By Dominique Duarte

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/

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-seventh job was 5th Grade Teacher at P.S. 202 Ernest S. Jenkyns in Brooklyn.

Getting the Job

In November 2021, I began applying for the NYS Public School system. I got accepted into the teacher pool. I interviewed at a few schools in-person. When I interviewed at P.S. 202, I observed my co-teacher’s class and then he hired me. Surprisingly, he did not ask me to complete a demo lesson, which is unusual.

The Experience

My first day at P.S. 202 was December 22nd, two days before Christmas break. On my first day with my co-teacher and the class, I was exposed to COVID. The next day, while I was getting ready for work, my co-teacher calls to tell me that she tested positive for COVID. My co-teacher and the class were required to stay home. My co-teacher was a bit sick on my first day of work, but I did not think that it was COVID.

Since I had also been exposed to COVID, I thought that I would need to stay home as well. Coincidentally, I was cat sitting for the Art teacher at Elm, so I did not expose my roommates. However, the principal told me that I needed to come in to work unless I had symptoms. I subbed for other classes instead of my assigned class for the day before Christmas break.

COVID

On January 3rd, the day I was supposed to return to school, I developed COVID symptoms. I had the symptoms for a week and a half. When I returned to school, my co-teacher and I had a disagreement on how to do parallel teaching and guided reading. After this conversation, I was pretty discouraged and decided to resign. At this point, this was my third school in a year and a half and I was over all of it. My co-teacher and I got along well after this, but it was too late.

Quitting

I sent a letter of resignation on MLK day 2022. At public schools, you are required to give a month’s notice. I gave 30-day notice and tried to rescind my resignation, but the principal told me that the DOE already processed it. During the 30 days, I tried to get all of my data for my graduate school courses.

However, once I stopped working at the school, my professor told me that I could not continue my courses even though I had ALL of the material and data to complete my degree. In June, I did come back to P.S. 202 to attend the students 5th Grade graduation.

https://www.bydominiqueduarte.com/

https://preparedawesome202.org/

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-sixth job was 3rd Grade teacher at Elm Community Charter School in Queens.

Getting the Job

I did not know if I was going to be rehired at Achievement First Crown Heights. I began applying for teaching jobs and finally got hired at Elm Community Charter School. Before the students arrived, I thoroughly enjoyed the two-week orientation training for all the teachers. I was super optimistic going into the school year.

The Experience

Initially, I really liked working at Elm, but I found out later that there were lots of issues at the school behind the scenes. The Elm teachers unionized a few years prior and the school was only four years old. There was quite a bit of tension between the teachers and the administration. There was a lawsuit that was pending with the NYC teacher’s union.

https://www.uft.org/news/news-stories/news-stories/queens-charter-votes-join-uft

Multiple teachers resigned during orientation and several more teachers resigned between September 2021 and December of 2021. The turnover was so quick that it was difficult for the administration to replace the teachers that left. Secondly, my students were put under so much pressure to excel. Some students would cry in the middle of their tests due to anxiety.

Grading System

When the teachers put in the grades, only two assessments were included in the student’s final math grade. This made no sense because the students had several exit tickets and homework assignments that could have been included in their final grade. Some of the parents were upset about their child’s grades. I agreed with the parents because two assessments is not a true reflection of the student’s progress over the entire grading period.

I brought this up to the assistant principal in our grading meeting after parent-teacher conferences. Her response was that the students were going to be judged by their test scores in life. I got frustrated and left the meeting. This was not my proudest moment, but it happened. I apologized later, but I felt bad for one of my students because of his grade. His grade was not a true reflection of his progress in my math class and I thought his grade was completely unfair.

Quitting

Lastly, my co-teacher was expecting a baby. She was going on maternity leave in January. I taught guided reading, math, math stories and my co-teacher taught guided reading, ELA, humanities, social emotional learning, and closed reading. I was struggling to teach my own subjects so adding on more in the spring semester felt overwhelming to me.

Since teachers were quitting left and right, I knew that I was going to end up teaching all seven subjects by myself. In November 2021, I began applying for the NYS Public School system. I got accepted into the teacher pool and was chosen to teach fifth grade at P.S. 202 Ernest S. Jenkins. When I was hired at the public school, I gave my resignation to Elm Community Charter School.

https://elmcharterschool.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 twenty-fifth job was Summer Journey Teacher for Catapult Learning.

Getting the Job

In spring 2021, I began applying for full-time teaching positions for the following school year. I did not think that I would be rehired at Achievement First after failing my final observation. When I applied for Catapult, I am not sure if I knew it was only for the summer. However, I worked for the company for three summers in a row for six weeks each summer.

Catapult Learning Experiences

During the summer of 2021 and 2022, I worked for Catapult Learning online from 9am until 1pm. This job paid $40 an hour, which was nice. Summer of 2023 was finally taught in person. I was assigned to Incarnation School in Washington Heights. This may have been one of the easiest and highest paying jobs that I have had to date.

