Are you sure it was the "height of her ambition"? Sounds like she was primarily focused on practising her English and didn't mind too much about the work.
> What do your parents do?
> They're normal people.
Or, from a Chinese girl's online dating profile:
> 爸爸是农民。妈妈是工人。 [My father's a farmer; my mother is an employee.]
The elevation of the concept "job in an office" isn't a problem with insufficient english; it's something Chinese people in China do while they're speaking Chinese. I've also seen a banner at 复旦大学 (generally considered the third best university in China) advertising a lecture on... becoming an "office gentleman" or "office lady" (those terms were in english, but the rest of the banner wasn't).