Chapter 1: The Interview

I had my ninth interview today. I think it went well. I was the last one on a list of many. I was nervous. There was a tiny hole in the left arm of my jacket--somehow I had snagged it on the trip from Eau Claire.
When I arrived, they were still in the middle of an interview with the applicant before me. She came out while I was filling out some paperwork. We sat awkwardly across from one another. We didn't talk.
After what seemed like decades, I was taken through a maze of hallways to a classroom behind the offices. I was asked to sit, front and center, in the half-circle of English teachers and principals. Then the questions started. They went round robin, popping off questions about my teaching style, my experience, my most recent reads, my classroom management--the list was endless.
As the interview ended, I was asked to leave the room. They needed to talk about the candidates. Anxious and clueless, I perched in the main office waiting to hear anything. Finally the principal made his way over, offering me a tour of the school. He showed me (all three of) the rooms that would become home for me. He complimented me on my interview while grilling me just a bit more.
I left that day without any real idea as to where I stood. Days later I would receive a call asking me back for a second interview. This time I would have to prepare a lesson on Compare and Contrast to teach to a pretend class of students. I prepared for twenty, but ended up only teaching to three: the Principal, the Associate Principal, and the head of the English Department.
The interview went well, and while I anxiously sat in the Associate Principal's office, waiting for any sign about my future, they talked. Before I left it had been decided that the job was pretty much mine. Within a few days, I received the call that confirmed those suppositions. I was hired.