Rain Renders Los Angeles to Chaos and Confusion – But Tinsel Town Trudges on in the Best Way it Can
This interview took place while the company was in the process of moving from Culver City to their El Segundo location, so some of the disorganized nature of this interview may have been a result of that period of moving rather than a direct reflection of the company on-the-daily. I arrived early, was greeted fairly warmly, and was instructed to wait at a long table until the room intended for the interview became available. Minutes past, and the interviewer returned and announced that unfortunately the room still wasn’t going to be available for some time. Looking around the main office space, there was discernibly A. the long table I was currently sitting at B. some comfy yet modern looking couches C. a legion of smaller desks outfitted with Macs and scattered employees here and there. However, apparently none of those pervious options simply would do, for D. walking outside in the rain some how ended up being the milieu of our interview.
Yep, that’s right. Outside. Walking. Rain. Interview.
I would like to take a break from our current tale for a brief ode to Rainy days in Los Angeles. If you are not already aware, let me take the liberty of informing you that it hardly ever rains in Los Angeles. By “hardly ever” I mean “next to never”, and when it does rain those two days out of the year, nearly every Angelino loses their minds. The freeways that are usually standstill parking lots turn into war zones. People spontaneously lose the hand-eye coordination necessary for driving a car. Otherwise intelligent people who have been accepted into prestigious universities decide to forgo basic logic and use their MacBook Pros as umbrellas.
Apparently, Nurture Digital is not immune to this sudden onset of insanity.
I’m not sure if my interviewer chose to brave the elements for some overt privacy that wouldn’t have been afforded to us indoors under the current circumstances. I’m not sure if they were instructed by a superior to go outside and were simply following orders. I’m not sure if this was intended to be some sort of test to see how I reacted to odd situations. All I know is, it was incredibly odd to see my interviewer anxiously grab their jacket and motion for me to follow them outside into the rain when there were clearly other dry locations available inside.
It was also odd that they seemed genuinely surprised when we happened upon a set of uncovered table and chairs down the road (our apparent destination) that were completely drenched. We continued to walk around the block a couple times, in the end deciding to stand outside the building underneath my interviewer’s hand held umbrella.
A little damp and waterlogged, we came back inside after the interview and I was informed that I was now going to get to meet one of the producers. Dazed, a little disheveled, yet excited, I waited for ~20mins. The interviewer then came back to inform me that the producer actually wasn’t available that day and would set up a skype interview.
All in all it was a pleasant walk in the rain. The Skype interview went well. Everyone I met at Nurture – both the first interviewer and the producer that I skyped with later – was pleasant, seemed to be driven and creative. However, I couldn’t accept this position. All I could think of is my interviewer’s anxious face as they grabbed their jacket to head outside and realize that could be me. If you don’t respect your prospective employees enough to make sure that you reserve a proper place to interview them, how much can you be expected to respect and value your actual employees? What would have happened if I was a client?