In which I are hired.

It's official. The job I interviewed for last Friday is mine.

I hadn't said much about it because I've applied for so many jobs outside of teaching in the past couple years and I didn't want to get invested in the outcome of the interview, only to be disappointed again.

I was also offered an interview at a local high school for the position of math teacher, but after I stopped laughing I politely declined.

My new job title: Study Coordinator. I'll be employed by a private medical research foundation and be working out of the VA hospital. It's a 3-year position.

What I'll be doing: at any given, any or all of the following:

• Visiting mental health agencies, hospitals, and clinics and presenting research studies to clinicians and possibly patients, in order to recruit subjects for psychiatric research.
• Administering psychometric tests to patients before, during, and at the conclusion of research studies.
• Coordinating paperwork for research studies.

Things said in the interview that made me wnt this job:

• "We really don't have time to track your comings and goings or micromanage you."
  
• "The research mostly involves the more severe and persistent mental illnesses."
• "You'll never be doing the same thing all the time."
  

I'll still work at the counseling center for a couple evenings a week, but I needed something a bit more dependable; that whole sometimes people show up and you get paid, and sometimes they don't and you don't thing was a little unsettling. I'm not yet at a point in my career where I can be that casual about income.

And, my record is intact. Other than a fifteen-month mutually agreed-upon break right before and after my 3rd child was born, 17 years ago, I've never not had an income since the age of fifteen.

The new job pays about the same as I was making as a HS teacher, but the raises will come more often and at predictable intervals.

I'll get to ride in, ride home, and lunch with Sweet Baboo.

Cha. I'm stoked!

...