzy," he said, gesturing to the other two in the room, "Spencer is running a little bit behind but he will be joining us soon."
"Go ahead and take a seat," Anthony said, "let's get to know you a little bit."
The interview seemed to be going well, but the whole time I kept wondering where this mysterious Spencer could be. By the end of our meeting, he still hadn't shown up which was kind of disappointing, I was looking forward to meeting him.
"Well this interview has been amazing in my opinion," Ian said "What do you think Anthony?"
"As far as I'm concerned, you've got yourself a job!" He replied.
I couldn't believe it. "Wait, really!"
"What do you think, Lizzy?" Anthony asked, looking towards her.
"You're hired!" She said beaming at me. "I just wish Spencer had made it in, y'all are going to be working together on a lot of projects."
All of a sudden I heard the door slam open behind me. "Hey guys, sorry I'm late." The voice sounded familiar, so I turned around. "Oh, hi." It was the guy from the elevator.
"Spencer, sorry you couldn't make it, but at least now you get to meet our new employee, Vienna," Ian said excitedly as he introduced me.
"Nice to meet you Vienna," he said with an outstretched hand, "I believe we live in the same apartment building."
"You know what, I think you may be right." I said, trying my best not to hide my annoyance at him.
"Spence, do you mind giving her a tour of the office, and show her the open desk in the games pod while you're at it?" Lizzy said
"Sure thing Lizzy," he said, seemingly disappointed.
He walked me out into the hallway and showed me the basics of the office: the different studios, the kitchen, the meeting room, and lastly the office area. It seemed very homey and comfortable, and everyone seemed to know each other. Normal office jobs seemed like they would be boring and strict, but everyone here got to dress how they wanted and they were just chatting over their work. Halfway down the row of work pods, we reached a space with five desks, four occupied and one completely emptied.
"Alright Vienna, this is the games crew." Spencer said introducing me, "Shayne, Alex, and..."
"Damien?" I shouted before he could finish his sentence. Sitting there at one of the desks was the purple haired guy from Trader Joe's. I remembered that he would be working here but didn't realize we would be working so closely.
"Hey Vienna, I didn't know you'd be joining our crew?" Damien said, standing to greet me.
I laughed, "Neither did I!"
"You two know each other?" Spencer asked, looking confused.
"Oh yeah, we go way back!" Damien said jokingly "God, how long has it been?"
"About a full 24 hours," I said, playing along.
"And now we get to work together, dreams really do come true." He said sarcastically.
"Well, I guess you've met everyone then." Spencer said, "Ian is probably going to want you to start later this week; But if you want you can start moving in your stuff tomorrow." He added, I could hear the annoyance in his voice, but I didn't know why. It's not like I'm the one who shoved him out of the elevator door.
"It's nice to see you here at Smosh, do you mind if I walk you out?" Damien asked.
"Not at all." I responded.
It was so nice to have a familiar face in the office there, and he was just so nice about everything. When we went back to my car he gave me his number and told me to let him know if I needed help moving anything to the office tomorrow. One day in and I already had someone I knew I could count on. I knew I probably didn't need his help moving anything, but maybe I'd take him up on that offer anyway.