Every now and then, I decide that I have to let up on this incessant habit, but being bent to extremes, I tend to go cold turkey rather than gently ease off my addiction. 

Fortunately for me, some automobile oil, lube, and filter change providers supply their clients with a newspaper while they wait in their vehicles.  I’m well aware that the cost of the newspaper is likely buried in my final bill, but I believe it is a nice touch on the part of the service provider to help their clients pass the time while the staff attends to their automobile needs.

I remember one time that I stopped buying anything to do with the print media, and had gone six weeks without making such a purchase, when I pulled into a fast lube outlet to get an oil change on my truck.  I was still in a stage of withdrawal from my media abstinence, so I welcomed the service person bringing me a copy of that day’s paper.  I turned to the employment section.  I find it interesting to study what kinds of employment trends are happening in industry, and it keeps me abreast of opportunities available.  It also helps me feel I have some kind of control over my own destiny when I can identify a job that I might be qualified for, and then make a conscious choice not to pursue it.

At that time I was employed teaching at both the University of Guelph, and Humber College.  So I took an extra look when I saw an ad noting that Fleming College was looking for someone to teach ‘Environmental Post Management’.  I had no idea what ‘post management’ was, so I made an assumption that it referred to a need to train professionals to do ‘follow-up’ management on projects of an environmental nature.  Sometimes developers put large-dollar down payments on their projects before construction starts.  These payments assure they follow through on stipulations agreed to.  Payments are forfeited if they don’t meet the standards outlined in the contract agreed upon.  There are people both in government and in the private sector who are responsible for seeing that these environmental development requirements are met, and I assumed that someone was needed to prepare students for this part of their employment.

So I faxed away a copy of my resume to the college for consideration in this particular job competition.  It was only when I started to conduct further library research for my job interview that I realized that the newspaper that had run the ad had committed a typographical error, and that the college was not looking for a teacher of ‘post’ management at all.  They wanted someone skilled in ‘pest’ management – the control of mostly cockroaches, bats, rats, and mice.

The rest is history.  What I knew about the pest management course content that the college was looking for at the time, you can put on the head of a pin.  If it hadn’t been for the typo, I wouldn’t have ever applied for the position, a position that I ultimately was offered and have to this day.  I mean, I’m an outside guy with an employment and educational background in field ecology. 

In hindsight, I must have impressed a couple of people in the general interview process, because it was obvious to them immediately that I didn’t have the knowledge they had advertised they were looking for at the time.

I’m very happy with my eleven-year history at Fleming College.  I feel especially so with my new position as coordinator of Ecotourism and Adventure Tourism at the College’s Haliburton campus.  But, I occasionally wonder what route my life would have taken if not for that newspaper typo.  And I think how different life might be for me if my boycott of the news media in my effort to save myself from ‘information glut’, had resulted in me not seeing that newspaper ad in Kitchener that day.

David Ward can be reached at dward@flemingc.on.ca.

Everglades study trip map

Tuesday is field school prep day, with the whole group heading to Killarney on Wednesday for a week of canoe certification, group immersion, great sunsets and crummy nights sleep.