CBS News interviewed a broad array of workers who chose unique jobs, for a series we call: Unique jobs, extraordinary lives. Andrew Boese, a year-old Dating music enthusiast, isn't a fan of travel.
But online and for work, he might find himself impersonating an older Australian gentleman with wanderlust looking for love. He's adopted several other different personas too, including a professional ice hockey player, advertising executive and year-old heir to a family business fortune. For the past decade, he has been a ghostwriter for Vida Select, a global company with employees that does the legwork of online dating — including creating a profile, swiping and messaging with dating dates — for people seeking new relationships.
You may be terrified of heights, but typing the words 'I love bungee jumping' could be cathartic," he said.
Outsourcing dating lives
Boese, who landed at Vida Select by answering a classified ad for a creative writer, takes pleasure in making love matches jobs others and enjoys the flexibility the job affords.
He typically sets his own hours and works remotely. Boese spends hours every day logged into dating apps, on behalf of a handful of the company's clients, inhabiting their communication styles and dating preferences, even if they're a different gender or generation, or have interests vastly different from his own. He is single himself — but logs on to dating apps strictly online work.
You don't take your work patricia onlyfans with you, I guess. There are other ways to meet people and I enjoy those," he said. Clients either don't have time or aren't skilled at navigating online dating so they hire Vida Select, whose employees — including Boese — dating they've found a uniquely satisfying career path.
Dating company was founded by owner Scott Valdez after he sent 47 messages to eligible prospects on dating apps without receiving a single reply. He told CBS News people outsourced many things in their lives such as dog walking or scheduling appointments so he thought — "why not online here He placed online job ad on Craigslist where he met a writer who Valdez, 39, said had "a knack for online dating.
Now there are over employees at Vida Select, a multi-million dollar company. Matchmakers manage a client's account, and scouts choices by swiping left and right on candidates.
Valdez said Vida Select does not publicly disclose its exact revenue. Employees are compensated on an hourly basis, but Valdez did not disclose their pay rates. Boese, the ghostwriter, said that while he doesn't make millions, having a viable online that gives him autonomy over when and where he works is worth the tradeoff. Being his own boss helps him relate to the higher-paid business tycoons he sometimes writes for, he added.
We’re on a
Pricing is somewhat opaque, jobs high-end matchmakers can charge clients tens of thousands — or even hundreds of thousands — of dollars a year, with no guarantee of a happy ending. Over five years, Cam Smith, who manages the company's team of 36 ghostwriters, has become adept at adopting any given client's particular tone and style, whether it be assertive and confident, or passive and empathetic, for example.
When Smith is "online dating" for someone whose personality is very different from their own, they use a particular technique. Jobs implanting that in my mind as my anchor point," they said. Ultimately, the Vida Select team's job is to distill clients' core values and desires, and create sparks online that could ultimately lead to a satisfying offline relationship or even marriage.
Careers at Tinder are
Ghostwriters like Boese, a former record producer and night club manager, fill out clients' bios and write messages to prospects in the voice and style of a given individual. Boese says he spends up to four hours daily managing a single client's different dating profiles on apps including Tinder, Bumble, Hinge and more. In college, Boese dabbled in script writing and found that creating characters online writing their dialogue came naturally to him. They're real people, and when we conduct interviews with new clients, I get every ounce of information out of them I could possibly need to come off as them," he said.
Hookup apps adult best still produces records as a hobby but found that doing so to pay the bills sucked the joy out of what remains a passion. While Boese writes for clients of all ages, genders and backgrounds, he's found a sweet spot in writing for divorced men in their 40s and 50s who are looking for love again.
It's a challenge and I look forward to that," he said. What's perhaps most satisfying for Boese, he said, is that if he does his job right, all a client has to do is "be themselves. And judging a prospect's physical attractiveness from someone else's point of view isn't as awkward as it might seem. When the topic of travel comes up, he has to reconcile his desire to stay put with a client's eagerness to roam. For Smith, the ultimate reward lies in making a match that lasts. Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics.
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