Interview

Last monday I had a job interview with Northwest Regional Education Service District for the position of Early Childhood Education Specialist. There were five positions posted and fifteen applicants. I learned on Wednesday that three of the positions were currently being held by three of my classmates who are on emergency licensure. They had to apply and interview for the positions they have been doing for the past year... and now they have competition from twelve other people. Great!

I felt that my interview went well...after I checked the dictionary. During the interview, we were discussing teaming and collaboration, and I said the word "Shmuck." I had said that in previous teams where I was the "senior" member (whatever that means), I thought that it was extremely important for the rest of the team to feel comfortable enough in the team to be able to say "Hey Dawn, you're being a shmuck." The interviewers seemed to wake up when I said that. They had been so busy writing down what I said verbatum that when I said the word, I realized that they weren't really listening to me at all.

And then it occurred to me that "shmuck" is Yiddish for "penis." FUCK!

Growing up, I thought that shmuck meant stupid oaf. That's how we always used it. It was never a bad word. It was one of those words that you could call your sibling in front of your parent and get smacked, but no soap in the mouth. It was a safe word.

I went home and looked up the word in the dictionary, positive that I had ruined my chances of working for the ESD. To my surprise, the definition for shmuck is "stupid oaf." Written in parenthesis and italics at the end of the entry is from Yiddish - penis. So I figured, as long as they're not Jewish, I'm fine.

The next day, one of the interviewers told my cooperating teacher that I'm "a delightful young lady." I felt much better after that.

This week, my references are being contacted. That is good news. Nobody bothers to check references unless they're planning on hiring you. I just hope that my three classmates keep their positions.