Command interviews, career direction

I've had a couple interviews for commands over the past four months.

The first one taught me a good tip -- leave a "hire me" book for the interviewer to look through in their free time. They see a lot of people and it's hard to remember everyone.

More recently, I had an interview for a transportation unit in my area that would be nice to get. It went well, though my biggest weakness -- from my interviewer's point of view -- was my PT score. It's not bad (248), but the interviewer said that he likes to have all around great candidates.

The final decision hasn't yet been made, so there's still some hope, but as a YG 2009 captain I don't think my chances are good. Compared with my peers, I simply too junior to merit a position just yet.

Part of the reason why I'd like to find a command position soon is that I got an email the other day from West Point identifying me as a possible candidate to teach Chinese at West Point. It would involve one or two years of graduate school, followed by a three year assignment. The only hitch is that I'd have to finish my command time by summer 2015.

It sounds like a great opportunity, and I think my experience would make me a good candidate. My years as a teacher (albeit *English*, not Chinese) and a language student have given me a different sort of background from other officer-instructors who learned Chinese at the Defense Language Institute.

And unlike the regular faculty, I'm not a native Chinese speaker. I think that's an advantage, considering the position would likely be teaching the second year cadets their mandatory, two-semester language requirement. I think it's better for beginning students to learn from someone else who had to learn it.

The only question I have is: how do I decide on a career direction, if that's even something that I can influence? Should I hold out for something that I currently think I want, or should I go after interesting opportunities as they come up? Should I refuse to pursue this position because I want to do other things (like Foreign Area Officer), or should I try for it anyway and see how it goes? My fear would be that by holding out I miss the boat on some cool assignments.

As strange as it may sound, it's almost too bad I can't spend 15 years as a captain.