I was teaching and running my own web design firm, Eye2i when I got an unsolicited e-mail from a new media headhunter, asking if I was interested in a job. At first, I thought it was spam and ignored the note. She didn't give up and wrote me again. She had seen my work on the web and she really did want to know if I was interested a new media position.

Well, this was a first. As a college art teacher, there were always 200-300 applicants for every job. I'd spent the better part of my "career" looking for a tenure-track position. It was an annual end-of the-year rite: perusing academic job lists and imagining myself moving to exotic places like Syracuse or Spokane. Suddenly, I found myself in a seller's market. It was an odd and uncanny feeling! And to think, I didn't have to even put my portfolio and résumé together. She'd already seen it on the web.

She wanted to send me on an Art Director interview at a major media content provider. My first thought was "I've never worked in an office situation before in my life! What do they want with a teacher?" My second thought was: "Except for a few days a week teaching, my time has been my own. Why would I want to enter the real world. In addition, this would mean a major change in my family life." Then I remembered an article I wrote called New Roles for Artists in the Information Age and decided I had to play this out to see where it lead.

So there I sat, waiting for my appointment and wondering if this was really a joke. Was I on Candid Camera? My only interaction had been via e-mail. What if the interviewer had no idea who I was?!

As it turned out, the Creative Director interviewing me was great. All of a sudden, I started to visualize myself in Dockers and Eccos, cool briefcase and cell phone in hand! Egads! Where was this leading?!

I asked why they were interested in me. He replied they'd been having trouble finding good young people for their web department. As a teacher, they thought I might have some connections with talented people coming out of school. I was impressed they were looking in different places for the type of person they needed. Didn't fit my stereotype of typical corporate thinking. My mind started to calculate all the possibilities

A few months later, the position at the Smithsonian opened up. The thought of working for a cultural institution was enough to make me leap.