What was Eleanor Shellstrop's job before death?

Eleanor Shellstrop worked as a pharmaceutical saleswoman before her death.

Eleanor initially lets Michael believe she was a morally admirable lawyer who defended people facing execution. She soon confesses that this identity belongs to another woman with the same name, while her own career involved selling questionable pharmaceutical products to vulnerable customers.

Her work is central to the series’ opening moral conflict. Eleanor is not merely embarrassed about an ordinary sales job; she recognizes that she knowingly profited from misleading people, which helps explain why she believes her arrival in the Good Place must be a mistake.

The character is therefore commonly misremembered as a lawyer, because that is the false biography Michael presents at first. She also should not be confused with Tahani, whose background includes philanthropy and fashion. Eleanor’s sales career establishes the selfish Earthly identity she must confront before she can begin changing.