"The Career"

Since the days are numbered at "The Land of Suck," TonyTimes takes a new venture into "The Career."

But man, what a relief! I've finally got hooked up with a career that applies to my degree. I was getting pretty pissed off at the world after I sent out numerous applications to other school districts throughout South Dakota and Minnesota -- and not even getting a reply. I had one interview just that one time back in April, and that turned out nothing.

It just happened to be luck that day that I spotted a classified advertisement in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader for a teaching opportunity at a school in Minnesota. I sent my credential files right away and I got the call a few days later that they wished to interview me.

Right away, I thought "Man, this is going to be perfect." Katie wants to finish her schooling at a technical school there in town -- all the time planning on heading there in the first place. After the initial excitement of just getting called, I started to prepare.

Since I already had been through one interview before, I knew what the interviewers were going to look for. Besides looking good (I had to borrow a sport jacket from my brother-in-law) to create a good first impression, I had to know my answers to some tough questions.

When I got there for the interview, right away I was pretty nervous. This was a brand-new school building, probably 3 years old, so it was pretty intimidating. This was the big leagues. But after I sat down with the two interviewers: the high school and middle school principals, everything flowed. I was snappy with my answers, told them what they wanted to hear, basically, I sold myself. What I really enjoyed was that they actually gave me feedback also, something a little different from my previous interview experience when they showed no real emotion at all. This time, I was more comfortable and I played off the interviewers. In the end, I called my brother to thank him for his advice. He just recently got hooked up with a job teaching music in South Dakota after a strenuous year and a half in Minnesota.

He asked me how I did. I replied, "I kicked ass."

That night I returned home in South Dakota to go to work. A few hours later, Katie comes in and tells me that the interviewers need my references. Right away, I'm confused. I had already contacted the university through their career and placement services office to send them my credential file that included my three references. Later on, that confusion turned to anger -- thinking that if this school district doesn't have my references, I might just get passed up. I called the high school principal and left her a message saying that I would straighten things out.

That next morning, I woke up early to drive to the college and find out what was going on. I was hoping to give them a piece of my mind, until just when I pulled into town, I received a call on my cell phone from the principal. She had received my credential file. It was on somebody else's desk, mixed up in the mail. Man, what a relief.

About six hours after that ordeal, I received another phone call and got offered the job. Damn right!

I've been in a three-week notice at work and told them I could possibly be done working at "The Land of Suck" at the end of the month. It would all depend whether or not that I had enough money to live for a while without a job and Katie and I could find a new place to live. Already, she drove to Minnesota a couple of days ago to look. She wants to buy, I want to rent for a year. That'll come in time.

Overall, they're looking for somebody to teach middle school keyboarding, high school web page design and some MS Office applications. Maybe some social studies, but who knows. I'm really hoping to get some coaching in to help the salary out a little bit. The curriculum is up to me -- I have free range in what I want to do in the classroom. Talk about a dream come true!

I'm signing my contract on July 11, so I'll get some more details on what "The Career" is all about.