Employed! My New Job

Unless I am mistaken, this is my 200th post. What a nice round number with which to announce that I have accepted a job as a learning specialist at a fantastic private learning center in Manhattan!

After months of rather discouraging job search results, I had three final interviews in one week! Two of them led to job offers, and after lots of reflection, I decided to turn down the offer from the Cooke Center, a private school for special education students, and accept the offer from the learning center.

A bit about the Center: Paul, its founder and owner, is a neo-natologist who specializes in education and neurology. He used to direct the clinical programs involved in an organization called All Kinds of Minds, which is a highly respected organization that studies learning. He broke away about four years ago to start his own learning center, and it's been quite successful and has a great reputation in the city. Each client is assessed thoroughly by both the learning specialist (me!), whose focus is more academic, and Paul, whose focus is more neurological. After a meeting, a thorough (and often very long) report is compiled for the family, in which the client's strengths and weaknesses and learning style are discussed. The report also includes suggestions for the family and for the classroom teacher. The goal is not to diagnose but to describe. Clients may be as young as three or four years old up through graduate school! The center's website and blog, which are both pretty interesting, are available here.

I loved the place from the moment I arrived for my first interview and am thrilled to have gotten an offer! The other employees all seem very happy and friendly, and I'm very excited to begin work there. I know I will enjoy it, that it will challenge me, and that I will learn a great deal from the research I'll have to do and from my conferences with my new colleagues. Plus I'll be earning a paycheck! I almost remember what that feels like. Hooray!