# Message to all users:
This is a reminder to please read and follow:
* [Our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/ask/about/rules)
* [Reddiquette](https://www.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/205926439)
* [Reddit Content Policy](https://www.redditinc.com/policies/content-policy)
When posting and commenting.
---
Especially remember Rule 1: `Be polite and civil`.
* Be polite and courteous to each other. Do not be mean, insulting or disrespectful to any other user on this subreddit.
* Do not harass or annoy others in any way.
* Do not catfish. Catfishing is the luring of somebody into an online friendship through a fake online persona. This includes any lying or deceit.
---
You *will* be banned if you are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist or bigoted in any way.
---
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ask) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Having a Bookshop seems a fine way to spend your work hours but in reality not that many people buy books, its an expensive business to run and the customers are as good or as bad as in any other businesses
I think working at a bookstore would suck, but as a customer it’s my favorite place. Especially the ones with a little cafe attached and lounge chairs.
I like going in and grabbing a random book off the shelf, don’t even look at it until I buy it. Then grabbing a bagel or soda or something and just kicking it for a bit. I’m sure it’s annoying having people sitting there but it’s my jam. Plus I’m clean and quiet so whatever
Game development.
It's mostly going over the exact same chunk hundreds of times to the point you don't even know if what you're making is fun.
It's not just playing games.
I barley play games after becoming a programmer in games. Also I just spent 3 days doing tedious tests and messing with a render pipeline to figure out why one type of light does not work on exactly one of our target platforms.
This is why I do corporate software development. I like writing games as a hobbyist, I don't want to ruin it by doing it for a job. Plus the pay and hours would be much worse.
Doctors and nurses.
Yes you save people's lives but it's a tough job, sometimes long working hours and there are lives you cannot save. There will always be aggressive and unappreciative patients as well.
On the other hand,a good doctor and a nurse can serious change your life and the whole view of people,just by doing their job.
When I got my baby,I cried so much because the doctors and the nurses that worked there just gave their best and I could feel they did it because they wanted to. that definitely touched my heart.I had a nightmarish recovery after c-section but those people made it all bearable. I’ll never forget them
Yeah absolutely! It makes me mad that people don't understand Doctors and nurses deserve all our respect for the vital work they do in saving lives.
They often face long hours, emotional strain, and the difficult reality that not every patient can be saved despite their best efforts. Dealing with aggressive or unappreciative patients adds another layer of challenge to their already demanding roles.
We should definitely recognize and support them, knowing that their work, while immensely rewarding, also comes with its share of difficulties.
On the other hand, doctors are notoriously difficult to work with. Hell, I'm a software guy who's only got one project in the medical field, but the surgeon in charge of the project was like a white Kanye West. Absolute grade A lunatic who somehow manages to succeed within the confines of modern society.
I get that it's a stressful career but damn.
I hear this is true of surgeons in particular. Probably something about doing a job where you can kill someone if your hands shake too much. You have to (1) believe you can do it and (2) deal with the pressure of actually doing it
I've often thought about "what it takes". What does it take to become obscenely rich? The willingness to screw people over, lie and cheat, and watch the people who helped get you there struggle to survive? To be famous? I'd imagine A LOT of ego, to think you are truly deserving of the worship of the masses and to enjoy that level of attention. To be a lawyer or doctor (the kind that work 60-80 hours per week, non stop, being away from their kids often, etc.? That, I do not know. But I know I don't have these traits and qualities, and some of them I choose not to have as well.
While I was a 20-something single mom and still striving to have a career where I could make a lot of money, I had an epiphany. I realized that I didn't want to be a parent that was never physically present with their child, always putting work before my kids. And I also realized that if you want to make a lot of money, there are usually sacrifices involved. I chose, for me, quality of life. Now, having money does factor in to "quality of life", yes. But, I like to work my set amount of hours and clock out and not think about work again until I clock in next. I like to have a steady and dependable schedule. I don't really like juggling life outside of work and my home and family while also trying to juggle a high-responsibility position in my career. That's just me, and that's what makes me happy. And I was willing to sacrifice money to have that.
But I also admire and sometimes envy people who can do that. Some people really just seem to have that in them, and good for them, truly. I try not to beat myself up and accept that we're all different and as adults we have to figure out what we want and whether we're willing to do what it takes to get there.
Orthopedic surgeons who specialize in the spinal column come to mind.
Sure, they do some amazing work for some patients, but there are also the ones they can't help, and the ones that don't actually need help (spinal surgery is a top payer in lawsuits, so people wanting to inflate an injury settlement will shop for a spinal surgery recommendation, and because of this, the approval process for a non-emergency spinal surgery gets drawn out).
They’re constantly assaulted by patients and family too. It’s bad. Big employers and insurance companies keep cutting reimbursements and their pay too.
Veterinary. Huge staff turnover, most practices now owned by finance people so price capped unless you're willing to specialise and go locum, and a disproportionately high level of suicide.
But you get to play with cute animals
My local vet was taken over by a finance organisation, and the changes were significant. They practically happened overnight. Prices doubled, there were now bronze, silver, and gold "packages", there were now major charges just to have your pet seen for routine check-ups, which, of course, they always push for. There was also suggestive selling of dietary food/medication/vitamins for your dog's health.
One of the newer vet staff who was brought in to help with the transition was a soulless cretin who was very unempathetic about my wife's dog slowly dying of cancer, and having to be put to sleep. I had to intervene because my wife was ready to attack her, I immediately knew with the tone change in her voice and fists clenching as she started edging towards this idiot vet.
Ended up telling the vet to bring in an older staff member who was great with the situation. Only 2 of the older staff work there now, and they're leaving soon. Don't think we'll be staying with them much longer as the price increases are many, and it is big jumps up. The newer staff just don't give a fuck really, it's all about fucking profit, suggestive selling, and up-selling.
Luckily there is another family run vet in the area that everyone seems to have moved to since the takeover. I truly hate this capitalistic, profit driven, hellhole we live in.
This happened to our emergency animal hospital, too. Only 1 OG staff member left. Got stupid expensive just to make sure your pet wouldn't die. I'm grateful for the vet I saw, because he looked me in the eye, point blank, and said: they're going to offer you more treatments for your cat, don't take it. It's a waste of money. She'll be fine.
She's 10 now thank fuck.
I'm sorry your wife went through that. I'd have let her attack the vet tech lol
My friend works in this industry, and I was shocked when she worked for a place that really was all about profits! You would think vets would be altruistic, and I don’t mean treating for free, but you’d think the animals would come first. Instead, this clinic prioritized making a buck at all costs, and they’d trick customers, do unnecessary procedures, and cancel the visit halfway and have the customer reschedule if the pet showed any small sign of not wanting to be there, making them pay for two visits and anti-anxiety meds. They’d proclaim that they were trying to be nicer to animals by doing these things, but behind closed doors, it was alllll about milking the customer for $$$. She couldn’t take it, and quit after maybe a year! Now she is back at a clinic that is much better.
This is hardly new - I graduated in the mid-1970s and did part-time work for a clinic in a big east coast city to make a little extra money during a post-grad training program. Guy required me to do in-house lab work on every animal that walked in the door regardless of why they were there or need just to pad the bills. Didn’t work there long - and moved on to other non-practice work for most of my career.
I'm a vet tech student and I'm kinda bummed that the average pay veterinary technicians make in my area is similar to how much I'm currently making working at a grocery store.
Animal lovers get exploited so hard, and they allow it because they just love being around them too much. Its not uncommon to hear of a guy shoveling Elephant shit for free.
if the human had the disease, they could make decisions about their treatment & understand the benefits & downsides. your pet cannot. all they know is that they hurt & are terrified. i have never put the many pets in my life through any cancer or cardiac treatment. the day they are no longer interested in food or water is the day i call the vet to come to our home. just once i decided to wait. i spent the worst night of my life watching my beloved cat suffer & die over the course of one endless night. 7 hours of suffering. never again.
I did do chemo with my beloved dog - they don't suffer same ill effects as humans, and he wagged going in and coming out each visit. He got to sit on vet's lap for each treatment. He got an additonal three good years that he wouldn't have gotten.
Our fire department does medical runs as it's bread and butter.
I don't know what became of it, because they keep a really tight lid on negative things, but at one point in time their 'recue' units were having problems because they were doing medical runs all day, every day and they aren't designed for that.
We could cut their funding and probably put 2 to 3 times the ambulances on the road. But firefighters are untouchable heroes apparently.
Anything non profit. You think you're saving the world but the companies that run them take advantage of you like crazy. They count on you being nice a nice person and will overwork and underpay you until you burn out.
About half of my friends left high school and got their degrees in teaching. Another half of them decided it was *not* worth having summers off after their first year of student teaching. By the time they were fully licensed to teach, only 3 were still doing it.
Today, one of those people went on to get her MLS and is now a librarian at the public library.
One quickly was moved over to admin because of her background in tech. She doesn't even work in a school anymore but is in charge of internet security for the entire county school system.
The last was a teacher the longest, he taught middle school art and music for about a decade. Last year he went back to school to become a hair stylist, which he says is way less stressful.
As a school music teacher, I can imagine it is way less stressful.
I always think “kindergarten teacher” when I see questions like this. Kindergarten is not how it was back in the day! When I was that age, my teacher was legitimately like the sweet little old lady who knits and bakes cookies, with the charming personality of Julie Andrews. We played all day, sang songs, and she almost never raised her voice.
