Eastern grad goes to work for 'Bad Boy'
Eastern alumna wins VHI's 'I Want to Work for Diddy 2'
Kaylia Cornett
Issue date: 2/4/10 Section: Features
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Ebony Jones, however, a recent Eastern graduate, got her chance in an unorthodox way.
After winning Season 2 of VH1's reality show I Want To Work For Diddy, Jones began working for Bad Boy's advertising and marketing division.
Jones, a native of Radcliff, got her undergraduate degree from Eastern in psychology and her master's in sports administration before segueing into teaching.
"I needed to do something to bring in income, so that's how I went into teaching and [ended up in] Dallas, Texas," Jones said. Jones also took on a coaching job there.
One afternoon, while driving home from a game, Jones said the radio host announced "Diddy just tweeted and he's looking for an assistant" in Dallas.
Jones said she hurried home, got her "business face" on, grabbed her resume and headed down to the 5 p.m. open casting call.
She said the casting call was largely based on personality. She, along with 15 other people, were marched into a room and given literally 30 seconds to tell the judges who they were and what they stood for.
Jones said she felt as if she stood out from the group she was with in terms of responses and attire.
"[It's] never a bad thing to be tall, and I had on heels," she said.
After the castings, Jones said she had an interview every couple of weeks during the long process of narrowing down the 30,000 applicants.
"I [always] kept my phone by me," she said.
Soon, Jones took her place as one of the 11 contestants featured on the show, living in a loft with her fellow competitors. And VH1 viewers watched the drama unfold beginning Nov. 2, 2009.
"[There was] never a dull moment," she said. "[It was like] living in a dorm times a thousand; you've got to figure out the people you're living with."
Jones said the most intimidating factor about the show was that she lacked professional experience in the television industry, so she pulled inspiration from life experiences in order to fill that void.
She said her winning strategy was simply to keep being who she's always been. Jones said it's a priceless compliment for people to realize that she was the same person on the show that she is in reality.
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