Friday, July 25, 2014

and the official word is...

I got a call this morning from my contact at Dongguk—the pretty lady I'd referred to before.

Long story short: I'm in. Yes!

Alas, I'm not proud of how I got in: the lady told me, somewhat unnecessarily, the whole story of the behind-the-scenes politics that led to my hiring. She started off by saying that her office had already called the top three candidates from the interviews to accept them onto Dongguk's faculty. I wasn't one of them. As it turned out, though, one of those people in the top three declined Dongguk's invitation, so the hiring team defaulted to Person Number Four: yours truly. See why I'm not proud? I only barely made it in. I didn't actually make the final cut, but I got in thanks to a sort of technicality.

Pragmatists will of course say that I should simply be happy I got in, and that it doesn't matter how I got in. True enough. And I'll do my best to do the university proud.

So now I need to worry about the move back to Seoul. Third Ajumma has agreed to put me up for a month or two, free of charge, in my old fifth-floor apartment in the building that she co-owns with her husband, my mother's cousin. Since I've got a new job, I don't have to worry about cash-flow issues, which is also nice. My brother Sean is coming to Korea on August 11, so I'd like to be moved into Ajumma's building before then. That way, I'll be free to show Sean around the town, even if I won't have the means to take him all over the country.

Wow. So I made it. By the skin of my teeth. Yesterday, I felt as if I'd been stood up by my date. Today, I feel as if I've dodged a bullet.


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11 comments:

John said...

Congrats! I know you must be relieved, regardless of the circumstances. They are lucky to have you!

John from Daejeon said...

Congrats on making it back into the big city.

I do feel like a bit of a heel that I wasn't paying a bit more attention to the university name as I do know someone on staff there who is now an honorary citizen of Seoul due to his work with www.ktlit.com (Korean Literature in traslation). He got his start on the peninsula here in Daejeon before making it to the big league. He used to have an interesting blog, but now is mostly on twitter: https://twitter.com/KTLit

Elisson said...

Excellent news! Here's wishing you much success and happiness in the new position. Go get 'em, Big H!

Sperwer said...

Congrats

John said...

Congrats! Take any break you get my friend!

Unknown said...

Congratulations. It must be quite a relief to have that settled.

Kevin Kim said...

Thank you all. Much appreciated.

Nomad said...

Congrats, Kevin!

Charles said...

Well this is some great news to come back to. Congratulations, my friend! It'll be good to have you back in Seoul!

Kevin Kim said...

Thanks, Nomad and Charles. It's good to be getting back.

hahnak said...

congratulations! good luck with the move!