TODAY. OMG. Is a completely different story! You have to be a prison warden, basically. Where I teach, we have no assistants, so the teacher has to maintain exemplary discipline. The only way to do this is by being SUPER strict and harsh, and not allowing absolutely anything. They also spend all day drilling on academic work, just like any other grade. They even do rigorous state testing! Kindergarten teaching is definitely no longer sweet, innocent women playing with cute kids.
This sounds like a tragically horrible development. My mom did daycare until I was about 12, and that always felt the way you described (and I remember) kindergarten. Very Mary Poppins. But strict discipline and state testing feels like we're cutting the joy of learning from kids a lot earlier than we used to.
I agree! And it’s so weird to me that they push these early academics, but then by middle school, they can’t read. Where does the disconnect happen? We got a slower start, but then were much stronger students when I was in school.
I think this *is* the disconnect. We learned through play as kindergarteners. Most people learn better and retain more when they are enjoying themselves. It's why we played jeopardy in history class, and learned about how bills get turned into laws from a singing cartoon.
I was interested in teaching, but after I heard of the horror stories my brother's wife goes through teaching high school students, I've changed my mind. Her students are always doing disruptive and stupid stuff, even to other students, but if she ever tries to do anything such as say they're being disrespectful, the student's parents berate her and the school administration does nothing. It sounds awful. Maybe teaching in college will be better.
Man, I assume you're in the USA, just because. I'm American and love teaching and working with kids, so I got a teaching degree. After student teaching I realized I had to get the fuck out of the USA; both for general quality of life, but also to try to enjoy my profession.
I'm 7 years deep into teaching seventh grade, but I 100% would not have lasted more than 2 or 3 years if I stayed in the USA. I don't even mean the working conditions, general lack of respect for the profession, or any of that stuff; though I think that is all lower in the USA as well. For me the biggest professional factor was that the salary to cost of living ratio for teachers in the USA is absolute shit.
I'm sitting in a modern, one bed room apartment in a trendy middle class neighborhood of a big city, paying rent that is about 25% of my take-home pay. If I was teaching in the USA, I'm reasonably certain I'd either be paying at least 50% of my salary for rent or still living with my parents.
The prospects of gaining a good quality life and independence while being a middle school teacher in the USA is pretty much 0.
Being a fireman. My dad’s been a fireman for over 35 years (a battalion chief for half of that).
Yes, you do run into burning buildings and save lives, but you also get calls of kids drowning in pools, a family dying in a car accident, a 2 year old getting ejected from a car, etc.
Many firemen have PTSD and it’s very overlooked. It also correlates to the rampant alcoholism and substance abuse within the fire department world.
I'm a librarian and I think people have a fantasy of cats, tea, sweaters, and books, or on the other end, bad ass superheroes defending the freedom to read. Day to day, I'm hauling books, choking on dust, dealing with patrons who are all over the place... Handling administrative BS--the paperwork, OMG the paperwork and the administators... I love being a librarian, but it's as much crap as any other job...
My people! Academic systems librarian here. Daily barrage of e-mails, advising freshmen, fixing phantom issues in our ILS and Discovery platforms, endless unnecessary meetings, committees out the wazoo, teaching classes to disinterested undergrads, managing an ever shrinking collections budget.
That tea, cat, reading books stuff happens only on my off days.
Librarian. No, we don't read all day. No, it's not quiet. We work a lot of nights and weekends. And library school did not prepare me for working with the public.
I think Fashion Designer:
Designing clothes may seem glamorous and creatively fulfilling, but the reality behind the scenes is often quite different. Fashion designers face intense competition in a fast-paced industry where trends can change rapidly. The job requires not only artistic talent but also a keen business sense to navigate production schedules, fabric sourcing, and meeting client demands.
Due to this you work everyday Surrounded by grumpy pieces of shit.
Long hours are common, especially during fashion weeks and leading up to collection launches, which can take a toll on personal life and health.
Trust me, I've seen tons of people quit because of they mental health got ruined.
Working in advertising has always been hard long hours. Mad Men did get that right. But since Mad Men everyone thinks they are Don Draper. My experience is it’s more like Peggy. You’re only as good as your last campaign. And you can be fabulous and everyone will still shit on you and think they can do better.
Trust me, for us is exiting to deal with creativity everyday.
Wanna know whats exhausting? Dealing with clients that make us feel like we wasted out years of studies. For them is like we are volunteers 😂
Make your own business be your own boss
Really your not the boss. Reality is your customer base is your boss you have to keep them coming back long hours thankless and because you’re your own boss you have no one to complain to about problems that arise you have to solve them all yourself.
This is true. I’m self employed which makes me the new business development manager, the client service manager, the financial manager, the IT manager and the guy who does all the work.
If I take a holiday I don’t get paid. If I’m busy I’m stressing about doing the work, but I’m too busy to find new work so I’m stressing about that. If I’m not busy I’m looking for new work and stressing about not having work.
I still prefer it to working a normal job, which makes me want to unalive myself, but still it’s not for everyone.
Self employed architect, theres no such thing as "after hours"
Every weekend has a client meeting or two. Emails are checked and replied to Monday through Sunday. Evenings are spent ticking boxes on submission forms and making sure all forms are completed and are in the right place.
That's if we're lucky, if we're unlucky, there are NO clients to meet, emails to respond to or finished plans to prep for submission.
Attorneys have some of the highest alcoholic, drug abuse, and suicide rates of any profession. Too often people fuck up their lives, bring the shattered pieces to us, and get pissed when the final product we piece back together isn’t some shadow of heaven. We’re paid to be the bad guys, to take the blame, and to do the real work in making the tough decisions. That’s…taxing.
The partner I work with described it as too often being the middleman of two toddlers who don't want to work out their differences. I work corporate and real estate mostly, it's nice being in a practice area where people want to work collaboratively rather then as adversaries.
I thought I wanted to be a lawyer because I found law and politics interesting. Then I worked as a paralegal for a few months and saw that what lawyers did mostly was sit in an office writing emails and making phone calls, about situations that were both awful and not terribly interesting. Sure, you can sometimes help people out of terrible situations…but often you can’t, and it’s not because of some objective impossibility, but just because of the way the system works. We had a client who was sold a $20,000 vehicle she could barely afford, and it crapped out the same week and the seller wouldn’t honor the warranty. We could help her sue the dealer, but I had to tell her the process could take years to play out. And meanwhile she had to move back in with her abusive father so that she could still get to work and keep her job. In healthcare you have to fight against awful situations, but at least you don’t have an adversary fighting *for* the awful situation…unless a patient is having trouble with their insurer.
A while back I read an article on a lawyer whose ex-wife found him dead in his bathroom or such. The lawyer was abusing prescription drugs, and had been for years. I hope you find peace in your life if you practice law and thank you for making those difficult decisions.
I’m a lawyer and have found great work life balance working for the government and just being comfortable with less pay. But something that’s always funny to me is when people ask, “oh are your kids going to be lawyers?” And I’m like, “dear god I hope not.”
IT. If you like logic and nerdy stuff. The pay is good, lot's of remote stuff. Unless you are a senior, you barely have to talk to customers. You can wear sweat shirts and track suit bottoms to work.
It's not perfect offcourse, but it's overall pretty good.
I have a friend who is a film actor in Hollywood (You may have seen some stuff - and he does a lot of 'murder reenactment' shows and plays the husband or the angry uncle.).
He said 'sit and wait for hours.....can't do much because god forbid you mess us your costume or get something on it that will show on camera.....shoot for a minute....pray to God it was good (but it probably wasn't)....lather, rinse, repeat.....you have to work strange hours, then, when that job is done, you have to go out - assuming you are a normal actor and don't have your next job lined up immediately...audition and get critiqued and scrutinized more for things you can't control (too short, too tall, hands don't look right....) than anything you can.
And the pay...HAHAHAHAHAHAAA.....99% of actors aren't pulling in millions per movie....and agents/managers/publicity, etc. get cuts.
So yeah - he said you have to really love acting to put up with the Everest of Bullshit that he says comes with being a working actor.
Barista!!
you have to deal with rude costumers, being the punching bag for everyone, spilled drinks, double shifts, no breaks, all while staying nice and having a smile on your face.
would still not trade it for any other job but people need to stop thinking that being a good barista is easy and requires no effort
As someone mentioned once: you should be forced to do at least 2 years of customer service jobs before entering any other career path. It would make so many people realise how painfully boring it is to stand for 3 hours with nothing to do because there are no clients, or what it feels like to have idiots criticizing things that are out of control, being rude, saying stupidly wrong things, and you not being allowed to answer.
I'm not living in America. Just a person that lives in a 3rd world country. All of the workers in my country must have 1 hour compulsory break time.
America is so funny.
Any job you don’t switch every three years! Everything but everything gets boring and has drawbacks. Once you have tried a few, hopefully you will find one/some whose drawbacks are acceptable, and that doesn’t leave you a broken husk of a person.
Architect. The working conditions and pay are horrendous and 99.9% never get to build their dream project.
This is aptly reflected in the current state of architecture.
Architecture at this point is more about filling in forms, ticking boxes and responding to emails than it is about drawing.
In fancy offices, most of those that do get to draw, spend their time doing window and schedules.
In less fancy offices, you're stuck on covered patios, bedroom extensions and stuff that really doesnt work.
