The Career Comedown
Harper's Bazaar Australia|October 2017

After leaving the job of a lifetime as an Obama White House insider, ALYSSA MASTROMONACO relates how she lost and then recovered her sense of purpose after such a defining role, and how she is adjusting to a life more ordinary.

Alyssa Mastromonaco
The Career Comedown

You’re probably wondering how I ended up in this situation. When I interviewed for a job — it started with director of scheduling — with Barack Obama, it didn’t feel like I’d nailed it. Obama bid me farewell with a classic job interview move: “We’ll be in touch.” Even if I don’t manage to get people to like me, I can usually persuade them that I am competent and not (too) annoying. So that’s how I started — with the humble goal of seeming competent and not too annoying. Like most women I know, I ultimately want to be likeable and trustworthy — as well as glamorous. Obama called and offered me the job.

In my time at the White House, I felt like I needed to overcome ageism more than sexism. I was young, but people had been young there before. Yet I always felt when I walked into the room, it was about me being the youngest person at the table, and that I needed to come off as being more serious. I will be the first to say I go through periods of insecurity, but when I was promoted to deputy chief of staff, I was so worried I might fuck up and that, if I did, really bad things would happen, that I went into my boss-slash-mentor and said, “I think someone else should do this job.” And he replied, “You’re the only person who thinks you can’t — the President thinks you can, the Vice-President thinks you can.” That snapped me out of it. My complaining had the tone of, “Stroke my ego, tell me I’m amazing.” It didn’t take me long to realise I have a lot to offer and people who were there through all the administrations were there to help and really did want us to succeed.

This story is from the October 2017 edition of Harper's Bazaar Australia.

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This story is from the October 2017 edition of Harper's Bazaar Australia.

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