The Newest Member of Dirt Rider - Derek Steahly - Dirt Rider Magazine

In the final annoucement of our Extreme Job Interview, we're happy to finally introduce the new Associate Editor of Dirt Rider magazine, Derek Steahly (a.k.a. Mr. Blue). It was a tough decision (much like picking a shootout winner) because they were all talented, well-rounded writers and riders, plus they all turned out to be really cool guys. But in the end, we had to pick only one person, and that was Derek.Our decision was based on each person's writing and riding skills, their technical knowledge and ability to do office work (surprise! 80% of our job is behind a desk)! We also lent a lot of weight to feedback from the readers in our message boards. A big thanks go out to everyone who read the samples and gave us their opinions.Another huge thank you (obviously) needs to go all the applicants. Not just the final four, but everyone who took the time to write stories, shoot photos and design some very impressive layouts for us. See the original submissions at dirtrider.com/extremejob.The finalists were eager to come to California (even taking time off work and flying themselves out), and did everything we asked and then some. Brian Purtymun came out all the way from Georgia—his first time on a plane. Derek Steahly came from Washington and Dan Kouba came all the way in from Idaho. Pete Peterson gets the Toughing-It-Out award for doing all this with a broken thumb. He had surgery to repair his dislocated wrist before coming to our offices, and after the interview was over, returned to his doctor where they discovered he had a broken bone in his thumb the whole time.We enjoyed getting to know them all, and work with them. And we really enjoyed reading their feature stories on a "day in the life" of Dirt Rider editors. If you didn't get a chance to read them yet, click here to check them out.This doesn't mark the end for Brian, Dan and Pete—another purpose of this interview was to find some possible contributors. So don't be surprised to see their names in future Dirt Rider tests and features.