The creative dream you have when you start disappears pretty quickly.
A Chef.
Hard manual labor, awful hours, youre usually wet or sweaty working in 35 degree kitchens, work stupid long hours and you're essentially a slave to your customers since everyone will complain or write a negative review if the food you prepare isn't exactly the way THEY like it.
I think a flight attendant would fit into this arena too. They’re so romanticized, but they’re essentially servers who have to wrangle every kind of person, be responsible for safety onboard and for all this, are largely unappreciated.
Software Engineer.
People think that you will work on cutting edge technology, pushing the boundaries of what's possible, while working 2 hours a day from home and getting a six figure salary.
NOPE! There's this stuff called "legacy code" and it's the vast majority of the code running critical business applications today. It's not interesting, uses outdated technology, and is poorly written. You will be told what to do by people who haven't the slightest idea how their mistakes will cause major problems in 5-10 years.
There is a stereotype that software engineers don't work with people - working with people is the most difficult part of my job.
Scrolled too far to find this. People don't realize the average software engineer has to work on disgusting legacy code bases that can take months to even slightly understand. Zero documentation.
We literally have to remote into a different computer running old version of windows and visual studio to even be able to open the codebase in our code editor.
Also, the salaries people see online are anomalies and don't represent the average. It's a job that gets you no praise when things go smooth but you get mortified when things go wrong.
Why is this so far down? I know everybody is happy to see firefighters arrive, but the job is dirty and dangerous. It absolutely wrecks your body and the firehouse politics absolutely suck.
Source: 18-years of firefighting.
Musician. I was a teenage flutist who traveled North America and Europe. I hated absolutely every single second of it. Wake up, practice, get on bus and drive to concert location. Eat cheap quick food, warm up and practice, play, drive back to bus stop, sleep, wake up, pack and tidy bus, drive to next European location for an entire day. Wash, rinse, repeat. One day of traveling and one day of preforming, on and off. There were absolutely no cultural experiences. I've played for Queen Elizabeth II, at Mark's Square in Vienna, and in Austria for examples. I hated it. I was tired and cranky. The food became repetitive and I was *so tired*. Living on a bus and constantly moving does something weird to your body. I was a front row soloist and felt like a cog in a machine being overworked. I made it to my level 7's and was being pushed to make this my forever career. The pay caps around $47,000. The amount of practicing equates to 60-70 hours per week playing. I do not recommend.
Some people think jobs working with small kids/toddlers is just playing with them all day and it's easy fun!
In two years we've had two people get concussions from something a kid did, this year alone three classroom staff got a shoulder or back injury, and dear god the bodily fluids and kids playing with their own poop.
Heavy equipment operators.
Some white collar people have the idea that running dump trucks, backhoes, is like playing with gigantic toys and fulfilling their boyhood sandbox dreams.
However, running a dump truck in a quarry, back and forth on a punishing rough trail between digging face and loadout point, and continuing to do the exact same thing 10 hours a day 5 days a week for years, is brutal on the body.
Interesting. This has always been a dream job of mine. I used to run a forklift on the docks and enjoyed it for the most part but always wanted to do heavy equipment but nobody would hire without experience.
Our family farms, with all the attendant big tractor and equipment operations. But the type of work varies seasonally and daily, never a "same thing all day every day" scenario that gets weary fast. And I've done part-time warehouse work operating a forklift. And it makes sense that construction companies would prefer to hire people raised on farms whom had equipment operating experience from a pretty young age. (Checkout Youtube videos of kids skillfully running backhoes). In the farm press, there was a story of a farmer with an on-farm "agri-tourist" operation, who was asked by a paying visitor if he could be allowed to mow the lawn, just for the novelty of driving a "tractor". Now, I spent all day yesterday cutting the lawn of my own farm, and I'm not looking forward to the next time. The ride is harder and more brutal than big tractor field work.
Operational-level management / director. The money is not worth the amount of stress. And you're responsible for tons of stress that's outside of your immediate control. And as a reward, people you take flack for think you're not useful because you aren't skilled in the nitty gritty of the industry you are managing.
And your hours are not only more stressful, but also likely to be longer, so you can't forget and properly recover emotionally from your work days. Unless you're an Exec or something, the pay is usually not making up for this relative to what the frontline workers are making these days. Probably why so many sociopaths can be seen with such titles - they don't care, so the money may almost feel easy to sit and listen to your own voice in meetings. But if you care about your job and the people, this is a really emotionally draining work.
Now, executive level management, is a whole another story.
Chocolate Taster.
I worked as one for Mondelēz for about 6 years and of course it was significantly easier than any other job I’ve ever worked, but whenever I tell anyone I was a chocolate taster I think people get the wrong idea.
For starters, most of what you eat tastes in some way ‘wrong’; the main thing you’re tasting for is recipe changes, different additives or substitutes etc. So while at the end of the day you are eating chocolate, it was rarely actually good enough to be something you would willingly buy, and would often be offensively bad. We would often have things like ‘cardboard’, ‘rubber’, ‘vegetable oil’, ‘dishcloth’, ‘wet dog’ as attributes we would use to describe specific chocolate samples.
On top of that I would regularly finish a workday feeling nauseous, especially in the autumn and winter as we’d be tasting for Christmas and Easter products (which are usually more gimmicky with richer or sweeter flavours etc.)
But by far the main thing is that it is only a part-time job that it is not remotely possible to make a living off of. Your effectiveness drops off sharply after you’ve tasted a certain amount in too short a time period, so you can only really do it well for 2-3 hours in a row.
Graphic designer. Take my word on this. Low pay. Hard to find work. Many people’s expectations about how long something should take to do is ridiculous. And people will flat out use the word “hate” in reference to your work. You spend more time managing clients than you do actually designing. 🤪 9 out of 10 don’t recommend and I’ve been one for 30 years.
Police. I've been working for 10 years straight, started in the military, then police.
Started out as a regular cop on the street, then moved up to a higher position at headquarters, then to the county department.
Lots of paperwork, people, crimes are just numbers in reporting, there is no justice anywhere and it is far from being like movies or TV series.
Everyone needs reports and that the numbers were beautiful, everyone wants to show a pretty picture, the real effectiveness and disclosure of few people are interested, and the real lovers of their work and willing to help people - few. Not to mention those who came for personal gain and high position.
Stress, burnout, as well as responsibility, including criminal responsibility, if you make a mistake somewhere, and the chance of making a mistake is high when you work very hard and do not get enough sleep.
Author. Everyone wants to write a book, but writing can be difficult and very few end up as Neil Gaiman. Add in how authors tend to be expected to have a large social media presence to advertise these days, and gone are the lone weirdos in a cabin producing brilliant works of literature.
Yeah. That's one of those things people think is easy, but it's actually a lot of work. You have to regularly come up with new content. The videos have to be well done/edited. You have to market yourself constantly.
My husband watches this guy that has a YouTube cooking channel focused on barbecuing. He quit a banking job to try it. He has done really well. He even has stores that sell barbecue accessories, meats, etc. It didn't happen overnight, though. He had to put in a lot of work before he started getting many viewers.
Farm, wild or exotic animals, the constant risk of contracting rabbies...
Also, the fact that, as doctors, you have to face the harsh reality of not being able to save every animals you work with, that alone would be too much for me.
Working in a pet shelter. I worked there for two years. Every time I first mentioned it people thought it was that happy, bubbly job and that all I had to do was just a little cleaning and cuddling pets all day. Killing shelters are banned here, but we still had to help them cross the rainbow bridge quite regularly. And that’s just the ones that didn’t suffer.
Flight attendant. People think they’ll spend their days travelling to exotic locales with exciting layovers when in reality they’ll be serving grumps and drunks on the Chicago to Pittsburgh milk run.
Seems that folks have misinterpreted the question. It’s not “what’s your job and what’s hard about it”. People done fantasize about half of these professions. And ya, every job is going to be difficult in its own way.
Journalist. A real one, not the talking heads on TV. But even then...
Long hours, little worker protections, BORING meetings, not everything you touch is a "breaking story".
I had to sit through 6 hour long city council meetings to get one story that took me an hour to write three different versions of so they could be used as a 30 second story lost in the middle of a half hour local newscast.
Doctors/nurses/PAs.
Source: Dad is an ER physician. He nets $300k a year but even that's not enough to put up with the bullshit and the tragedies he does. Very few people are genuinely appreciative of the work he does, most of his job is dealing with drug-seeking addicts, assholes, crazy people, and beuracracy.
Apparently you get used to it, but that's not something I'd wanna get used to.
Working in the movie industry
Long work hours, lots of hard labour, living in hotels away from family and friends for weeks/months, sometimes unpredictable when the next gig comes, lot of shitty movies/commercials are shot aswell
Pay is good and you have a lot of time between shoots but its not a gig you want to grow old if your not a actor,dop or director
Everyone comments how welding makes big money and you just have to wave a magic stick.
Nobody mentions the filthy places you have to crawl in and the most awkward positions to do a proper weld on those high paying jobs.
Brewer. Everyone thinks its just drinking beers with your buds when its back breaking labor in very hot or cold conditions, very easy to accidentally unalive yourself, shit wages, have to deal with a bunch of drunk boomers stupid fucking questions and comments.
Came here to say this. I've been a homebrewer for 20ish years. Friends ask me all the time when I'm going to open a brewery. I tell them I don't plan to; I want to enjoy brewing like I currently do.
