By Dominique Duarte

As a professional singer and actor, I have had a total of 33 jobs in 17 years. Did I plan on having 33 jobs in 17 years? Of course not, but life has been a crazy wild ride. I had several plans, but things did not always go according to planned. I have worked at least 3 jobs or more simultaneously in addition to performing over the years.

Social Media tends to only show the highlights, but this has been my reality in-between my highlight reel. I have three separate resumes: a performance resume, a teaching resume, and a customer service resume. Since 2014, I have held multiple part-time jobs. When I began this series in April, I had 33 jobs and now I have had 35 jobs in 17 Years. Life is full of surprises.

High School College Years

I had 7 jobs before I graduated college. These were part-time jobs. Some of these jobs were only short-term contracts.

1. GHS-TV Intern- Summer 2007

2.Ryan’s- Server- Summer 2008

3.Winslow Diing Hall- Fall 2009

4. First United Methodist Chancel Choir Singer; 2010-2011

5. Campus Pizza- 2011-2012

6. Camp Thunderbird- Assistant Office Manager; Summer 2012

7. Murray State News- Features Writer; Fall 2012

Memphis Post College 2013-2016

I have always wanted to perform, however, you have to make an income when you are in-between acting or singing jobs. So, this was how I sustained myself during those times in Memphis. This is a harsh reality of being a single person pursing a career in the arts.

8. AFLAC- Insurance Sales Agent- March- July 2013

9. Singer/Actor- 2013- Present

10. Network Marketing (Organo Gold, Mary Kay, Total Life Changes) 2013-2015

11. Beautiful Melodies- Voice Teacher 2013-2016

12. St. George’s Independent School- Assistant Musical Director- Sept. 2013-May 2015

13. Cracker Barrel Old Country Store & Restaurant; Cashier; March 2014- August 2016

14. Florida-Kansas Elementary & Hickory Ridge Elementary- August-September 2014

15. Playhouse on the Square- After-school Theatre Teacher- Fall 2015

16. Lamplighter Montessori- Music Teacher Sept. 2014-May 2015

17. Olive Garden- To Go Server; January 2016-August 2016

NYC YEARS 2016-Present

In 12 years, I can not seem to get a full-time job unless it is in the field of education or customer service, or performing. Education pays better, but I hate working as a full-time lead teacher. I prefer customer service, but the pay is not enough or consistent enough to make a living.

18. Disney Store- Cast Member- Sept. 2016-February 2017

19.Trader Joe’s- Crew Member February 2017- July 2019

20. Cambly- Teaching English Online- 2019-present

21. Coalition for Hispanic Family Services- After-school Teaching Artist 2021-2023

22. Jazz at Lincoln Center; Usher; February 2020-October 2022

23. Achievement First Crown Heights Elementary- Teacher in Residence-July 2020-June 2021

24. Pixie Pods- Assistant Zumbini Instructor- 2021

25. Catapult Learning- Summer Journey Teacher: Summer 2021,2022, 2023

26. Elm Community Charter School-3rd Grade Teacher August-December 2021

27. P.S. 202- 5th Grade Teacher December 2021-February 2022

28. Amerivents- Banquet Server- June 2022-Present

29. Cipriani- Banquet Server- December 2022-December 2023

30. Democracy Prep: Bronx Prep Middle School 6th Grade Teacher- February 2023-April 2023

31. Tea Around Town Bus Server/Singer-December 2023-January 2024

32. Birch Family Services- Part-time Floater Teacher Assistant- January 2024-March 2024

33. East River Child Development Center- Teacher Assistant March 2024- September 2024

Conclusion

34. P.S. 33 Chelsea Prep- October 2024-Present

35. Tribeca Rooftop + 360- Banquet Server- September 2024-Present

Recently, I got a job at P.S. 33 and Tribeca Rooftop + 360. Currently, I am a singer and actor, teach English online for Cambly, work as a teacher assistant at P.S. 33 Chelsea Prep, and work as a banquet server for Amerivents and Tribeca Rooftop 360.

If you ever feel like you are behind in life, just stop comparing yourself to others because you have no idea what the other side of their life looks like. Through the grace of God, I have been very blessed, but also quite stressed too. I deal with it the best that I can. Stay encouraged!

