Contiued from 1-800-Jenny-Craig

Here's just a bit more of the story that received a flood of comments from all of my biggest fans out there in Nowhere Land. By the way, there were no comments. Feel free to leave one. And note to Kirsty, I'm sorry but I am going to have to take out all the anonymous comments, I know just how careful you have with what you say about Jenny since you are still under contract.


When Amy called back to schedule an interview I got nervous. I didn’t have any real work clothes. I’d always been in jeans with all my other jobs. I went shopping at TJMaxx and then in my aunt’s closet, who ended up lending me an entire outfit. I felt fat in it and I was sure that wouldn’t be a good thing considering I should feel and look fit and trim in order to convince people I know how to get them to lose weight. The blazer and skirt were a couple sizes too big, but my aunt insisted that it looked fine. The shoes fit, but weren’t my style at all. I felt like I was playing business lady dress-up in my mother’s clothes.

I sweated during the entire car ride down to the regional office. I had no clue what kind of questions she was going to ask me or how the hell I was going to answer them. I had spent the whole weekend pretending to be interviewed asking myself questions like, “So, Debbie, what do think that you have to offer us here at Jenny Craig? I see that most of your prior work experience is in (skims over the resume)….oh, it looks like you worked in some cafés? Is that correct? And what do think your prior work in the restaurant field has taught you about losing weight? I mean, look at you, you look like a fat cow in that suit! Are you wearing your mother’s clothes?”

I walked into the lobby and the receptionist looked up at me and asked, “Can I help you?” I immediately knew she thought I was fat and probably assumed I was there to lose weight, but I cut her off. “Yes, I have an interview scheduled with Amy.” And with that Amy appeared around the corner walking toward me with a big smile and her hand stretched out to shake mine. “It’s so nice to meet you! Come on back! Oh! By the way, this is Lisa and Bridget!” she said introducing me to the girls behind the counter. “Hi, nice to meet you,” they said

The entire interview felt like a therapy session. She’d put at ease immediately about not knowing the first thing about weight loss. There was in depth paid training that all the new consultants were required to go through. She asked me lots of questions about my previous work experience and hung on my every word even when I talked about how at my last job we had to wash all the dishes by hand because there wasn’t enough room in the kitchen for an industrial dishwasher.

She was incredibly nice and friendly, very tall and pretty and had this star quality about her. Even though she’d been super nice, I felt like a dumpy frumpy loser that she didn’t want to make feel bad by telling me there was no way I was right for the job. It seemed like everything was going well enough but I’d figured at the end of this really long and involved interview that she kindly shake my hand and tell she’d give me call after reviewing other candidates for the job. But then out of nowhere it seemed, she just came out and said, “You know, I’m really not supposed to do this, but I just feel like you’d be a perfect fit here. I’d like to offer you a consultant position, but I’d really like to see you in a management position in the future, what do you think?” I was stunned and accepted. She walked me out and reintroduced me as a new consultant to Lisa and Brigdet. I felt like saying, “In your face!” but I just smiled and thanked Amy for the opportunity and drove home on cloud nine.

Still working on it, they'll be more to come. Like you even care.