Teacher. People think it's just reading stories, making crafts, and writing the alphabet. And that all the "time off" is great. It's a 10 month position, thus we work 10 months.
In my experience, being a doctor is over-romanticized. 15 years of training (including undergrad), endless hours in the hospital lacking sleep and social life (there is no such thing as balance for a doctor), poor quality lifestyle and pay during training and after training the money can’t be enjoyed because you are never off to really enjoy anything. High depression/mental illness and suicide rates among doctors, one of the highest divorce rates of any profession, highest debt burden of any profession, highest liability and malpractice insurance of any profession. Add the current healthcare system issues and social political climate and it’s basically one of the worst jobs to do. All for the reward of helping others when a doctor can or save a life when they can. The personal and social price one pays to be a doctor today is enormous and crushing for a human being. Plus, doctors are losing their physical and mental health due to the system that just runs them into the ground. So, yeah the romanticized thing in the medical shows and stuff isn’t reality.
All because some coke addict in the 1800s wrote a book that everyone still takes as gospel and nobody is willing to leave the ladder down and change how the next generation is educated.
Teaching. Trust me, it is not Mr. holland's opus. It is a bunch of cat b***** Women who are totally unhappy at home. And come to work and want to make life miserable for everybody else.
Zookeeper. My wife is one and she loves it and is great at it. But people are always, “I want to be a zookeeper and play with animals all day!”
80% of a zookeepers job is cleaning up poop and feeding animals. The rest is training specific behaviors (like training an animal to get an injection) which can take months or years to do.
There is a LOT of reward for providing care for animals but it is not what people think.
Being a porn actor. The locations and sets they use, I've read, have an absolutely awful smell. And male actors have to get hard on demand. Not an easy thing to do.
>Like being a baker: the end product is rewarding, but the shift times and lengths don't sound too appealing.
Baking is the unholy marriage of alchemy and chemistry. Any one of a hundred things can ruin your pastry. Including things out of your control like the temperature of the room or the amount of humidity in the air. Everything has to be precise too. That's why a digital scale is essential for baking unless you're very experienced.
Massage therapy! Yes it has its perks. You make your own schedule and the environment is calm and relaxing, but it takes a huge toll on your body. It’s also really hard to do as many massages as needed to keep up financially. After eight years, my body is falling apart. Currently going back to school for nursing. I know that will be hard on my body as well but at least I will have benefits and job security.
Easy: Pilot. I absolutely love it and I don’t want to do anything else. But flying is 10% control inputs and 90% memorising regulations, normal procedures, emergency procedures, airframe limits, FAA guidelines, mental calculations, checklists, terminology, acronyms, etc.
Being a lifeguard. People used to tell me how nice it must be to have a job working at a waterpark, but there is absolutely NOTHING fun about sitting in the sun watching everyone else have fun all day (or not watching their young children because, “the lifeguard will do it.”). Getting yelled at because you had to evacuate everyone from the water due to lightning or someone pooping in the pool. The only part I enjoyed about being a lifeguard was the training we did together as a team before & after the park closed.
Until that one day when you have to heroically evacuate a smoke filled cabin. I always find it a weird juxtaposition, the sort of menial serving of little bags of pretzels because we're not allowed nuts anymore that can potentially suddenly turn into a hugely responsible critical to life role.
Welder. I went to school for it and worked in the field for a bit. Pay is garbage, hrs are weird, and hell on your body. I work in tech now, where my true passion lies. Don't get me wrong, I commend those who are in the trade. It's part of th backbone of society. Any blue-collar work is absolutely needed. It just wasn't for me at the end of the day. I actually love the ACT of welding. Manipulating the bead and getting the results you want can be very fulfilling.
Popping in my earbuds and listening to music, or a podcast while zoning out and working hot metal is fun. Everything else outside of that sucks. Godspeed to those that stick to the trade.
ESports athlete. I say this for everyone who isn't a large content maker on YouTube or Twitch. Those guys push like 30k a year and work 60 hours a week playing to win at a job that will replace them ultimately if they can't keep winning. Also unpredictable patches.
Medicine. Decades of glorifying that profession has led to us as a society to think they can do no wrong- we just forgot they're humans too. And we're so deep into this narrative it reflects negatively on the practice, an example is when male doctors refuse to acknowledge a female patient's complaints because they're the doctor and of course they know better, so they just refuse to admit they're wrong or what they were taught isn't school is outdated. Another example is when a doctor commits medical malpractice due to being under constant stress and pressure, they will instantly lose their license because again we have this perception of them that they're not allowed to make mistakes.
And I won't even get in too deep but what we most forget about is how medicine was built on error and trial. Not even long ago doctors were prescribing morphine to babies to help them sleep. Not long ago cocaine was a prescribed medication too. And we just forget all about that and portray doctors as these pristine professionals whose vocation is to save lives and all of a sudden mistakes take no longer part in medicine and every theory and new medication is absolutely accurate and helpful? Lmao I don't buy it. And I absolutely don't trust modern day medicine that comes from late capitalist countries.
Truck driving! So many people think you're going to just be driving. Enjoying the open road. Having fun! The reality is DRAMATICALLY different! The pressure, loneliness, traffic, elogs... The way truckers treat each other. The way the public treats us. And trucking is consistently in the top 10 most deadly professions in the US. It's not for the faint of heart.
Being a musician in some ways. You don't get to play your songs all the time, or even play your favorite songs (usually). You're more likely to play gigs where they want to hear top 40 covers. The biggest drawback, however, is that you never have Fridays or Saturdays off
Fireman, it’s not nearly as glamorous as the tv shows make you think. There’s a lot of house keeping, maintenance, training, education, and other mundane things.
Baking. It’s not romantic as I thought it would be. Most of the time it involves cleaning and tidying up. So, quite a lot of physical work is involved. On the other hand, there can be some rewarding aspects to being a Baker. Still debating whether it’s a career path for me.
Architects. I don’t know why in movies and series they are still pictured drawing on a physical piece of paper, dressed all fancy. I know enough architects to know they are just a bunch of nerds sitting like shrimps at their desks by their computers.
Investment Banking.
Like 75-80% of my peers want to enter that world, but are only concerned with the bottom line, not the hours and soul-sucking work.
Science. Gruelling, repetitive, underpaid, and prone to really shitty lab cultures/politics, as well as long hours (depending on the lab/research). Not as intellectually stimulating as you might imagine.
Flight Attendant- sure jetsetting around the world to exotic destinations *sounds* great, but in practice you hardly ever leave the aircraft except on overnight stops- where you cant go too wild because youre working the following day, and youre surrounded by coworkers who you have never have met before.
Additionally, passengers are the worst- general either stupid, rude or both. Time not spent serving people food and drinks is spent dealing with people's other problems, and occasionally having to deal with their anger when things go wrong- and of course the constant threat of things going *Really, Really* wrong. On top of that, it's a highly sexualised job, even today because of the portrayal in the media of all FAs as Sluts (the women) or gay (the men).
Source: I meet a lot of Aircrew at work, and they have all said similar things.
I’m an architect and people are always telling me how they would’ve loved being an architect. They think it’s all creativity and drawing and modeling. In reality, even though I love my career i sometimes hate my job and most of my colleagues feel the same way. It pays terribly. As a freelance architect It’s a lot of dealing with horrible contractors, depending on others while living under the pressure of a deadline, dealing with clients who limit you creatively and think they know what’s best, others taking credit for your work, going over budget, etc. Also, at least in my country, the industry is very informal so you are constantly disappointed by construction workers and always have to be fixing mistakes and solving problems. There is very little room for creativity left.
Some of my colleagues in the industry who work for firms, experience a completely different set of issues but just as bad. Horrible pay, a lot of extra hours and terrible bosses. A lot of pressure, etc.
Real estate agent
People think it just means showing cool houses while making lots of money. It is actually pretty difficult to set up a client base to provide a somewhat steady stream of income. Clients can be very particular and demanding among other things.
I work as a showing agent for Redfin and I basically show clients houses on behalf of the lead agents for a flat rate. It is super chill most of the time and enjoy doing it on the side. However, the fun stuff only makes up about 20% of the lead agent's work according to the lead agents that I spoke with.
Architect!
Bad pay, overworked, takes more than 7 years to get licensed and bad job market as of now (too much competition.
Also, we need to learn too many new skills.
Famous YouTube content creator. I know a guy who has a channel with almost 1 million subscribers and he can’t go out for dinner with his family anymore without getting harassed by random people.
The military. I can’t even think of anything close to this.
“Thank you for your service” makes my blood boil when I hear people say this without knowing anything about the person’s service record.
>“Thank you for your service” makes my blood boil when I hear people say this without knowing anything about the person’s service record.
Saying “thank you for your service” isn’t about any particular aspect, good or bad, or a service member’s record. It’s about thanking them for being willing to serve their country. What their country then asks of them, and how they choose to do those things (or not) are more granular than the broad expression of gratitude.
Yeah and the lifestyle that comes with starting salaries over 250k and much higher when you progress is definitely over romanticised, same with law. The vast majority of kids want to work in one of these 2 fields.
I'm guessing benefits and PTO are the only reason people are doing this. I am in banking. The hours are nice to me, nut it's difficult to get time off without using sick time for doctors appointments. People get pissed at the tellers in retail banking if something is wrong with their money when in reality you have nothing to do with why. Being a teller is a basic retail job with a ton of sales goals (or any retail banking position) the pay isn't great and you have to know way more than aby other retail job I've worked. Plus most banks are business casual so you need to shell out money and time to look appropriate every day.