We started the day with a morning meeting. The game Among Us was very popular at the time that I was teaching, so we played a multiplication version of Among Us on Youtube in morning meetings. Every year I taught 2nd graders going to third grade in the Fall, and multiplication was a super valuable skill to learn in math. We worked on ELA and interactive STEM activities.

Never Really Quit this Job

This job was a summer job only. I worked at East River Child Development Center full-time this summer, so I did not work at Catapult Learning this year. Secondly, Catapult lead teachers are required to have certification and my COVID teaching certification expired in 2023 and I never received my official teaching certification after resigning from Democracy Prep.

https://www.bydominiquedxpuarte.com/

https://catapult-learning-careers.ttcportals.com/search/jobs

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-fourth job was assistant Zumbini instructor for Pixie Pods.

Zumbini Training

I applied for this job while I was teaching full-time. When I was hired, I took the Zumbini instructor training. Zumbini classes are a baby version of an adult zumba class. Once I got the certification, I began shadowing the zumbini instructors with the intention of taking over as a zumbini teacher. The zumbini teacher works with a classes of babies and toddlers along with their parents. It was so much fun to assist with the classes. We worked at birthday parties and Sunday morning classes as well.

Misunderstanding

I never quit this position, but I just did not have time to do it while I was teaching full-time. I was told that I could assist until I learned all the material and songs to lead the classes. However, I never had time to learn the material to lead the classes. I was told by the owner that she would use me as a substitute in the future. If I was not teaching full-time and attending graduate school, this would have been a great side job in addition to catering.

Owner of Pixie Pods

Porsha Putney is the owner and founder of Pixie Pods. She started the business during the pandemic and it has flourished. By the time, I began working for the company, it was already in high demand. She is a professional dancer who was out of work due to the pandemic and starting this dynamic business. I was pretty proud that a young black woman created such a phenomenal business to serve NYC children. Try Pixie Pods for your kids next party or enroll your children in one of the many arts classes that the company offers. The link is below!

https://pixiepodskids.com/

https://www.zumbini.com/en/become-a-zumbini-instructor

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-third job was 3rd Grade teacher-in-residence at Achievement First Crown Heights Elementary School.

Getting the Job

In 2020, I began applying for full-time teaching positions for the first time since 2014. I was not making enough money working at the after-school program. Secondly, I could not seem to get a full-time job unless it was in the field of education or customer service. 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.

In February 2020, I interviewed and did a demo lesson at Achievement First Crown Heights Elementary. I was hired as a teacher-in-residence for the fall of 2020. The world shut down in March so by the time I started my job in the fall, we were fully remote.

Pandemic Online Teaching

For the 2020-2021 school year, my co-teacher and I taught a class of 22 third grade students on Zoom every day from late-August until late June. We met online at 8:30 am until 3pm everyday with wiggle breaks and an hour lunch break. This was not what I had in mind as my first real full-time teaching experience. I had never taught math, science or ela. Also, I was enrolled in graduate school online as well.

Achievement First Experience

Achievement First had its’ own curriculum. All of the lessons were pre-planned, but I struggled to teach the material because I did not write the lessons. It is difficult to internalize lessons that you did not create. Also, the point of teaching at charter schools is to put all the thinking on the student. When I was in school, we had to learn the material before we were required have the thinking put on us as students. It is a complex way of teaching especially for a new teacher.

Quitting

During the school year, I had four evaluations that I needed to pass for my graduate school program. On my fourth evaluation, I failed my observation. I got another chance to pass for graduate school. However, the other teachers-in- residence had gotten job offers from Achievement First. I thought I was not going to be rehired by Achievement First so I quit at the end of the school. To date, this is the only full-time teaching position that I completed the entire school year.

https://www.bydominiqueduarte.com

https://www.achievementfirst.org/careers/

I have had a total of 33 jobs in 17 years as a professional singer and actor. 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-second job was usher at the Jazz at Lincoln Center from February 2020 until October 2022.

Getting the Job

In 2020, I realized that my job at the after-school program was not paying enough to cover all of my expenses. It took three weeks for me to start working at the after-school program due the extensive NYC background check. Once I started working at the program, I realized that my hours were always going to be short because of all of the holidays off.

In January 2020, I began applying for additional jobs including full-time teaching positions. I emailed my resume to Jazz at Lincoln Center for a part-time usher position. Then, I was called in for a group interview. There were quite a few people at this group interview and very few people were selected for the job. I am not sure what they were looking for in particular, but I was chosen to be an usher for the Jazz at Lincoln Center aka the “House of Swing”.

2020-2021

Once I was hired, I attended the training session and was put on the schedule to shadow an usher for three shifts. I got to complete one shift without shadowing someone before the pandemic hit. Once the pandemic hit, Jazz at Lincoln Center was shutdown for 20 months! My second job was no longer open for me to work, but I did continue to work online for the Coalition for Hispanic Family Services. Once Jazz at Lincoln Center opened back up, I was also teaching full-time at Elm Community Charter School.

