Help Wanted, Desperately
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4.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
Seven months, three weeks, two days -- that's exactly how long Alexa has to establish herself in an exciting career. At twenty-one, she's determined to gallop into "the Real World with a Real Job, a Real Life, and a Real Future." Moving in with her parents and commuting from New Jersey into Manhattan is not an option -- and if she fails to find serious employment before the time runs out, it's off to teach English on the Third World island of Majuro for $100 a month!
But what jobs are available for an inexperienced young woman in the Big City? Writing headlines about yeast infections for Trend magazine? Sniffing deodorants for a living? Earthworm breeder? Phone sex operator?
The Real World, apparently, is not such a welcoming place. With employment opportunities growing increasingly fewer and more bizarre daily, should Alexa consider seeking some stability by moving in with her boyfriend Jared? Between her participation in a clinical sleep study for cash and her desperate attempts to become the voice of a cartoon cat in a last ditch effort to gain "respectful employment," Alexa hardly knows anymore. Maybe what she's really looking for is in the last place she ever thought she'd find it ...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Alexa Hoffman, the 21-year-old University of Pennsylvania senior at the center of Ariel Horn's debut novel, has got exactly seven months, three weeks and two days before her initiation into the real world. Determined to secure a job in New York City, she embarks on a life-altering journey from one bizarre interview to the next. As a last resort and to avoid moving back in with her parents, she signs up to become an English teacher on the Third World island of Majuro while continuing her search for a job that will prevent her from actually having to go there. Over the course of this witty and wise coming-of-age novel, Alexa interviews for every imaginable position earthworm breeder, deodorant sniffer, phone sex operator evoking all the expectations and anxiety of the modern-day career search. Each chapter ends with a list of "Lessons Learned" comprising such hard-learned aphorisms as "Never assume your mother believes in something you plan on doing simply because she doesn't say otherwise" and "Do not under any circumstances interview for Internet jobs listed as 'other' ever again." Blithe and fresh-voiced, this book covers almost every tribulation of entering adulthood, forging a career and falling in love, against the odds.