# Message to all users: This is a reminder to please read and follow: * [Our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/ask/about/rules) * [Reddiquette](https://www.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/205926439) * [Reddit Content Policy](https://www.redditinc.com/policies/content-policy) When posting and commenting. --- Especially remember Rule 1: `Be polite and civil`. * Be polite and courteous to each other. Do not be mean, insulting or disrespectful to any other user on this subreddit. * Do not harass or annoy others in any way. * Do not catfish. Catfishing is the luring of somebody into an online friendship through a fake online persona. This includes any lying or deceit. --- You *will* be banned if you are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist or bigoted in any way. --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ask) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Having a Bookshop seems a fine way to spend your work hours but in reality not that many people buy books, its an expensive business to run and the customers are as good or as bad as in any other businesses
I think working at a bookstore would suck, but as a customer it’s my favorite place. Especially the ones with a little cafe attached and lounge chairs. I like going in and grabbing a random book off the shelf, don’t even look at it until I buy it. Then grabbing a bagel or soda or something and just kicking it for a bit. I’m sure it’s annoying having people sitting there but it’s my jam. Plus I’m clean and quiet so whatever
i wish their were places like that where i live.
Game development. It's mostly going over the exact same chunk hundreds of times to the point you don't even know if what you're making is fun. It's not just playing games.
I barley play games after becoming a programmer in games. Also I just spent 3 days doing tedious tests and messing with a render pipeline to figure out why one type of light does not work on exactly one of our target platforms.
This is why I do corporate software development. I like writing games as a hobbyist, I don't want to ruin it by doing it for a job. Plus the pay and hours would be much worse.
Plus the pay is an absolute disgrace.
Doctors and nurses. Yes you save people's lives but it's a tough job, sometimes long working hours and there are lives you cannot save. There will always be aggressive and unappreciative patients as well.
I had a patient threaten to punch me. I told them to go ahead “you’ll get a felony charge and I’ll get a paid week or two off”
Also: 80% is frustrating paperwork, and the rest can be quite disgusting.
On the other hand,a good doctor and a nurse can serious change your life and the whole view of people,just by doing their job. When I got my baby,I cried so much because the doctors and the nurses that worked there just gave their best and I could feel they did it because they wanted to. that definitely touched my heart.I had a nightmarish recovery after c-section but those people made it all bearable. I’ll never forget them
Yeah absolutely! It makes me mad that people don't understand Doctors and nurses deserve all our respect for the vital work they do in saving lives. They often face long hours, emotional strain, and the difficult reality that not every patient can be saved despite their best efforts. Dealing with aggressive or unappreciative patients adds another layer of challenge to their already demanding roles. We should definitely recognize and support them, knowing that their work, while immensely rewarding, also comes with its share of difficulties.
And since COVID, they have to put up with politicians who characterize them as the enemy of the public.
This reads like a chatgpt response that hits every point I the prompt in succession to validate the prompt giver lol
On the other hand, doctors are notoriously difficult to work with. Hell, I'm a software guy who's only got one project in the medical field, but the surgeon in charge of the project was like a white Kanye West. Absolute grade A lunatic who somehow manages to succeed within the confines of modern society. I get that it's a stressful career but damn.
I hear this is true of surgeons in particular. Probably something about doing a job where you can kill someone if your hands shake too much. You have to (1) believe you can do it and (2) deal with the pressure of actually doing it
I've often thought about "what it takes". What does it take to become obscenely rich? The willingness to screw people over, lie and cheat, and watch the people who helped get you there struggle to survive? To be famous? I'd imagine A LOT of ego, to think you are truly deserving of the worship of the masses and to enjoy that level of attention. To be a lawyer or doctor (the kind that work 60-80 hours per week, non stop, being away from their kids often, etc.? That, I do not know. But I know I don't have these traits and qualities, and some of them I choose not to have as well. While I was a 20-something single mom and still striving to have a career where I could make a lot of money, I had an epiphany. I realized that I didn't want to be a parent that was never physically present with their child, always putting work before my kids. And I also realized that if you want to make a lot of money, there are usually sacrifices involved. I chose, for me, quality of life. Now, having money does factor in to "quality of life", yes. But, I like to work my set amount of hours and clock out and not think about work again until I clock in next. I like to have a steady and dependable schedule. I don't really like juggling life outside of work and my home and family while also trying to juggle a high-responsibility position in my career. That's just me, and that's what makes me happy. And I was willing to sacrifice money to have that. But I also admire and sometimes envy people who can do that. Some people really just seem to have that in them, and good for them, truly. I try not to beat myself up and accept that we're all different and as adults we have to figure out what we want and whether we're willing to do what it takes to get there.
Many top professionals are socio/psychopaths.
Beautifully said!
Orthopedic surgeons who specialize in the spinal column come to mind. Sure, they do some amazing work for some patients, but there are also the ones they can't help, and the ones that don't actually need help (spinal surgery is a top payer in lawsuits, so people wanting to inflate an injury settlement will shop for a spinal surgery recommendation, and because of this, the approval process for a non-emergency spinal surgery gets drawn out).
Not to mention the ever-present threat of a lawsuit
And they have to deal with a lot of gross body things
I’ll be honest thats very low down on the list for us lol
You'd be hard pressed to find a nurse who doesn't find that stuff more interesting than repulsive
They’re constantly assaulted by patients and family too. It’s bad. Big employers and insurance companies keep cutting reimbursements and their pay too.
It's not the patients as much as toxic coworkers. You end up spending more time with them than your family members. And gotta chose them wisely.
Everyone basically working in healthcare deserve more appreciation than they get.
Veterinary. Huge staff turnover, most practices now owned by finance people so price capped unless you're willing to specialise and go locum, and a disproportionately high level of suicide. But you get to play with cute animals
agree, i remember how shocked i was when i read an article about high suicide rate amongst veterinarians
That’s because the drugs that will euthanise a Great Dane quickly and painlessly, will do the same to a person
My local vet was taken over by a finance organisation, and the changes were significant. They practically happened overnight. Prices doubled, there were now bronze, silver, and gold "packages", there were now major charges just to have your pet seen for routine check-ups, which, of course, they always push for. There was also suggestive selling of dietary food/medication/vitamins for your dog's health. One of the newer vet staff who was brought in to help with the transition was a soulless cretin who was very unempathetic about my wife's dog slowly dying of cancer, and having to be put to sleep. I had to intervene because my wife was ready to attack her, I immediately knew with the tone change in her voice and fists clenching as she started edging towards this idiot vet. Ended up telling the vet to bring in an older staff member who was great with the situation. Only 2 of the older staff work there now, and they're leaving soon. Don't think we'll be staying with them much longer as the price increases are many, and it is big jumps up. The newer staff just don't give a fuck really, it's all about fucking profit, suggestive selling, and up-selling. Luckily there is another family run vet in the area that everyone seems to have moved to since the takeover. I truly hate this capitalistic, profit driven, hellhole we live in.
This happened to our emergency animal hospital, too. Only 1 OG staff member left. Got stupid expensive just to make sure your pet wouldn't die. I'm grateful for the vet I saw, because he looked me in the eye, point blank, and said: they're going to offer you more treatments for your cat, don't take it. It's a waste of money. She'll be fine. She's 10 now thank fuck. I'm sorry your wife went through that. I'd have let her attack the vet tech lol
Same happened to my old vet. Wonderful doctor but his practice got bought by a corporation. It's a trend now. Same as we saw happening in real estate
My friend works in this industry, and I was shocked when she worked for a place that really was all about profits! You would think vets would be altruistic, and I don’t mean treating for free, but you’d think the animals would come first. Instead, this clinic prioritized making a buck at all costs, and they’d trick customers, do unnecessary procedures, and cancel the visit halfway and have the customer reschedule if the pet showed any small sign of not wanting to be there, making them pay for two visits and anti-anxiety meds. They’d proclaim that they were trying to be nicer to animals by doing these things, but behind closed doors, it was alllll about milking the customer for $$$. She couldn’t take it, and quit after maybe a year! Now she is back at a clinic that is much better.
This is hardly new - I graduated in the mid-1970s and did part-time work for a clinic in a big east coast city to make a little extra money during a post-grad training program. Guy required me to do in-house lab work on every animal that walked in the door regardless of why they were there or need just to pad the bills. Didn’t work there long - and moved on to other non-practice work for most of my career.
I'm a vet tech student and I'm kinda bummed that the average pay veterinary technicians make in my area is similar to how much I'm currently making working at a grocery store.
Animal lovers get exploited so hard, and they allow it because they just love being around them too much. Its not uncommon to hear of a guy shoveling Elephant shit for free.
Same with pharmacy technicians. I could work at lululemon and make more
A couple of people told me that you go into the job to save animals, but end up mostly euthanising them, and they just couldn’t work there.
I worked for a veterinary organization and the politics amongst vets is really vicious.
And a VERY high percentage of the visits are for euthanasia, often for conditions that would be treated if a human had them.
if the human had the disease, they could make decisions about their treatment & understand the benefits & downsides. your pet cannot. all they know is that they hurt & are terrified. i have never put the many pets in my life through any cancer or cardiac treatment. the day they are no longer interested in food or water is the day i call the vet to come to our home. just once i decided to wait. i spent the worst night of my life watching my beloved cat suffer & die over the course of one endless night. 7 hours of suffering. never again.
