Throwback: Three Years Ago Today, Frankie, Glenny, and I Had Our Intern Interviews
A little trip down memory lane this Monday afternoon. Three years ago today were the first intern interviews Barstool had after moving to New York. It’s the day where myself, Frankie, Glenny and our former friend from Texas all got hired. Quite a unique draft class. Ria, Robbie, and Hubbs would also join over the next few weeks, but Friday, September 16th, 2016 will always be a special for Frankie, Glenny, and I. Three Italian kids from Long Island who were fortunate to land an interview and an eventual job.
I asked Frankie and Glenny to share any memories they had from that day.
Frankie
Wow I can’t believe it’s been 3 years already. What a goddamn ride it has been so far. If you would’ve told me while I was sitting in that interview 3 years ago that I’d be Dave Portnoy’s right hand man and get to do all the things we’ve done over the years, I never would’ve believed you. Shoutout to my guy Nate who saved my ass on that day of the interview. I was so nervous that morning. I honestly had no idea what I was going to say or how I was going to differentiate myself. I ended up running into a pizzeria (ironic) minutes before my meeting looking for something to drink and I saw Nate in there ordering lunch. I went to the register and told the guy I wanted to pay for Nate’s lunch as I thought it would be a good idea to have a guy on my side as I walked in, maybe he could vouch for me that I’m a good guy or something. Turns out I ended up talking to Nate for a couple minutes and he basically interviewed me before my interview. He asked me what I was going to say in there and every answer I gave him he corrected me and told me what to say. At one point I said “i think I’m funny” and Nate helped me change that into talking about all the editing softwares I taught myself to use and all the work I did at Borrelli’s since I was 13. He really saved me from sounding like a douchebag that had no idea what he was doing in that interview. So I kind of owe it all to Nate, which is wild.
Glenny
Conservatively speaking…this was the scariest day of my life. I had just started school at Baruch which was only a few blocks away from the office & had a quick 20 minute seminar every Friday from like 11:30-11:50 while my interview was 12:30. So my mom (who’s off on Fridays) decided to drive me that day in the hopes of everything working out smoothly thanks to not having to deal with the subway or any other road blocks the beautiful streets of NYC may have thrown my way. Once we pulled up to the office after class I told my mom to drive down the block thinking something may happen, which she of course did not do, and within 10 minutes I was running down the street for Caleb absolutely shook praying my mom didn’t get out of the car. She did not and Caleb told me I was hired in the elevator en route to meet Dave. Great success!
Now although Caleb had already delivered me the good news I knew getting grilled by Dave would be horrifying. When I say my heart was racing I mean RACING. It went well as I was told I report to Caleb after meeting the big man. Caleb told me I could hangout for the day so my first order of business was going to get drinks for everyone as it happened to be the now late Aloha Fridays! Only problem was I wasn’t 21, was too embarrassed to be that dork that couldn’t get the alcohol, was scared my Connecticut fake wouldn’t suffice in the city, and wanted to earn my keep! So I called my mom right back as she was only a few blocks away She got me the stuff to bring upstairs, PFT x’d my hand since I was underage, and I was off & running. Pretty much the moral of the story is I am forever in debt to my mom, Caleb Pressley, and Dave Portnoy. Love them all with all my heart.
Me
To the surprise of nobody, my interview was painfully awkward. To be fair, the email exchanges I had with Brett (pretending to be Erika) made it seem like I would be interviewing with her. So I had prepared myself for that type of interview. My biggest concern was what to wear. I have no idea why I settled on that outfit. I look even more like a squid in polos than I usually do. Should have went button down.
I walked off the elevator and saw the entire content area. I remember making eye contact with Nate. He turned his head to a few people and shook his head as if to say “This guy has no chance.” I was absolutely stunned when I walked into a room with Dave, Gaz, and cameras. Not what I was expecting. After initially being starstruck, I quickly realized I had to do an actual interview and stumbled my way through it. My saving grace was Dave asking, “So is there anything else we should know about you?” I had one last gun in the bullet “Well I spent my summer writing a Survivor: Barstool fanfiction on the Reddit page” and I think that’s what got me hired. I walked out of the office and stumbled around Koreatown for 30 minutes in an absolute fog. A big thank you to Gaz for seeing something in me and to Dave for approving my hire even though I was “boring wallpaper.”
Maybe this tweet helped. I’ve been a suck up since Day 1.
What a ride it’s been for all of us. Viva La Stool.
