31-year-old scoops ice cream part-time for $16.50/hour to make ends meet
On my first day working at the local ice cream parlor, my boss stacked glasses on the counter, handed me a spoon, and set a timer.
“A great story takes less than 24 seconds,” he said.
The ice cream splattered as I tried to keep up. This embarrassed me, but I continued to show up anyway. The pay is $16.50 per hour plus tip, and I (a 31-year-old with years of experience in news and technology) is expected to work with young people.
Instead, when I started working Lady Moo Moo At Bed-Stuy, I found myself surrounded by people like me who had already established careers and were now navigating an unpredictable job market. Some of them were laid off like me. Others, like my colleague who is a sex educator and public health advocate, have lost funding in their fields. A few are juggling multiple part-time roles to stay afloat.
We’re all scraping together income as much as we can and figuring out where stable work is. We have responsibilities and ambitions. We are trying and trying to adapt. There is zero shame in this.
From leadership to dismissal
My life looked very different. When I was 23, I was the US news lead for ByteDance’s first content product in the US. TopBuzz. By the time I was 25, I was heading content strategy at SmartNews, a Japanese news aggregation startup that once seemed like the future of media.
I still remember the 10th anniversary celebration. The company flew the US team and a few colleagues from Japan to San Francisco and put us up in beautiful hotel suites. The CEO opened a five-figure bottle of whiskey in front of everyone. I felt like the future was bright. A few months later most of the US team, including me was dismissed. Talk about whiplash.
In 2024, Meta offered me a job listed in New York, which has always felt like home. After accepting, the role moved to San Francisco. When I moved west, I was hopeful about the next step in my career. But no one on my team worked in my building, I had five different managers and I dismissed again just a year later.
Toughest job market
I came back to New York with some of my life. Especially assuming my experience with Meta, quitting will help me find a job quickly. Instead, I embarked on the most brutal job search I have ever experienced. When I logged into LinkedIn, my feed was full of people going through the same thing.
After a long interview process at Yahoo, I did not get the full-time role I applied for. But after a month, the hiring manager offered me a part-time weekend contract. I accepted immediately. This meant waking up at 5am on Saturdays and Sundays and losing benefits, but I loved the job and wanted to stay in the industry.
I thought working at my local ice cream shop, which is open from April to November every year, might help fill this gap.
A sweet side concert
I never expected to get a digger job in my 30s. I bought it to earn extra money until I could get my feet back on. But in the end I found so much more.
The line at Lady Moo Moo wraps around the block, even on rainy days. For Halloween, a little girl dressed up as the shop’s golden gummi. The basement is filled with gifts, drawings, thank you notes, and even a paper cow that one customer made.
People come here after long days at work, school shopping, difficult conversations, or just because they want a moment of sweetness. I’ve seen couples going on dates, friends meeting up, and neighbors stopping by because the shop is part of their daily rhythm.
Shift after shift, I met people who never imagined they’d get part-time jobs: artists, teachers, nonprofit workers, tech workers, museum curators, and neighbors doing the best they could to make life work in a tough economy. Nobody was ashamed. Everyone showed up for themselves and each other.
During the last week of the season, the owner took the entire staff out to dinner. I’ve never worked full-time jobs with much larger budgets. He expressed his appreciation this way. As I walked home afterward, my arms were sore from 24-second bucket workouts, and I didn’t feel like I was “behind” in my career. I felt grounded and grateful. I felt like I belonged somewhere again.
Do I want another full-time role? Certainly. I miss health insurance. I miss buying fresh food. I miss sleeping after dawn. But this experience gave me something I didn’t realize I needed — and when the store opens its second year-round location in early 2026, I’ll continue to gather information while continuing to look for work as long as my schedule allows.
At a time when the job market was chaotic and stability seemed elusive, I found stability in a community that sustained me. It reminded me that life is more than titles and resumes.
It’s about the places you go and the people you meet who show you that you’re not alone, who pass you by and turn a side job at a small neighborhood store into something that feels like home.
Kaila Curry is a journalist, senior content manager, audience engagement and social media strategist, and most recently, ice cream scooper. He has held editorial and content leadership roles at ByteDance, Meta, and SmartNews and is currently seeking a full-time role.
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