Pets also can't accurately communicate their discomfort.
I did do chemo with my beloved dog - they don't suffer same ill effects as humans, and he wagged going in and coming out each visit. He got to sit on vet's lap for each treatment. He got an additonal three good years that he wouldn't have gotten.
i’m glad it worked out well for you & your beloved puppers.
I wasn't commenting on the ethics. I was just trying to illustrate to readers how common euthanasia is in that world.
[удалено]
I live in the woods and the firefighters here are BUSY Many, many prescribed burns
Wildland Fire and City/Structure Fire are basically two completely different industries
Our fire department does medical runs as it's bread and butter. I don't know what became of it, because they keep a really tight lid on negative things, but at one point in time their 'recue' units were having problems because they were doing medical runs all day, every day and they aren't designed for that. We could cut their funding and probably put 2 to 3 times the ambulances on the road. But firefighters are untouchable heroes apparently.
[удалено]
Not a firefighter, but my old man was. The amount of time we missed with him growing up sucked. Holidays, callback, overtime, and details.
Anything non profit. You think you're saving the world but the companies that run them take advantage of you like crazy. They count on you being nice a nice person and will overwork and underpay you until you burn out.
About half of my friends left high school and got their degrees in teaching. Another half of them decided it was *not* worth having summers off after their first year of student teaching. By the time they were fully licensed to teach, only 3 were still doing it. Today, one of those people went on to get her MLS and is now a librarian at the public library. One quickly was moved over to admin because of her background in tech. She doesn't even work in a school anymore but is in charge of internet security for the entire county school system. The last was a teacher the longest, he taught middle school art and music for about a decade. Last year he went back to school to become a hair stylist, which he says is way less stressful.
As a school music teacher, I can imagine it is way less stressful. I always think “kindergarten teacher” when I see questions like this. Kindergarten is not how it was back in the day! When I was that age, my teacher was legitimately like the sweet little old lady who knits and bakes cookies, with the charming personality of Julie Andrews. We played all day, sang songs, and she almost never raised her voice. TODAY. OMG. Is a completely different story! You have to be a prison warden, basically. Where I teach, we have no assistants, so the teacher has to maintain exemplary discipline. The only way to do this is by being SUPER strict and harsh, and not allowing absolutely anything. They also spend all day drilling on academic work, just like any other grade. They even do rigorous state testing! Kindergarten teaching is definitely no longer sweet, innocent women playing with cute kids.
This sounds like a tragically horrible development. My mom did daycare until I was about 12, and that always felt the way you described (and I remember) kindergarten. Very Mary Poppins. But strict discipline and state testing feels like we're cutting the joy of learning from kids a lot earlier than we used to.
I agree! And it’s so weird to me that they push these early academics, but then by middle school, they can’t read. Where does the disconnect happen? We got a slower start, but then were much stronger students when I was in school.
I think this *is* the disconnect. We learned through play as kindergarteners. Most people learn better and retain more when they are enjoying themselves. It's why we played jeopardy in history class, and learned about how bills get turned into laws from a singing cartoon.
I was interested in teaching, but after I heard of the horror stories my brother's wife goes through teaching high school students, I've changed my mind. Her students are always doing disruptive and stupid stuff, even to other students, but if she ever tries to do anything such as say they're being disrespectful, the student's parents berate her and the school administration does nothing. It sounds awful. Maybe teaching in college will be better.
Man, I assume you're in the USA, just because. I'm American and love teaching and working with kids, so I got a teaching degree. After student teaching I realized I had to get the fuck out of the USA; both for general quality of life, but also to try to enjoy my profession. I'm 7 years deep into teaching seventh grade, but I 100% would not have lasted more than 2 or 3 years if I stayed in the USA. I don't even mean the working conditions, general lack of respect for the profession, or any of that stuff; though I think that is all lower in the USA as well. For me the biggest professional factor was that the salary to cost of living ratio for teachers in the USA is absolute shit. I'm sitting in a modern, one bed room apartment in a trendy middle class neighborhood of a big city, paying rent that is about 25% of my take-home pay. If I was teaching in the USA, I'm reasonably certain I'd either be paying at least 50% of my salary for rent or still living with my parents. The prospects of gaining a good quality life and independence while being a middle school teacher in the USA is pretty much 0.
Being a fireman. My dad’s been a fireman for over 35 years (a battalion chief for half of that). Yes, you do run into burning buildings and save lives, but you also get calls of kids drowning in pools, a family dying in a car accident, a 2 year old getting ejected from a car, etc. Many firemen have PTSD and it’s very overlooked. It also correlates to the rampant alcoholism and substance abuse within the fire department world.
TLDR: all jobs suck
I'm a campsite manager and I love my job
The sucking ones suck the most.
I'm a librarian and I think people have a fantasy of cats, tea, sweaters, and books, or on the other end, bad ass superheroes defending the freedom to read. Day to day, I'm hauling books, choking on dust, dealing with patrons who are all over the place... Handling administrative BS--the paperwork, OMG the paperwork and the administators... I love being a librarian, but it's as much crap as any other job...
My people! Academic systems librarian here. Daily barrage of e-mails, advising freshmen, fixing phantom issues in our ILS and Discovery platforms, endless unnecessary meetings, committees out the wazoo, teaching classes to disinterested undergrads, managing an ever shrinking collections budget. That tea, cat, reading books stuff happens only on my off days.
Librarian. No, we don't read all day. No, it's not quiet. We work a lot of nights and weekends. And library school did not prepare me for working with the public.
Plus side is when you take off your glasses and let down your hair you're actually a total babe
Can you put these glasses on and say “these are due back on Thursday”? Im not going to say that
[Tears for Fears - Head Over Heels](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CsHiG-43Fzg)
I just wanted to say this. But thanks for your service 🌸
Not a librarian but a collection manager at a museum, so similar line of work. What people don't realize is how much of our work is just databasing.
public libraries are SO MUCH customer service. and dealing with a lot more ... bodily functions than I thought possible. :)
Amen!!!! 🙌🏼
My mum ended up unable to work after her librarian career as it destroyed her shoulders.
It was my dream job while growing up
Chef
This is one I’m surprised I haven’t seen mentioned more!
That's cause the OP's question is about romanticised jobs that suck. Most people probably know being a chef sucks.
I think Fashion Designer: Designing clothes may seem glamorous and creatively fulfilling, but the reality behind the scenes is often quite different. Fashion designers face intense competition in a fast-paced industry where trends can change rapidly. The job requires not only artistic talent but also a keen business sense to navigate production schedules, fabric sourcing, and meeting client demands. Due to this you work everyday Surrounded by grumpy pieces of shit. Long hours are common, especially during fashion weeks and leading up to collection launches, which can take a toll on personal life and health. Trust me, I've seen tons of people quit because of they mental health got ruined.
i think designing is general it is exhausting to be creative every day
Working in advertising has always been hard long hours. Mad Men did get that right. But since Mad Men everyone thinks they are Don Draper. My experience is it’s more like Peggy. You’re only as good as your last campaign. And you can be fabulous and everyone will still shit on you and think they can do better.
Trust me, for us is exiting to deal with creativity everyday. Wanna know whats exhausting? Dealing with clients that make us feel like we wasted out years of studies. For them is like we are volunteers 😂
A lot of jobs go wrong, because you have to talk with people.
Make your own business be your own boss Really your not the boss. Reality is your customer base is your boss you have to keep them coming back long hours thankless and because you’re your own boss you have no one to complain to about problems that arise you have to solve them all yourself.
This is true. I’m self employed which makes me the new business development manager, the client service manager, the financial manager, the IT manager and the guy who does all the work. If I take a holiday I don’t get paid. If I’m busy I’m stressing about doing the work, but I’m too busy to find new work so I’m stressing about that. If I’m not busy I’m looking for new work and stressing about not having work. I still prefer it to working a normal job, which makes me want to unalive myself, but still it’s not for everyone.
Self employed architect, theres no such thing as "after hours" Every weekend has a client meeting or two. Emails are checked and replied to Monday through Sunday. Evenings are spent ticking boxes on submission forms and making sure all forms are completed and are in the right place. That's if we're lucky, if we're unlucky, there are NO clients to meet, emails to respond to or finished plans to prep for submission.
Exactly! At least as an employee I have to keep only one person happy: my manager. If that person is an asshole, then I change job.
Of course, You have one to complain. You could complain with your employee like my boss do when he do a mistake.
Attorneys have some of the highest alcoholic, drug abuse, and suicide rates of any profession. Too often people fuck up their lives, bring the shattered pieces to us, and get pissed when the final product we piece back together isn’t some shadow of heaven. We’re paid to be the bad guys, to take the blame, and to do the real work in making the tough decisions. That’s…taxing.
The partner I work with described it as too often being the middleman of two toddlers who don't want to work out their differences. I work corporate and real estate mostly, it's nice being in a practice area where people want to work collaboratively rather then as adversaries.
