By Lucia Allen, News Correspondent

Sometimes you don’t have to come in first to feel like you’ve won.

Murphy-Goode Winery announced its pick for ‘A Really Goode Job’ on July 21, and it was not senior political science major Rocky Slaughter. However, as of July 28, he is still preparing to go work for Murphy-Goode at the lucrative rate of $5,000 a month.

Slaughter traveled to San Francisco at 5 a.m. to meet the other applicants July 17. They were all driven by limo to the Murphy-Goode winery and the first few days were spent with the contestants watching one other’s videos and giving speeches, exploring vineyards, tasting wines, having a wine blending contest, and playing lots of liar’s dice and other card games. The contestants stayed in the local luxury hotel Healdsburg.

‘There wasn’t too much competition going on when we were there. It was basically now they would pick whoever they thought was best for the role,’ Slaughter said.

‘ On the final day, July 21, they broke up for individual interviews with the director of the public relations department, head winemaker David Ready Jr., of the Kendall Jackson wine company, owned by wine entrepreneur and billionaire Jess Jackson and others.

‘I felt like I aced my interview because I went in with this metal box full of ideas. I spoke right away and until the end with idea after idea. I didn’t see anyone else with something like that,’ Slaughter said.

The group reacted well to many of Slaughter’s ideas, but a few days before they announced the winner they pulled him aside and told him they had created a special, separate position for him. It was at that point, Slaughter said, he knew he didn’t win.

‘In the very beginning, when I didn’t really understand [this new] position, and because I’d been fighting for [the dream] job for three months, I was a little disappointed,’ Slaughter said.

But after he understood the bigger picture-that they had created the position specifically for him, added extra money and told him they really wanted him to be a part of their family -Slaughter said he felt even happier over the new position over the winning one.

‘The first thing I got was like this 13 liter bottle of wine and they said, ‘Welcome to the family;’ I am absolutely, 100 percent happy,’ Slaughter said.

Slaughter will be named the ‘Czar of Crushia’ and he will be creating new social media campaigns, from commercials to vacation deals, for Kendall Jackson and other wineries, Slaughter said.

Slaughter’s childhood friend, Katlyn Demallie, 20, who attends school back in Slaughter’s home state of California, said she is excited that he’ll be close again and is looking forward to being taught more about wine,

‘ ‘It just seemed like he put so much effort into it and was so gung-ho about it, it just seemed something good had to come out of it,’ Demallie said.

Friend and classmate Doug Lindner, a sophomore political science major, said he feels the wine company is lucky to have someone like Slaughter.

‘He is a true leader; an entrepreneur of the highest order. [This] sounded like the kind of thing nobody would get, but [Slaughter] would,’ Lindner said.

Slaughter’s leave date is tentatively set for somewhere around Aug. 10 and the length of the job is still being decided. He’ll be living in Sonoma wine country. Slaughter intends to return to Northeastern in fall of 2010.

‘It makes me feel great; [This job] gives me the ability to talk to the people I need to talk to and puts my ideas on a larger scale,’ Slaughter said.

Slaughter best friend from home, Mike Blankinship, 21, said this position being created especially for him is a testament to Slaughter’s innovation.

‘ ‘He’s certainly larger than life; he’s very, very intelligent, very dedicated, and I don’t think he’s ever thought anything was impossible his entire life,’ Blankinship said.