Cosmetic Surgery Scheduler
by Helen Jupiter—Age 29—Los Angeles, CA
When I returned from backpacking across Europe, things had clarified for me. Somewhere between Moscow and Manchester I realized what I wanted to do with my life. After three months of staying in hostels from Amsterdam to Athens, I would return home and Do Good. It was that simple. I wanted to effect Good in the world. I determined to find a job with a nonprofit that would enable me to Make the World a Better Place.
I set up camp on my mom’s guest futon (my apartment was still occupied by the Bikram Yoga Student I had sublet it to) and began applying for jobs with nonprofit organizations. It didn’t matter what noble cause they served—literacy campaigns, AIDS research, protection for orangutans, immigrant rights, homeless rights, women’s rights—I just wanted to work for something Good. A week passed, and I found that if I heard back at all, I was either overqualified or under-qualified. Sometimes both.
I kept at it. “I’ll do anything,” I told various HR and hiring managers. “I just want to learn.”
Another week passed, and the Bikram Yoga Student packed her bags. Certified to stretch and sweat, she was heading home to work as an Instructor. It was time for me to move back in and get to work—but I didn’t have a job.
I sent my resume to every nonprofit job listing that went up online. Sometimes I sent ten, fifteen, twenty a day. Sometimes I sent them twice.
Nothing.
I was getting desperate. Rent was coming due, and though I had pockets full of crumpled Russian, Dutch and Greek receipts, I had no American currency. I hadn’t left my job as an account manager for a subtitling company to go backpacking across Europe to have a revelation that I wanted to do Good Work to come home and take a meaningless job. Still…I needed a job yesterday, so I did the unthinkable: I checked listings outside the nonprofit sector and applied for a job scheduling surgeries for a high-end cosmetic surgeon in Beverly Hills.
“I just want to do some good, to help people,” I told the office manager during my third interview. “I feel like this is the perfect opportunity.”
She smiled and agreed heartily. Her teeth were incredibly white.
I got the job.
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