> Because seriously, if an Emmy-award winning, New York Times bestselling author and Harvard grad cannot land a job as a greeter at The Container Store—or anywhere else for that matter, hard as I tried—we are all doomed.

If she actually put "Emmy-award winning, New York Times bestselling author and Harvard grad", of course it was rejected. Such an application is overqualified, and it looks strange that someone who actually has those credentials would want to do something like that.

If she didn't put that on the application, then it is not intellectually honest to say that an "Emmy-award winning, New York Times bestselling author and Harvard grad" was rejected. The person that was rejected was the character that is described in the job application, not the author who is hiding behind that character!

The people doing the hiring for this type of greet-the-public job are usually looking for "fresh faces" who project a certain image, which means, of course, that the jobs tend to go to attractive young people. Nobody cares about your bestselling writing, Harvard degree or Emmy award: unless perhaps the latter is in an "Oustanding Lead/Supporting Actor in ..." category because then, doh, you're actually famous, in the sense that random people in the public recognize your face!