If I had to give myself a job title, I'd probably try to come up with something professional

sounding.

Something like corporate image consultant or freelance PR manager sounds nice, but if

I'm being honest, what I really do is deal with screw-ups.

I look into things like chemical spills, buildings that aren't up to code or managers

who can't keep their hands to themselves.

Then I make sure that whoever my client is gets away from that problem with a clean record

record.

Sure, sometimes I get good people who just find themselves in a bad situation, but those

cases are rare.

Most of the time I'm dealing with a faceless corporation where my only contact is some

dick and a suit.

This case certainly had plenty of dicks and suits, but they were of a higher caliber than

I was used to dealing with.

Last month, I started a job for the US government.

It all started when I found myself without any work for a couple of weeks and money

was getting pretty tight.

I had already tried contacting a number of public help wanted ads, but had no luck.

I decided to make a listing on a job recruiting website to see if I could catch someone's

eye.

Lucky for me, within days, I had a couple of offers, but one in particular stood out.

It promised a long contract and decent pay.

...