Here it is...

Yesterday at 3:15 I drove over to the DHS building (or rather the building that DHS is in) and sat in the lobby to wait for Cindy to come and retrieve me for my interview. After a short wait I went into a hallway and was walking with Cindy to where my interview was to take place, as we are walking she tells me that I am going to be interviewed by a panel of people, something that I don’t remember hearing about, but was alright because as I was driving over I thought to myself how strange it was that I was going to only be interviewing with her and no one else. It then occurred to me that I was going to interview in front of more than just her. So as I decided that I wasn’t going to think about this fact, we entered a room where there were five people around a table, and I sat. Everyone introduced themselves and then they explained the format of interview that I was going to be going through. There was a stack of paper in front of me; each sheet had two questions with a format in which to formulate my answer. The group went around asking the questions on the sheet and were madly taking notes as I spoke. I talked about every possible professional scenario I had ever been in, how I handled it and what the outcome was…ugh. Finally, at the end, I was able to get more info on the job, I would be working in two counties with two different supervisors and the job is being offered through a grant – so it is temporary (which is fine with me) with the possible opportunity of there being a permanent foster care or CPS position open at the end of the grant. I was asked if I would be interested in either of those positions in the future, I was asked if I was offered the position would I take it…it was rather exhausting. So then, everyone said their goodbyes and I was escorted to the second part of the interview in a conference room where I needed to review a video and type my response to it on a laptop. I had great fun with the video as it basically was a “welcome to child welfare” type thing and I knew some of the people in it from when I worked in VanBuren County with Bethany in K-Zoo. It was divided up into three parts, the first what child welfare workers do, the second all the bad stuff about being a child welfare worker, and finally all the good things about being a child welfare worker. In the end when I had to complete a response, my first thought was “Thanks guys, you have reminded me of EVERY POSSIBLE REASON I DIDN’T LIKE MY OLD JOB.” The interview took about an hour and the video and response took about an hour. When I was finished I walked out and the place was dead…I laughed. They really do close at 5pm around there. Strange. So, I don’t know how I did, I don’t know what they thought, I don’t even know when I am going to hear. I don’t even know if I am going to take the job if it is offered to me. I went home and I processed through how I don’t know where I fit in my profession since I am having such a hard time finding opportunities that are not child welfare. I do know that I had a great Turkey Burger last night on our grill..mmmmmm