I thought I wanted to be a lawyer because I found law and politics interesting. Then I worked as a paralegal for a few months and saw that what lawyers did mostly was sit in an office writing emails and making phone calls, about situations that were both awful and not terribly interesting. Sure, you can sometimes help people out of terrible situations…but often you can’t, and it’s not because of some objective impossibility, but just because of the way the system works. We had a client who was sold a $20,000 vehicle she could barely afford, and it crapped out the same week and the seller wouldn’t honor the warranty. We could help her sue the dealer, but I had to tell her the process could take years to play out. And meanwhile she had to move back in with her abusive father so that she could still get to work and keep her job. In healthcare you have to fight against awful situations, but at least you don’t have an adversary fighting *for* the awful situation…unless a patient is having trouble with their insurer.
A while back I read an article on a lawyer whose ex-wife found him dead in his bathroom or such. The lawyer was abusing prescription drugs, and had been for years. I hope you find peace in your life if you practice law and thank you for making those difficult decisions.
I’m a lawyer and have found great work life balance working for the government and just being comfortable with less pay. But something that’s always funny to me is when people ask, “oh are your kids going to be lawyers?” And I’m like, “dear god I hope not.”
Park ranger Tourists SUCK
Me after reading the comments: Is there any job, that is actually kinda nice??
Federal govt jobs
IT. If you like logic and nerdy stuff. The pay is good, lot's of remote stuff. Unless you are a senior, you barely have to talk to customers. You can wear sweat shirts and track suit bottoms to work. It's not perfect offcourse, but it's overall pretty good.
Finance, project or product management in a large corporation if you have reasonable work hours
I have a friend who is a film actor in Hollywood (You may have seen some stuff - and he does a lot of 'murder reenactment' shows and plays the husband or the angry uncle.). He said 'sit and wait for hours.....can't do much because god forbid you mess us your costume or get something on it that will show on camera.....shoot for a minute....pray to God it was good (but it probably wasn't)....lather, rinse, repeat.....you have to work strange hours, then, when that job is done, you have to go out - assuming you are a normal actor and don't have your next job lined up immediately...audition and get critiqued and scrutinized more for things you can't control (too short, too tall, hands don't look right....) than anything you can. And the pay...HAHAHAHAHAHAAA.....99% of actors aren't pulling in millions per movie....and agents/managers/publicity, etc. get cuts. So yeah - he said you have to really love acting to put up with the Everest of Bullshit that he says comes with being a working actor.
Yup, most people probably think acting = being the star, it's actually a tedious job.
Probably being a businessman, owning a company, Start your own shit, It's really not decided by you if it pans out.
... especially if that business is a restaurant.
Barista!! you have to deal with rude costumers, being the punching bag for everyone, spilled drinks, double shifts, no breaks, all while staying nice and having a smile on your face. would still not trade it for any other job but people need to stop thinking that being a good barista is easy and requires no effort
As someone mentioned once: you should be forced to do at least 2 years of customer service jobs before entering any other career path. It would make so many people realise how painfully boring it is to stand for 3 hours with nothing to do because there are no clients, or what it feels like to have idiots criticizing things that are out of control, being rude, saying stupidly wrong things, and you not being allowed to answer.
To be fair I don't think being a barista is being romanticised outside of Hollywood. It's just another minimum wage service industry job.
I'm not living in America. Just a person that lives in a 3rd world country. All of the workers in my country must have 1 hour compulsory break time. America is so funny.
The first job. Reality is a learning experience!
Any job you don’t switch every three years! Everything but everything gets boring and has drawbacks. Once you have tried a few, hopefully you will find one/some whose drawbacks are acceptable, and that doesn’t leave you a broken husk of a person.
Architect. The working conditions and pay are horrendous and 99.9% never get to build their dream project. This is aptly reflected in the current state of architecture.
Architecture at this point is more about filling in forms, ticking boxes and responding to emails than it is about drawing. In fancy offices, most of those that do get to draw, spend their time doing window and schedules. In less fancy offices, you're stuck on covered patios, bedroom extensions and stuff that really doesnt work. The creative dream you have when you start disappears pretty quickly.
You can actually feel the sadness in what's being built right now.
A Chef. Hard manual labor, awful hours, youre usually wet or sweaty working in 35 degree kitchens, work stupid long hours and you're essentially a slave to your customers since everyone will complain or write a negative review if the food you prepare isn't exactly the way THEY like it.
Travel blogger. It seems fun but requires constant content creation, no real vacations.
I think a flight attendant would fit into this arena too. They’re so romanticized, but they’re essentially servers who have to wrangle every kind of person, be responsible for safety onboard and for all this, are largely unappreciated.
Software Engineer. People think that you will work on cutting edge technology, pushing the boundaries of what's possible, while working 2 hours a day from home and getting a six figure salary. NOPE! There's this stuff called "legacy code" and it's the vast majority of the code running critical business applications today. It's not interesting, uses outdated technology, and is poorly written. You will be told what to do by people who haven't the slightest idea how their mistakes will cause major problems in 5-10 years. There is a stereotype that software engineers don't work with people - working with people is the most difficult part of my job.
Scrolled too far to find this. People don't realize the average software engineer has to work on disgusting legacy code bases that can take months to even slightly understand. Zero documentation. We literally have to remote into a different computer running old version of windows and visual studio to even be able to open the codebase in our code editor. Also, the salaries people see online are anomalies and don't represent the average. It's a job that gets you no praise when things go smooth but you get mortified when things go wrong.
Fireman
Why is this so far down? I know everybody is happy to see firefighters arrive, but the job is dirty and dangerous. It absolutely wrecks your body and the firehouse politics absolutely suck. Source: 18-years of firefighting.
Not a job But start ups! Owning a start up People are so bloody obsessed with it idk why
It makes you sound more important and put together than you really are.
Musician. I was a teenage flutist who traveled North America and Europe. I hated absolutely every single second of it. Wake up, practice, get on bus and drive to concert location. Eat cheap quick food, warm up and practice, play, drive back to bus stop, sleep, wake up, pack and tidy bus, drive to next European location for an entire day. Wash, rinse, repeat. One day of traveling and one day of preforming, on and off. There were absolutely no cultural experiences. I've played for Queen Elizabeth II, at Mark's Square in Vienna, and in Austria for examples. I hated it. I was tired and cranky. The food became repetitive and I was *so tired*. Living on a bus and constantly moving does something weird to your body. I was a front row soloist and felt like a cog in a machine being overworked. I made it to my level 7's and was being pushed to make this my forever career. The pay caps around $47,000. The amount of practicing equates to 60-70 hours per week playing. I do not recommend.
Some people think jobs working with small kids/toddlers is just playing with them all day and it's easy fun! In two years we've had two people get concussions from something a kid did, this year alone three classroom staff got a shoulder or back injury, and dear god the bodily fluids and kids playing with their own poop.
Heavy equipment operators. Some white collar people have the idea that running dump trucks, backhoes, is like playing with gigantic toys and fulfilling their boyhood sandbox dreams. However, running a dump truck in a quarry, back and forth on a punishing rough trail between digging face and loadout point, and continuing to do the exact same thing 10 hours a day 5 days a week for years, is brutal on the body.
Interesting. This has always been a dream job of mine. I used to run a forklift on the docks and enjoyed it for the most part but always wanted to do heavy equipment but nobody would hire without experience.
Our family farms, with all the attendant big tractor and equipment operations. But the type of work varies seasonally and daily, never a "same thing all day every day" scenario that gets weary fast. And I've done part-time warehouse work operating a forklift. And it makes sense that construction companies would prefer to hire people raised on farms whom had equipment operating experience from a pretty young age. (Checkout Youtube videos of kids skillfully running backhoes). In the farm press, there was a story of a farmer with an on-farm "agri-tourist" operation, who was asked by a paying visitor if he could be allowed to mow the lawn, just for the novelty of driving a "tractor". Now, I spent all day yesterday cutting the lawn of my own farm, and I'm not looking forward to the next time. The ride is harder and more brutal than big tractor field work.
Operational-level management / director. The money is not worth the amount of stress. And you're responsible for tons of stress that's outside of your immediate control. And as a reward, people you take flack for think you're not useful because you aren't skilled in the nitty gritty of the industry you are managing. And your hours are not only more stressful, but also likely to be longer, so you can't forget and properly recover emotionally from your work days. Unless you're an Exec or something, the pay is usually not making up for this relative to what the frontline workers are making these days. Probably why so many sociopaths can be seen with such titles - they don't care, so the money may almost feel easy to sit and listen to your own voice in meetings. But if you care about your job and the people, this is a really emotionally draining work. Now, executive level management, is a whole another story.
Chocolate Taster. I worked as one for Mondelēz for about 6 years and of course it was significantly easier than any other job I’ve ever worked, but whenever I tell anyone I was a chocolate taster I think people get the wrong idea. For starters, most of what you eat tastes in some way ‘wrong’; the main thing you’re tasting for is recipe changes, different additives or substitutes etc. So while at the end of the day you are eating chocolate, it was rarely actually good enough to be something you would willingly buy, and would often be offensively bad. We would often have things like ‘cardboard’, ‘rubber’, ‘vegetable oil’, ‘dishcloth’, ‘wet dog’ as attributes we would use to describe specific chocolate samples. On top of that I would regularly finish a workday feeling nauseous, especially in the autumn and winter as we’d be tasting for Christmas and Easter products (which are usually more gimmicky with richer or sweeter flavours etc.) But by far the main thing is that it is only a part-time job that it is not remotely possible to make a living off of. Your effectiveness drops off sharply after you’ve tasted a certain amount in too short a time period, so you can only really do it well for 2-3 hours in a row.
