Alright, folks. It's officially. I am employed full time.
Last Wednesday, I mailed in my application to St. Mary's Home for Boys, a residential treatment facility for 10-17 year old boys who are emotionally disturbed and behaviorally delinquent. Thursday morning, I received a phone call, asking if I could come in at 2:00 that day for an interview. I quickly got ready and had a half hour interview with the HR director there. After that, she sent me to another room to complete a writing sample. She came in to collect it and asked me if I could wait about 15 minutes to speak with the managers, who would complete the second part of the interview. An hour later, two men came in and took me to a conference room, where they completed part two of the interview. Once that was done, I asked the receptionist if I was allowed to leave or I needed to wait. She said to wait, so I took a seat once again in the waiting room. About 10 minutes later, the HR director came back in and said that, pending my reference checks, they'd like to offer me the job. Within 36 hours, I went from considering applying for this position to being a residential counselor.
It was a whirlwind and while I felt extremely blessed, I also felt extremely overwhelmed. I didn't feel like I had time to think about it, but it was too late. I had already accepted. The next day, I went in to do four hours of paperwork and policy reading. As I started meeting people and reading through everything, I started to feel a little better, but still didn't feel totally confident. But I think that's normal with a new job. You're always nervous and apprehensive when you start.
I'll start working on the cottage on Monday. I'll be working with the 15-17 year old boys. There's about 19 on the unit, and I'll have a case load of about four "specials" or "primary's," which are four boys that I spend a majority of my time with and am involved in their treatment. I'm excited to see what doors this job opens for me. It's fairly closely aligned with what I want to do and will absolutely help me to gain experience in working with this population. Here's to hoping that all goes well!
