[bwana devil]

NT,

I read OOT frequently so I’m pretty familiar w/ your situation and your life from what you post. I think you’re an incredibly smart guy with lots of passion and have always thought you were underemployed. I don't say any of that lightly.

I managed a private residential treatment center for juveniles for a short time and the sad fact of the matter is the job does not pay much money at any level. If your passion is working w/ juveniles and doing it in that setting, I would recommend looking at the county level in probation. I’m not sure what the NY scene is like but that is how Texas and Colorado are organized (the two states I am familiar w/). The government system pays far and away much better than private (yet even this leaves much to be desired).

Oh, and coincidently, when I started at this RTC the guy that interviewed me told me I was going to be getting one salary. When I showed up to work the first day he told me that he made a mistake in calculating some experience and HR refigured my salary would be lower. A few days later, I told him that I had turned down another job offer to take that job based on the original salary and I had a scheduled another meeting w/ the other RTC (all of which was true.) He made a few phone calls and by the end of the day, I had the original salary back.

Point being if you were offered a price and it was pulled away you do have a good reason to fight for it. you need to ask yourself if you’re willing to put up the fight.

bwana