A week ago, I applied for a part-time job.  Event though I enjoy my independent status, I keep an eye on various job lists, looking for interesting opportunities.  Thought I’ve seen some intriguing full-time jobs, I haven’t considered them simply because they’re full time.  I’m just not ready for that.  I was a little reluctant about applying for this part-time job, just because it would be a change in my current routine, but there was a lot that interested me about it.  It was in my field, educational/instructional technology, but was for a slightly different audience than I’m used to.  It entails teaching student teachers in the sciences about using technology in their teaching.  I love working with science teachers, so that was a plus right there.  Also, I knew I might learn something from teaching this class.  The differences between higher ed and K-12 are great enough that I’ll have to do some work and learning to understand the constraints of K-12 and technology work.  I have investigated working in K-12 and it just seems like a really interesting place right now when it comes to education and technology.  The class is 5-weeks long, and intense 2 hours/day, 4 days/week session.  That schedule, too, intrigued me, compacted a semester’s work of work into 5 weeks, something I’ve done before, and it fits with my schedule. 

So I applied on Friday, got a call on Monday, and interviewed on Wednesday and accepted the job later that afternoon.  I got a very good vibe, obviously, from talking to my interviewers and the more I talked to them, the more interesting the job sounded.  The class is small, fewer than 5 students.  That, too, is a plus, especially when it comes to a hands-on course.  I’m pretty excited about the whole thing, actually, even though I went in a little reluctantly.  On the way home from the interview, as I was thinking about accepting the job, I thought about how much I liked that I could pop into something like this.  Though it would certainly be nice to have something more permanent, for me, I like having a variety of opportunities and the freedom to take advantage of them as they come along.  In theory, that’s what the consulting work is like, though it may be that I end up doing more part-time things like these.