However, not every reality star goes the influencer route. Many of them return to "regular" jobs when their season ends, but for some, finding work (or keeping their pre-TV job) isn't easy. Others struggle to transition from influencer to 9–5 employee.
Here are 15 former reality stars who struggled to return to "normal" jobs after being on TV:
1. Nick Thompson, who was on Love Is Blind in 2022, lost his job as a software VP that November and now "can't get a job because people don't take [him] seriously."
He told the Daily Mail that, for 10 weeks of work on the show, he was paid $10,000. After filming for 18–20 hours a day, it broke down to about $7.14/hour. The cast members also don't make residuals.
Nick doesn't feel this is right "when you think about the amount of money that's being made...and the fact that anyone can go on and watch me [and yet he's] going to be homeless."
2. Olivia Caridi got the villain edit on The Bachelor Season 20. Wanting to return to work as a TV news anchor, she "would send [her] tape to every station in the country." However, they continuously rejected her, telling her things like, 'You’d be a PR nightmare. We couldn't do that, you didn't look great on the show. We'd lose viewers."
She told the Every Girl, "That was heartbreaking because my career before the show was my world, and to know that a horrible experience on a reality show hurt that really broke me. When I first moved to New York City, I even tried for babysitting jobs, and parents would Google me and say, 'We don't want you around our kids.' I really couldn’t believe how frustrating it was to be shunned in that way because of The Bachelor."
3. After appearing on Love Island in 2022, Paige Thorne returned to her career as a paramedic but was quickly let go. On the Not My Bagg podcast, she said, "I was like, 'I'll go back to being a paramedic,' but my job was like, 'Don't really want you to do that 'cuz you post pictures in bikinis.'"
"I was so upset. I worked really hard to be a paramedic. It was so much training, and I worked three years before that, COVID, did it all, and they were like, 'Actually, thanks but no thanks,'" she said.
She tried to make it as an influencer, but soon realized it wasn't for her. She was able to get another job as a paramedic, but her reality TV fame sometimes makes things complicated.
She told Vice, "[Patients' families] stare and ask me, 'Are you so and so?' But like, in this moment in time, on a 999 call, I'm not her. I think the people I meet on the job find it really strange to see me in that perspective."
4. Sarah Goodhart quit her job as a beautician to join the cast of Geordie Shore. After only one season, she was dropped and struggled with getting a serious job offer. For example, in one interview, she "really felt like they’d only asked [her] in so they could laugh at [her]."
"I don’t think they had any intention of hiring me," she told Cosmopilitan.
She now runs her own salon.
5. In 2010, Preston Roberson-Charles was part of the Real World: New Orleans cast. Afterwards, he competed on a few MTV game shows like The Challenge and worked as a nanny, but he wasn't able to make enough money to support himself in NYC and experienced homelessness.
For two years, he lived in shelters. He strongly disliked his job doing phone surveys, but none of the other job applications he sent out got him so much as a phone call. However, his work was across the street from LaGuardia Community College, so he enrolled as a student. Eventually, he got an on-campus job and a room in Queens.
In a 2020 YouTube video, his former costar Jemmye Carroll said she'd recently spoken to Preston, who was "doing much better" and "living life how he wants" in his own apartment.
In 2021, Preston told the Mike Lewis Podcast, "Right now, I'm in Haiti. I am doing a project on the political theory of decolonization."
6. Like many contestants, Ashley Spivey quit her job to be on The Bachelor Season 15. After leaving the show, she had about $15 in her bank account. She tried to find a new job, but many places didn't want to hire her after she revealed she'd been on the show.
She told InStyle, "Coming off the show after not being able to have a job really hurt my bank account. And I feel like the show really does profit off of you, so I don't understand why [contestants are] not paid."
7. Kimberly Davis, who competed on Season 5 of the British version of The Apprentice, told Cosmopolitan, "Before the show, I ran a successful business, but ever since appearing on it, I've had to work much harder for jobs and really persuade people to work with me rather than relying on my credentials alone."
She continued, "I have to say, 'Please don’t hold it against me.' I was so proud to be on it, and it turned out to be an embarrassment."
8. Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta star Karlie Redd — who aspired to be an actor — told D.C. Radio's 93.9, "I went for a role for a Tyler Perry film, and they shot me down because I was on Love & Hip Hop. They said that to me."
She continued, "There's been roles that I auditioned for, and then they found out... Literally, I'm on my way to the set to work, got the role and everything, and then they find out I'm on the show, and then, they're like, 'Uh, no.'"
9. After appearing on The Bachelor Australia in 2016, Alex Nation found that "sponsored Instagram posts weren't sustainable enough, and [she] really wanted a full-time job/career." She had a brief stint as a radio host, and several years later, she launched her own podcast.
In a 2018 Instagram post, she wrote, "Since coming off The Bachelor in 2016, I felt this immense pressure that I had to figure out my path and my career effective immediately. I felt as though people were watching in the wings to see if I succeed or fail (it's way juicier if I fail). I came to find I was doing things to impress complete strangers and not myself."
10. The Traitors star Wilfred Webster also quit influencing in pursuit of a more stable career after realizing how hard it was to get a good lender for a mortgage. However, he was concerned about his former stint in the public eye making it challenging to find a job.
He told Vice, "The thing with social media is it's always fluctuating. So it's never guaranteed income all the time. That's hard, especially with a family."
11. Alyssa Barmonde told the Daily Telegraph she was "coincidentally" let go from her executive assistant job after getting the villain edit on Married at First Sight Australia.
She said that she lost the position she'd held for seven years only two weeks after the season finale aired.
However, she went on to start her own cake business, Alyssa Bakes Cakes.
12. After winning Love Island, Sanam Harrinanan couldn't return to social work. She told Heat World, "I don't think I'll be able to, but I've got a meeting about it this week with my social work manager because I want to be able to use this platform to help children locally."
She also said, "I still want to do the same thing I was doing but in a different capacity, but it's just finding out what that capacity is and how I can do it."
13. Amy Hart quit her flight attendant job at British Airways to go on Love Island, then returned after the show. However, she had to quit again over fear of safety concerns with fans filming her.
On her Instagram story, she said, "I can't work there anymore because I am there to be in charge of the safety of the whole plane, and right now, that just wouldn't be attainable because people would be filming... It's just not sustainable for me to work there right now, but maybe one day, they said I could go back at some point, who knows?"
14. Chris Bukowski told Insider that, as a salesperson, he was doing "better than 99% of the people [his] age" before going on The Bachelorette Season 8. Afterwards, he opened a restaurant and did a few more shows in the franchise. However, the negative attention from his villain edit "was hurting [him] mentally and physically," making it challenging for him to run the restaurant.
He said, "When you're not at full strength mentally and physically, then your career will be affected no matter what you do."
15. And finally, after appearing on The Bachelorette Season 11, JJ Lane had trouble breaking back into corporate finance. After appearing on the show, he spent more than a year searching for a job.
He told MarketWatch, "I didn't understand the magnitude of the show and how hard it is to get a real job right after. Everyone knows who you are, and employers see it as a distraction."