Hope this helps!

https://www.bydominiqueduarte.com/

https://www.ps33chelseaprep.org/

https://tribecarooftopnyc.com/

As a professional singer and actor, I have had a total of 33 jobs in 17 years. I have worked at least 3 jobs or more simultaneously in addition to performing over the years. Each week, I will discuss one of my former or current jobs. My thirty-third job was teacher assistant at East River Child Development Center. I held this job while I began writing this series of How to Obtain 33 Jobs in 17 Years and was quiet fired/resigned on September 4th 2024. It was pretty devastating and I am still processing it.

Getting the Job

Once I attended an austism workshop, I learned that I wanted needed more training to work with students with special needs. I began applying for other jobs and got an interview for East River on zoom. When I went in person, I was shown one of the classes that I would end up working with for four months. This class had mostly verbal students and the students acknowledged the other students. I was shocked at this because at Birch, almost all of the students were non verbal and rarely made eye contact or noticed other children in the room.

Experience

I was hired as a part-time floater teacher assistant, but was assigned to the same class for three weeks. I enjoyed being with that class the most because I really like the lead teacher. The teacher assistants in the class were very welcoming and it felt like a team. However, after three weeks, I was moved to the another class. This class was the class that I remembered from my interview.

Promotion with Strings

Then, I was promoted from part-time floater to full-time teacher assistant with a salary. I was so excited because I would be making a salary. But, I was immediately asked about becoming a teacher for the fall. This was not what I had anticipated. I had only been there a month. I applied for certification to teach early childhood, but realized that I wanted to remain a teacher assistant. The director said she understood my decision.

My Second Class

The students in the second class were more verbal, but most of the class was graduating in a few months. I came into the class April 9th and the students were graduating June 20th. Most of the students stayed for the summer program that ended August 9th. Building relationship with autistic students takes long time.

It was an adjustment to be in a new class. Each class had one lead teacher and three teacher assistants. This is a lot of new people to adjust to in any work environment, especially when working with students with special needs. The lead teacher was quiet, but a very strong teacher with the students. I learned so much from her and I think that she is truly called to work with students with special needs.

Issues

The director was always moving the students around to different classes. The students had built relationship with their teacher and then she would move them to another class a few months later. All students need consistency and there was very little of that at this school. When I returned from summer break on September 3rd, I was moved to a new classroom across the street as a para with a new student.

It was the student’s first day of school ever. The teacher assistant and the teacher were frustrated with the new student and me because I was not as aggressive as they were being with the student. I did not want to resort to that just because I was undertrained. There was never any formal training for me at this school.

Quiet Firing/ Resignation

On the second day with the student, I was a bit overwhelmed because the adults in the room were so reactive and I was used to being in a room where the teacher was not a reactive for the past four months. The director pressures me to resign at the end of the day. For about an hour she and I go back and forth about this and finally I give in and resign. This was all she wanted.

She had a goal when she called me in and she got what she wanted. Honestly, I thought that she was such a nice person, but when I really think about it, there were red flags. I just ignored them because I wanted to only see the good. This was devastating and it has taken me awhile to forgive her and the owner. It is still a work in progress. I loved the students and I tried my very best.

https://eastrivercdc.org/

https://www.bydominiqueduarte.com/

As a professional singer and actor, I have had a total of 33 jobs in 17 years. I have worked at least 3 jobs or more simultaneously in addition to performing over the years. Each week, I will discuss one of my former or current jobs. My thirty-second job was floater teacher assistant at Long Island City Early Childhood Center with Birch Family Services.

Getting the Job

In November 2023, I still worked as a banquet server at Amerivents and Cipriani. However, catering slows down in January and February. So, I interviewed and accepted a para position at Birch Family Services. When I got hired to sing on the Tea Around Town bus, I turned down the Birch job. Then, the Tea bus job fell through in January. I reached out to Birch about the para position. The position was already filled so I was hired as a floater teacher’s assistant.

The Experience

As a floater teacher assistant, I filled in for classes that needed additional assistance. I attended an Autism workshop and learned that working with children with special needs requires very extensive training. I think that the staff was undertrained. During February winter break, I decided to apply for full-time positions at other schools.

Birch Family Services paid a very low hourly wage with part-time hours. There was no training at all during my time there, except one staff training for the entire Birch network. I felt like I was not really learning how to do my job properly. Once I was hired at East River, I gave two-week notice to Birch Family Services. My last day was March 15th, 2024.

https://birchfamilyservices.org/school/long-island-city-early-childhood-center/

https://www.bydominiqueduarte.com/

As a professional singer and actor, I have had a total of 33 jobs in 17 years. I have worked at least 3 jobs or more simultaneously in addition to performing over the years. Each week, I will discuss one of my former or current jobs. My thirty-first job was server/singer on the Tea Around Town Bus in NYC.