Ushering at “The House of Swing”

Jazz at Lincoln Center is on the fifth floor of the Shops at Columbus Circle. It was extremely beautiful, decorated with glass staircases and red carpeting. The House of Swing consists of the Appel Room, Frederick Rose P. Hall and Dizzy’s Club. Rose Hall had three levels and could seat 1,233 people. Most of my shifts were in Rose Hall. Ushers would be assigned outside the doors or inside the doors. The best placement as an usher would be inside. Once the doors were closed for the New York Philharmonic concerts, I would be able to see the entire concert with little to no interruptions.

The New York Philharmonic began holding their entire season at Jazz at Lincoln Center due to renovations to their new facility. There were significant differences to ushering for the New York Philharmonic concert vs. a jazz concert. The audience was a completely different demographic and there was no late seating at a New York Phil concert. As an usher, you guide the guests to the correct seats before the concert or performance. During the jazz concerts, there is continouous seating throughout the performances.

For the jazz concerts, I would consistently be opening and closing the doors to seat guests during the performances. However, I got to see Diane Reeves, Herbie Hancock, Yo-Yo Ma, and Branford Marsalis perform and several other amazing concerts and performances. Also, I saw Wynton Marsalis perform multiple times with his jazz orchestra. Lastly, I saw Wynton in an elevator after a performance and he said Hello. He is super nice!

Rentals

You can rent out the Jazz at Lincoln Center for several other types of events. I worked multiple conferences, weddings, jazz competitions, graduations, and even a bar mitzvah. The 13 year old boy had his ceremony in the Rose P. Hall and then, held his party in the Appel Room. What a celebration! There was a wedding that held a cocktail hour where there were acrobats pouring the wine upside down and ballerinas dancing around the lobby.

During the Jewish holidays, services are held at the Jazz at Lincoln Center as well. Micheal J. Fox held his annual Parkinson’s event there. At the Micheal J. Fox event, I saw Sting, Brad Paisley, and Lisa Fisher perform. The Kelly Clarkson show shoots the first week of her show episodes each season in the Appel Room and the Times 100 event is also held at Jazz.

Quitting

In October of 2022, I had four jobs and was feeling overwhelmed. I chose to quit Jazz at Lincoln Center and my after-school job. However, I should have kept at least one of these jobs because my catering jobs were reduced to nothing by January 2023. The last event that I worked was an opera company’s performance of Bizet’s Carmen.

I think this was ironic since I am a classically trained singer, and had never seen an opera performed at Jazz during my time there. My co-workers and managers gave me a card that they all signed. A few co-workers gave me wine, a cheesecake, and some cupcakes, which was so kind.

My production manager said that if I ever wanted to return that the door would always be open for me, which was super kind. Working at Jazz at Lincoln Center was a pleasure and it pretty phenomenal and mind blowing opportunity looking back on it.

https://jazz.org/

https://www.nyphil.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 twenty-first job was an Arts & Literacy teaching artist for the Coalition for Hispanic Family Services.

Getting the Job

When I quit Trader Joe’s in July 2019, I began teaching English online with VIPKid and Cambly full-time. Unfortunately, the electricity went out for several days in Brooklyn when I started to teach online. So I decided to apply for after-school programs instead. I went to my friend’s coffee shop job and applied for about a hundred jobs.

The next day, I was contacted for an interview and asked to schedule a demo lesson. During the last week of the Arts & Literacy summer camp, I taught my demo music lesson to a group of students. After the demo lesson, I was given a job offer. For the 2019-2020 school year, I worked from 2pm until 6pm Mondays-Thursdays and 12p until 6pm on Fridays.

The Experience

The Arts & Literacy Program is offered for students in low income schools. It gives students access to the arts after-school everyday. I was the music teaching artist which could be challenging at times to make more interesting. I decided to use multiple art forms to make it more enjoyable for the students.

Every six weeks, the students would perform for their parents for Family Art Night. I was assigned to two schools P.S. 377 and P.S. 116. The first half of the afternoon, I worked at P.S. 116 and during the second half I walked over to work at P.S. 377.

Online Experience

Schools shut down in mid-March during the pandemic. I had no idea what this would do to my job. However, the Coalition for Hispanic Family Services came through. From March until June, I continued to have a job. We met with the students during after-school hours online instead of in-person. I was so grateful to continue to have a job. Furthermore, I liked working with less students on the music lessons virtually.

Leaving/Returning

In February 2020, I was hired as a full-time teacher-in- residence at Achievement First Crown Heights for the fall of 2020. I worked at the Coalition for Hispanic Family Services until June 2020. I quit the week before I started graduate school in July. In April 2022, I returned to the Coalition after quitting full-time teaching.

I stayed at the Coalition until November 2022. The second time that I worked at the Arts & Literacy Program, I only had to work at P.S. 116 everyday instead of two schools every afternoon. In November of 2022, I had four jobs and was feeling overwhelmed. I chose to quit Jazz at Lincoln Center and my after-school job. However, I should have kept at least one of these jobs because my catering jobs were reduced to nothing by January 2023. It seems that finding the balance has continued to be a challange for me even in 2024.

https://www.hispanicfamilyservicesny.org/

https://www.bydominiqueduarte.com/