This is one beauty queen who doesn’t mind being called trashy.
Pageant veteran Nicole Doz — the first runner-up for Miss Staten Island 2017 — has added a sanitation worker uniform to her wardrobe of sashes. And the 23-year-old is doing it all for the love of New York City.
“That’s why I took the job!” she told The Post. “It’s not the most glamorous look, but that doesn’t mean [the job’s] not awesome.”
And getting to her new title of street sweeper was even more grueling than going through talent, interview and swimsuit contests. There’s “the physical test, the medical test,” Doz said. “And a timed obstacle course where you have to lift and maneuver weighted bins around to simulate the actual day-to-day work.” She practiced by hitting the gym with her dad, John, an 18-year employee of the NYC Department of Sanitation.
“He taught me to lift the baskets property.”
Some 100,000 job seekers apply to the department each year and only 500 or so are chosen. But the Eltingville native, who first applied two years ago, said that having a family connection “wasn’t much help.”
As the only woman in her 30-person garage in Brooklyn, the self-styled “girlie girl” is fine being just one of the boys. “I just try to do exactly what they do,” said Doz. In fact, she is literally walking in their shoes.
“I have to buy men’s work boots because they don’t sell them for women,” said the 5-foot-3 Doz, who still lives at home with her mom.
“I can sit and compare gowns, and I can also pick up some garbage with the guys, so I have that nice little balance.”
‘It’s not like I can’t pick up garbage. It’s not demeaning to me. I love the fact that people are shocked by it.’
Still, friends are incredulous about the new career choice for the English-major graduate of Brooklyn College.
“They say, ‘You’re going to pick up garbage?’ ” she added. “It’s not like I can’t pick up garbage. It’s not demeaning to me. I love the fact that people are shocked by it.”
And the pay doesn’t stink: A salary of about $35,000 in the first year can jump to nearly $50,000 with overtime, and settle at around $73,000 after five years.
At the same time, Doz, who’s been competing in pageants since 2013, including in Miss Brooklyn, Miss Queens and Miss Bronx events, as well as in her home borough — isn’t planning on hanging up her tiaras anytime soon.
“I’m still going to compete,” she said, noting that she plans to enter the Staten Island pageant again in January. “I want to win it this year. I think it’s about time.”
Source: http://nypost.com/2017/11/11/this-beauty-queen-became-a-sanitation-worker/