Getting the Job

I found this job on Indeed and interviewed on Zoom. I was hired as a singer. The singer had to memorize 12 jazz standards and narrate the bus tour. While I worked on learning the jazz standards, I was scheduled as a server. Once I sang the songs for the manager, I would be scheduled as a singer.

Experience

This job seemed like a really cool job at first. But, it was extremely disorganized, had unsanitary conditions for guests and workers. The DOH closed down the office that we were using to prepare the food and wash the dishes. I have worked in food service for several years. Food is supposed to be in a separate area from the dishwashing area. In Tea Bus office, the food was right near the dishwashing area, which is probably why the DOH shut it down. The company found another place was more sanitary.

The workers were not the friendiest and most did not like the job at all. Some of the my co-workers were nice and helpful and a few were super rude to me, which has not happened very often in my previous jobs. Usually, I get along quite well with my co-workers, but on the Tea Bus, it was awful. I was the only black woman hired on the Tea Bus as a singer or server.

Quitting

I told my manager that I thought that my a few of my co-workers were being rude to me due to my race, but he thought that I was projecting. This was the first time in my life that I ever brought up my race at work. I am usually one of the only black women in many workplaces. I do not want to be accused of using the race card, so I never bring it up.

However, this job had challenging work conditions so working with co-workers who were not kind did not help the situation. Lastly, I was asked to sing and I was only scheduled to sing on one shift. After this, I was scheduled as a server because after New Year’s Eve, the shifts slowed down.

Tourism goes down after New Year’s Eve in NYC. I decided to quit after about a month of work. Lastly, the guests were not always getting what they paid for. Many guests were not able to get on the bus that they had already bought tickets for the ride. Also, the bus was running extremely late to pick up the people to get on the bus. It was really disorganized and a bit of a scam at times.

https://topviewtix.com/tea-around-town

https://www.bydominiqueduarte.com/

As a professional singer and actor, I have had a total of 33 jobs in 17 years. I have worked at least 3 jobs or more simultaneously in addition to performing over the years. Each week, I will discuss one of my former or current jobs. My thirtieth job was 6th Grade Math Teacher at Bronx Prep Middle School with the Democracy Prep Charter Network.

Getting the Job

In January 2023, my catering shifts at Cipriani and Amerivents came to a complete halt. I filed for unemployment for the first time ever and did not qualify for it. In January, I began applying for full-time job teaching jobs and interviewed for a position at Democracy Prep.

I prepared a 6th grade math lesson for my demo lesson with the sixth graders. The demo went extremely well and I was offered a position immediately. Also, I re-enrolled at Relay Graduate School of Education to finish the last 5 credits of my degree.

The Experience

I started working at Bronx Prep in February after winter break. During this time, I observed the other teacher’s classes. I only got to work in my homeroom class in the mornings after I requested this. I was told to backwards plan the math lessons for the remaining months of the school year.

My classroom management has always been a work in progress. Since I was mostly observing the other teachers for the first two weeks, I had not built a relationship with my other three 6th grade math classes. I had the strongest relationship with my homeroom/1st period math class. The music teacher told me that my homeroom’s behavior had improved since I began working with them.

Possible Music Teaching

During my first week, the assistant principal asked me to teach music because the music teacher was going to be leaving. Originally, I agreed to do this, but changed my mind. In order to fulfill my graduate school requirements, I had to teach 6th grade math. I changed my mind and decided to just teach math for the 6th grade classes since that was what I was hired to do.

Classroom Management

Once I began teaching all the math classes, the assistant principal was not content with my classroom management. She called me into her office to tell me that they would like me to work with the 7th Grade math teacher. My current co-teacher, who was actually a behavior dean would continue teaching the 6th grade math classes. Also, I would begin teaching SETSS Special Education Support Services.

I thought this was a great idea to be honest. The issue was that I was not legally allowed to do either of these positions. I was in the process of getting my certification to teach grades 1-6 general education, not certification in Special Education or for grades 7-12. I told my assistant principal that I did not think that I was allowed to teach 7th grade math.

Asking to Be Dishonest

My assistant principal told me to be dishonest with my grad school professor, so I told my professor. My graduate school professor told me that it was against state regulation for me to teach outside of my pending certification. This meant that I was not allowed to teach SETSS or 7th grade math. My assistant principal knew this, but asked me to do this anyway.

