How I got the job

As Mr. Waturi asked, "I know he can get the job, but can he do the job?" And this time, all I had to do was be myself.

According to my boss, I was not the leading candidate for this job. After the phone interviews, I was a strong candidate, but not the best. That person was a woman from South Carolina. So we all schlepped up to Hibbing to plead our respective cases. I went first and blew them away, not only with my skills and experience, but my large bag of camp songs.

I'm not kidding. Camp songs.

At one point in the interview, I was asked to do a song that I might do in a story time. As there were only adults in the room, it was critical that I make a lasting impression on cynical older people. I blasted my way into one of the most over-the-top camp songs I knew, "Ravioli." After all the singing, note holding, coughing and running about involved in that little ditty, I was permanently a part of their memory, especially short term. Ginny (my boss) said, that after I had left, one of the committee members said, "He's crazy. I like that." She also told me that "Ravioli" rolled around in her head for weeks, especially during the other interviews. I love this profession!

I may get a new desk sign: "Danger. Man with Camp Songs."