By Lucia Allen, News Correspondent

‘ ‘ Senior political science major Rocky Slaughter never thought there was only one way to success.

Slaughter competed in January for ‘The Best Job in the World,’ where he would have been paid $120,000 to live on an Australian island and blog about the experience. After placing 61st out of 34,000 applicants, Slaughter tried for another dream job. This time it was ‘A Really Goode Job’ presented by Murphy-Goode Winery, whose winner will be announced July 21.

According to ‘A Really Goode Job’s’ website description, the winner will be paid $60,000 for six months spent exploring Murphy-Goode’s and surrounding areas’ vineyards in California’s Sonoma County Wine Country. The winner will also work with Murphy-Goode’s winemaker to create a new wine, meet the locals and taste hundreds more wines. The winner will describe the experience through weekly blog posts, photo diaries, Twitter, Facebook, video updates and ongoing media interviews.

Slaughter received three emails by midnight on July 7 informing him he’d made the top 10 out of 2,000 applicants. Murphy-Goode will fly him to San Francisco to be ‘wined-and-dined’ July 18 to 21.

“I was excited – probably dancing and yelling a bit. I didn’t expect [to be picked],” Slaughter said.

Slaughter read about the Murphy-Goode competition in mid-April and decided to go for it in early May. He soon updated his website, www.rockyslaughter.com, placing the complete application process online. He signed up for several social media sites and wrote the video script, Slaughter said.

This all became material for the required 60-second video showcasing applicants’ social networking and communication skills. Slaughter said he thinks part of Murphy-Goode’s purpose is to get rid of the snobby wine stereotype and find someone young, fresh and unpretentious to help promote their wine in an easy-to-read format.

“They’re definitely laid back; their motto: we take our wine seriously ‘- ourselves, not as much,’ Slaughter said.

When Slaughter’s roommate, senior political science major Richard Thuma, first heard about the competition from Slaughter, it had sounded like a long shot.

“He put a lot of work into it,” Thuma said. “He learned a lot about online media and things like that to use with this project.”

Slaughter, who said he taught himself web design, recently started a business called Happens Creative Media Solutions. Slaughter has created buzz about his projects through additional social media sources Murphy-Goode hopes to use – Facebook, e-mail, mailing lists and the journalistic media.

Recent college of business administration graduate Ian Estef, who helped Slaughter name his company and assisted in any way he could, described Slaughter as someone who is always “doing something.”

“He is very outgoing and he has a lot of drive. When I found out [about Murphy-Goode], I wanted to help him get it, because I think he’s supremely well-suited for the job,” Estef said.

The work of design is labor-intensive, and Slaughter said the application process reflected that, taking him an estimated 100 hours of work to complete. The six-month co-op program has allowed Slaughter to participate in the competition and still remain a full-time student.

“Where they really helped is in the technology department,” Slaughter said. “[At] a lot of universities you couldn’t do that, because it has to be school-related. But with co-op, [it is] school-related.”

Thuma said Slaughter has brought a lot of people into the process, which he thinks is a part of what Murphy-Goode is looking for.

“I saw the other candidates’ videos, and they were pretty good,’ he said. ‘ ‘But if your name is not Rocky Slaughter, you’re out of luck.”