Keeping My Integrity

I sent an email to the principal and cc’d the superintendent. After this, the assistant principal and principal called me into their office. Both were angry that I sent the email and I told them that I wanted a third-party in the room. They went to get someone. I believe the Holy Spirit just told me to resign right then and there.

I grabbed my stuff and left after only 5 weeks. The biggest consequence about leaving was that I could not finish my degree and I ended up owing my grad school $4,000, which I am still trying to pay back in 2024. My salary was $72,000 at this job. It was not easy to walk away from that salary, but my integrity is worth more than a paycheck.

https://democracyprep.org/ny/bpms/

https://www.bydominiqueduarte.com/

As a professional singer and actor, I have had a total of 33 jobs in 17 years. I have worked at least 3 jobs or more simultaneously in addition to performing over the years. Each week, I will discuss one of my former or current jobs. My twenty-ninth job was banquet server for Exquisite Staffing (Cipriani).

Getting the Job

I applied for Exquisite Staffing on Indeed.com. I went to the interview and was hired on the spot again. The uniform was my biggest concern because it required quite a few items. You were given an all white jacket, and you needed to get a lighter, a crumber, wine key, white shirts, dress shoes, and black pants. The company suggested purchasing a second white jacket for $60 so I bought one. Since I worked several shifts a week, I needed a second jacket.

The Experience

Cipriani gave more consistent shifts than Amerivents. There were four locations, and I worked at three out of the four locations: Wall Street, 42nd Street and 25th Broadway. I never worked a shift at the South Street location, but worked most of my shifts at the Wall Street location.

I preferred working at the 42nd Street and 25th Broadway locations because the management was more organized and the staff meal was the best. Wall Street gave me the most shifts, but the management was disorganized, the staff meal was usually not enough for all of the staff for each shift. I worked several high profile events with guests including Oprah, Busta Rhymes, The Beach Boys, Donald Trump, Wendell Pierce. Events were as small as 150 people and as high as 1400 people depending organization.

Quitting

I worked at Cipriani for a year. This job was starting to wear on my body because all the the locations have marble steps. After a year of going up and down marble step several times every night for a year, my knees were starting to hurt for the first time in my life. On my final night at Cipriani, I literally felt like my knees were going to buckle underneath me and it was a bit scary.

https://www.bydominiqueduarte.com/

https://exquisitestaffing.com/

As a professional singer and actor, I have had a total of 33 jobs in 17 years. I have worked at least 3 jobs or more simultaneously in addition to performing over the years. Each week, I will discuss one of my former or current jobs. My twenty-eighth job was/is banquet server for Amerivents.

Getting the Job

When I began submitting for performance work on Backstage.com, I received a message about interviewing for Amerivents. I went to the interview and was hired on the spot. Amerivents is a hospitality staffing agency similar to Instawork or Jitjatjo. Amerivents sends you a shift and you either accept the shift or decline it. However, if you accept a shift, you must show up to work the shift.

The Experience

In order to begin working at Amerivents, I had to get my food handler’s certification. I took an online course and got the certificate. It expires June 2025, so I will need to take another food handling course soon. Overall, I enjoy working for Amerivents. The jobs are pretty simple and low maintenance.

I have worked at the One World Observatory, The Empire State Building, The Harmony Club, Arthur Ashe Stadium, the Bowery Hotel, and the Metropolitan Opera. Most of my shifts have been at the Jacob Javits Center in Hudson Yards. Working in catering is a seasonal job during the spring and fall. There are very few events after New Year’s Eve until mid-March and it is also slow in July and August until the U.S. Open.

Current Job

I have worked with Amerivents for two and a half years. I have had several job changes throughout the last few years, but Amerivents has been a perfect fit in all the chaos in my life. However, the shifts were just not as consistent this year. There was high turnover with the management team. When one of the people who sent most of the shifts left, I did not receive as many invites as I used to receive.

Also, since I worked full-time at East River most of the year, I was not available during the weekdays. Most Amerivents shifts are for corporate events and are held during the weekdays. When I was laid off in September from East River Child Development Center, I posted my availability for Amerivents and received 9 shifts in September, which was extremely helpful after losing my full-time job. Lastly, Amerivents is an amazing side hustle, just not a great full-time consistent job due to the slow periods.

https://www.amerivents.com/

https://www.bydominiqueduarte.com/