Phase one: Getting the job you want

Live off the rich

STEP 1: Have the right background. Getting any job catering to the wealthy—whether as a private chef or personal assistant—requires that you are able to impress the not-so-easily impressed. In other words, you need skills. Robin Baron, of high-end residential interior-design firm Robin Baron Design, admits that while a degree from a top school is nice, you will have learned very little about what it takes to actually be in the business. After graduation, she recommends starting at entry level and getting paid to learn and interact with clients as a professional. With that basic background, the job clincher is often simply how well you click with your potential employer. “People skills are really important in terms of being successful in this market,” Baron says. “People can pretty much sum you up within the first 30 seconds of meeting you, so how you look and how you carry yourself matters. They don’t teach that in school.”

STEP 2: Search smart. Manhattan’s elite chooses from the cream of the crop; this is simply not a market you can sneak your way into. Word of mouth is key. “You have to have worked in restaurants to begin with,” says Paul Hassett of his 16-year job as author Jean Stein’s private chef. “You have to have an idea of what working in a kitchen really is, and what’s involved.”

Before delving into the world of personal service, Hassett had already racked up experience in restaurants around the country, including his own, Tarje, in Connecticut. While freelancing for a caterer in the city, he learned of a private-chef position. At his interview—he auditioned by preparing dinner for Stein and her husband—he was offered the job on the spot. “I sort of fell into being a private chef, which probably happens to many people who do this type of job,” says Hassett. “I don’t think a lot of people even realize these jobs are out there.”

But they are out there. If your impeccable résumé and schmoozing with your friend’s rich uncle don’t land you a sweet gig, look to a personal-service staffing firm, such as local agencies like Pavillion Agency (pavillionagency.com), Sterling Lifestyle (sterlinglifestyle.com), Fortune Employment Agency (fortunenanny.com) and Celebrity Staffing Services (canyceleb-staffing.com). At Pavillion, which focuses on filling nanny, housekeeper and private chef positions, “We look for someone with long-term experience with families, good skills and flexibility,” says president Clifford Greenhouse.

STEP 3: Understand the commitment. Be prepared to be someone’s bitch. “Your life is not your own,” says one rap mogul’s former assistant (neither can be named due to a confidentiality agreement). “Very The Devil Wears Prada.”

Still, if you can stick it out, check your ego and consistently prove yourself invaluable, the rewards can far outweigh the frustrations. Executive personal assistants earn from $75,000 per year, on top of occasional access to their employer’s glamorous lifestyle.

“I earn a salary comparable to any of the top chefs in the city,” says Hassett, who only has to prepare two meals a day, never works weekends, never works holidays and never will. “A number of my friends are still working in restaurants and I keep telling them, ‘Find a job like mine!’”

—Barry Schwartz

Employment in numbers

1,900 new jobs in education
Stop fiddling with your iPhone and pay attention: Despite the city's jittery budget, jobs in the education sector are on the rise, with a healthy 0.6 percent increase in new positions in the past year.