| Issue Date: February 27, 2005
Dream jobs? Not so much. Some occupations are better in theory than in reality. You try eating sour-cream-and-onion ice cream for a living. By Linda Formichelli Last year, USA WEEKEND Magazine gave you the inside story on people with dream jobs, paid to do things like sample beer, play video games or break in hiking boots in the Swiss Alps. We've since discovered other professions that, at first, made us green with envy -- ice cream taster, B&B owner, personal shopper, film critic and sports commentator. But then these folks told us what their jobs are really like. While they love their work, they confess it's not always a bowl of Cherry Garcia:
If you want to be a professional taster, you'd better have a strong stomach.
| Who: Arnold Carbone, a Ben & Jerry's research/product development executive who's paid to eat a lot of ice cream
The real skinny: "Some flavors don't work out well. We tried chocolate-covered-potato-chip-and-sour-cream-and-onion-flavored ice cream. This never made it out of the kitchen. When you're developing coffee flavors, you may go through 15 batches per day, so you drive home and your head feels like it's on the roof." Who: Lucia Osiecki, co-owner of the top-rated, eight-room Meadowlark Inn Bed and Breakfast in Brattleboro, Vt.
The real skinny: "It's an 18-hour-a-day job. Once people eat breakfast, we have to shop and cook to prepare for the next day. We do laundry, gardening, maintenance and paperwork. We're not getting rich, either. We must sell 680 rooms per year to break even. That's a lot of toilets to clean." Who: Lisa Schwarzbaum, movie critic for "Entertainment Weekly" magazine
The real skinny: "If you can't wait to see 'Lord of the Rings,' you're in luck. But we have to see a lot of stuff that's not easy to sit through. Also, I get a lot of feedback from readers who think you're brilliant if they agree with you and really stupid if they don't. They take reviews personally." Who: Linda Lee, group vice president of Macy's By Appointment, the company's personal shopping service
The real skinny: "You vicariously purchase beautiful things -- but there's more to it than that. You have to take the client's history, get merchandise altered, and get it to the client in time. So many kinds of people ask me to shop for them; it's like shopping for five kids. When a client gives you one hour to find a dozen items, that's a real challenge." Who: Jim Nantz, CBS sports commentator
The real skinny: "Your schedule is upside down. When your neighbor is off, you work. When you're off, your neighbor works. Holidays bring it out the most. Christmas, New Year's, Easter -- you name it, they are all big ratings days. The NFL has some of its biggest days on Thanksgiving and then runs right through the Christmas holidays. That's just the way it is." |
