I didn't misread it. The key word there is the 'or' at the beginning of your bolded text.
And there's no evidence at all that he was capable of landing a cushy job.
Yes there is. He was well-connected, upper-class, South Californian, young, passed for white, very good-looking in conventional terms.
People like him usually do well in the USA.
If he'd waited a few years he'd have had all the women he could handle. Dude even had a British accent ffs.