Last Friday was the craziest day I have had in recent memory. In the morning, I woke early to head out and coach the The University of British Columbia Novice Men's Rowing Crew. I rushed back home to meet the moving company people who were arriving to prepare all our stuff for the trip south of the border. That was hectic, but fine and went according to plan. So in the afternoon Meg and I went out to see the accountant (again) and the car insurance people and generally run some errands that we had to tie up before leaving for California. When I got back in the late afternoon, I was expecting an email from Rhythm and Hues about the hotel arrangements. What I found was a request for and interview from Pixar Animation Studios!
Meg says I let out some sort of primordial scream and then I just sat there staring at the screen. What did this mean? What kind of flukey timing is this? I was stunned! and I didn't really know what to do. I had thought that my application was "borderline at best," as I guess all those applying to Pixar for the first time do, and that I would for sure need to reapply again after more work "before I was good enough." I guess not. My joy at receiving a request for interview with arguably the greatest animation studio in history, which I think I rightly regard as an accomplishment in itself, was completely overcome by what I would describe as professional dread about the fact that I had sincerely verbally agreed to start at Rhythm and Hues in just a week's time and had in fact just received my TN Visa application that afternoon! That feeling of "oh man, these people will hate me, even though it was not my fault" was all consuming. I felt an immediate professional obligation to let them know I might not be showing up to work on monday, but I was handcuffed by the weekend and the fact that I didn't have an offer from Pixar yet!
Well, eventually I collected my thoughts and said well I had better call Pixar and see what's up! I was thinking it could be just a pre-interview, or an opportunity they had coming up in future. But no, when I got on the phone, sure enough the opportunity was immediate and they wanted to interview on monday. I was dumbfounded, but got my act together and told them I could interview immediately on monday morning. I hung up the phone and said to Meg, "god, I need to get drunk!" and went out to The Kino Cafe! It surely was a crazy day. Well, we'll see how it goes!
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