Refinery29’s Assistant Living asks assistants to talk about themselves for once — offering truthful, no-frills insight into the time before fame and fortune. What’s it like working next to the dream job? They talk, we listen.

For our fifth installment, we sit down with K, 30, assistant to a famed New York City screenwriter, to talk about the spotlight — growing up around it, nurturing the egos of those inside of it, and fulfilling unusually outrageous requests (i.e., recreating the life of 1930s Rome in objects — all in less than an hour.) Oh, and to get the gig? This assistant had to make sure he had approval from his boss-to-be’s pet dog.

Any memories of your initial interview?

“Yes. G was very anxious about why I wanted the job. He told me I was too old — he was very honest about why and how he usually took on younger people — and that actually ended up ultimately being a bit of a problem. He was worried I was overqualified. And I told him that I thought that was true, but that I really wanted a solid job and that I knew I’d be good at it and that he should let me do it for a little while. And I stayed for a year — not a day more.”

Did he explain why he gravitated towards younger assistants?

“I think he wanted someone young and impressionable — someone wide-eyed and naive. Someone he could mentor and nurture. I was not that. I was doing my job and I was doing it really well, but I was not fulfilling that particular need of his.”

Was it a typical 9-to-5?

“No. But unlike a lot of people of that caliber, G was very clear in my interview that this would be as close to a 9-to-5 as he could swing. Occasionally, he would need me to work hours outside of that, but I was getting paid — and it was always overtime. He was very fair in that way. He made it clear that I wasn’t signing over my whole life. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that at 6 p.m. you stop worrying about someone else.”

Did your first impression of him shift as time passed?

“No — I felt just as uncomfortable on my first day as I did on my last. When he said he needed me to be inside his head, he meant it — and I came to realize that it was a sort of scary head to be inside of. I had a work phone and every time I got a text, I’d have a panic attack — I was so concerned, because he was so pedantic about how everything was done, so even if I knew I’d done everything right, I was always worried.”