Carrianne Howard wanted to design video games. But her $12 an hour gig as an industry recruiter didn’t work out, so now she is stripping at a topless club in Cocoa Beach, Florida.
“I didn’t know what else to do,” Howard told Bloomberg.
“I’ve got a worthless degree. It’s like I didn’t attend school at all.”
According to Howard, her bachelor’s certificate in game art and design from the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale cost a whopping $70,000 in tuition and fees.
“I was as excited as can be…I thought it was a dream come true.”
She added that the college tour guide had made the school sound really “exciting and fun, like I was going to make hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
However, Howard quickly grew disenchanted with her studies, as some classes consisted “largely” of playing video games.
Nevertheless, Howard continued her studies and graduated in December 2007, only to lose her first job at GameRecruiter in March 2009.
After applying for a series of minimum wage positions, Howard turned to adult entertainment by participating in paid web chats. In March, the ex-video game designer began dancing at Lido Cabaret and now earns between $400 to $1,000 a week.
Still, Howard hopes to save enough to return to school and study for a degree in business.
But for now, she says stripping is “what I do.”
“When I’m in here, I try not to think about the Art Institute.”
