Getting a Job

Getting a Job

I kept scanning the job notices as they came in each week.  If there was a job that looked even remotely suitable I sent an application letter off in the next mail run.  I was on the road to the post office more often than ever before.  A table, chair and kerosene lamp like we used when going to school at Tusler were the basis of my bunk house office.  I had a Montana map and writing materials and spent long hours pouring over the job lists and locating each on the map.  It seemed that most of the jobs were for elementary school positions and hardly any of them mentioned Industrial Arts teaching.  I applied for five or six jobs that looked promising.  None were in the Miles City area however.  As responses to my application started to come in I realized how important it was to have some one on the inside to help identify the right job.  The placement director at Eastern did that for graduates looking for a job in Washington State. 

Most responses were to let me know the job had been filled.  The one that asked me to give the principal a phone call was a grade school at Stanford, Montana. The closest phone was at the Brink’s ranch so I drove down and asked if I might use their phone.  I explained what I was doing and Mrs. Brink was very cooperative.  She had been a school teacher and knew the process it took to find a job.

 I made my call and talked to the Principal of Stanford Elementary School.  The outcome of our conversation was that he would like me to take the job.  It included teaching math and social studies to seventh and eight grades, coaching basketball and starting an industrial arts class.  The salary was $3600.00 for the school year.  It was hard to tell the situation from a phone call, but I didn’t have any other options at this point and it was getting late in the summer.  As mentioned, most other responses I received from my applications had already filled their vacancies.  I told the principal I would take the job.  He would put a contract in the mail and we agreed I would drive up several weeks before school started.

Mrs. Brink was as happy as I with the successful job contract.  She knew the location of Stanford and said it was a fairly good sized town with wheat farming and livestock being chief industries in the area.  I hadn’t seen the Brinks since Tusler days so we had catching up to do.  I offered to pay her for the phone call, but she wouldn’t accept it on the ground that was what neighbors were for.  I thanked her and left with a promise to help her or the family in the future.  They were good neighbors.

*Taken from "Which Road Should I Follow?, Volume 2, Roles and Responsibilities of an Educator", an autobiography by Edwin K. Hill.