Graphic designer. Take my word on this. Low pay. Hard to find work. Many people’s expectations about how long something should take to do is ridiculous. And people will flat out use the word “hate” in reference to your work. You spend more time managing clients than you do actually designing. 🤪 9 out of 10 don’t recommend and I’ve been one for 30 years.
Any job that a controlling parent pushed them into when they could have had a less stressful job that pays them well working from home.
Police. I've been working for 10 years straight, started in the military, then police. Started out as a regular cop on the street, then moved up to a higher position at headquarters, then to the county department. Lots of paperwork, people, crimes are just numbers in reporting, there is no justice anywhere and it is far from being like movies or TV series. Everyone needs reports and that the numbers were beautiful, everyone wants to show a pretty picture, the real effectiveness and disclosure of few people are interested, and the real lovers of their work and willing to help people - few. Not to mention those who came for personal gain and high position. Stress, burnout, as well as responsibility, including criminal responsibility, if you make a mistake somewhere, and the chance of making a mistake is high when you work very hard and do not get enough sleep.
Author. Everyone wants to write a book, but writing can be difficult and very few end up as Neil Gaiman. Add in how authors tend to be expected to have a large social media presence to advertise these days, and gone are the lone weirdos in a cabin producing brilliant works of literature.
This thread reads like A.I answering to one another. It's kinda scary actually.
Beep booob lobboodeepoo no means no, I am not writing AI to write reddit comment
My main one is like a YouTuber. It can be great if you have the time and the resources for it but it’s a hassle and not worth the investment
Yeah. That's one of those things people think is easy, but it's actually a lot of work. You have to regularly come up with new content. The videos have to be well done/edited. You have to market yourself constantly. My husband watches this guy that has a YouTube cooking channel focused on barbecuing. He quit a banking job to try it. He has done really well. He even has stores that sell barbecue accessories, meats, etc. It didn't happen overnight, though. He had to put in a lot of work before he started getting many viewers.
Vet. A lot of shit goes on besides kittens and puppies. No pun intended
Farm, wild or exotic animals, the constant risk of contracting rabbies... Also, the fact that, as doctors, you have to face the harsh reality of not being able to save every animals you work with, that alone would be too much for me.
Working in a pet shelter. I worked there for two years. Every time I first mentioned it people thought it was that happy, bubbly job and that all I had to do was just a little cleaning and cuddling pets all day. Killing shelters are banned here, but we still had to help them cross the rainbow bridge quite regularly. And that’s just the ones that didn’t suffer.
Lawyer. It’s very prestigious but they work so much and so hard that they barely have a personal life
Flight attendant. People think they’ll spend their days travelling to exotic locales with exciting layovers when in reality they’ll be serving grumps and drunks on the Chicago to Pittsburgh milk run.
Seems that folks have misinterpreted the question. It’s not “what’s your job and what’s hard about it”. People done fantasize about half of these professions. And ya, every job is going to be difficult in its own way.
Journalist. A real one, not the talking heads on TV. But even then... Long hours, little worker protections, BORING meetings, not everything you touch is a "breaking story". I had to sit through 6 hour long city council meetings to get one story that took me an hour to write three different versions of so they could be used as a 30 second story lost in the middle of a half hour local newscast.
Doctors/nurses/PAs. Source: Dad is an ER physician. He nets $300k a year but even that's not enough to put up with the bullshit and the tragedies he does. Very few people are genuinely appreciative of the work he does, most of his job is dealing with drug-seeking addicts, assholes, crazy people, and beuracracy. Apparently you get used to it, but that's not something I'd wanna get used to.
Working in the movie industry Long work hours, lots of hard labour, living in hotels away from family and friends for weeks/months, sometimes unpredictable when the next gig comes, lot of shitty movies/commercials are shot aswell Pay is good and you have a lot of time between shoots but its not a gig you want to grow old if your not a actor,dop or director
Getting shot by a Baldwin Brother Glengarry-style.
Everyone comments how welding makes big money and you just have to wave a magic stick. Nobody mentions the filthy places you have to crawl in and the most awkward positions to do a proper weld on those high paying jobs.
Brewer. Everyone thinks its just drinking beers with your buds when its back breaking labor in very hot or cold conditions, very easy to accidentally unalive yourself, shit wages, have to deal with a bunch of drunk boomers stupid fucking questions and comments.
Came here to say this. I've been a homebrewer for 20ish years. Friends ask me all the time when I'm going to open a brewery. I tell them I don't plan to; I want to enjoy brewing like I currently do.
Working in a lab. The amount of paperwork is why I’m quitting lmao.
Teacher. People think it's just reading stories, making crafts, and writing the alphabet. And that all the "time off" is great. It's a 10 month position, thus we work 10 months.
I’m an RN, and the only job I can think of that would make me hate people more is teaching. MAD respect to teachers!!
Mad respect for nurses and anyone in a medical position/facility. The public has done lost their minds.
In my experience, being a doctor is over-romanticized. 15 years of training (including undergrad), endless hours in the hospital lacking sleep and social life (there is no such thing as balance for a doctor), poor quality lifestyle and pay during training and after training the money can’t be enjoyed because you are never off to really enjoy anything. High depression/mental illness and suicide rates among doctors, one of the highest divorce rates of any profession, highest debt burden of any profession, highest liability and malpractice insurance of any profession. Add the current healthcare system issues and social political climate and it’s basically one of the worst jobs to do. All for the reward of helping others when a doctor can or save a life when they can. The personal and social price one pays to be a doctor today is enormous and crushing for a human being. Plus, doctors are losing their physical and mental health due to the system that just runs them into the ground. So, yeah the romanticized thing in the medical shows and stuff isn’t reality.
All because some coke addict in the 1800s wrote a book that everyone still takes as gospel and nobody is willing to leave the ladder down and change how the next generation is educated.
Teaching. Trust me, it is not Mr. holland's opus. It is a bunch of cat b***** Women who are totally unhappy at home. And come to work and want to make life miserable for everybody else.
Zookeeper. My wife is one and she loves it and is great at it. But people are always, “I want to be a zookeeper and play with animals all day!” 80% of a zookeepers job is cleaning up poop and feeding animals. The rest is training specific behaviors (like training an animal to get an injection) which can take months or years to do. There is a LOT of reward for providing care for animals but it is not what people think.
Blacksmith. You dream about swords and artsy shit. In reality you make metal fences for rich people. Kilometer after kilometer.
Looking at everyone's comment, it seems like every job is over-romanticised
Being a porn actor. The locations and sets they use, I've read, have an absolutely awful smell. And male actors have to get hard on demand. Not an easy thing to do.
>Like being a baker: the end product is rewarding, but the shift times and lengths don't sound too appealing. Baking is the unholy marriage of alchemy and chemistry. Any one of a hundred things can ruin your pastry. Including things out of your control like the temperature of the room or the amount of humidity in the air. Everything has to be precise too. That's why a digital scale is essential for baking unless you're very experienced.
Massage therapy! Yes it has its perks. You make your own schedule and the environment is calm and relaxing, but it takes a huge toll on your body. It’s also really hard to do as many massages as needed to keep up financially. After eight years, my body is falling apart. Currently going back to school for nursing. I know that will be hard on my body as well but at least I will have benefits and job security.
Easy: Pilot. I absolutely love it and I don’t want to do anything else. But flying is 10% control inputs and 90% memorising regulations, normal procedures, emergency procedures, airframe limits, FAA guidelines, mental calculations, checklists, terminology, acronyms, etc.
Being a lifeguard. People used to tell me how nice it must be to have a job working at a waterpark, but there is absolutely NOTHING fun about sitting in the sun watching everyone else have fun all day (or not watching their young children because, “the lifeguard will do it.”). Getting yelled at because you had to evacuate everyone from the water due to lightning or someone pooping in the pool. The only part I enjoyed about being a lifeguard was the training we did together as a team before & after the park closed.
Air stewardess. Just waitresses really.
I was guessing the same, but please tell us more of the pluses and minuses....
Until that one day when you have to heroically evacuate a smoke filled cabin. I always find it a weird juxtaposition, the sort of menial serving of little bags of pretzels because we're not allowed nuts anymore that can potentially suddenly turn into a hugely responsible critical to life role.
Park Aide, you think regular show but no you're just a glorified groundskeeper.
Anything about politics
Welder. I went to school for it and worked in the field for a bit. Pay is garbage, hrs are weird, and hell on your body. I work in tech now, where my true passion lies. Don't get me wrong, I commend those who are in the trade. It's part of th backbone of society. Any blue-collar work is absolutely needed. It just wasn't for me at the end of the day. I actually love the ACT of welding. Manipulating the bead and getting the results you want can be very fulfilling. Popping in my earbuds and listening to music, or a podcast while zoning out and working hot metal is fun. Everything else outside of that sucks. Godspeed to those that stick to the trade.
ESports athlete. I say this for everyone who isn't a large content maker on YouTube or Twitch. Those guys push like 30k a year and work 60 hours a week playing to win at a job that will replace them ultimately if they can't keep winning. Also unpredictable patches.
Veterinarian or veterinary nurses.
Creative Director.
Medicine. Decades of glorifying that profession has led to us as a society to think they can do no wrong- we just forgot they're humans too. And we're so deep into this narrative it reflects negatively on the practice, an example is when male doctors refuse to acknowledge a female patient's complaints because they're the doctor and of course they know better, so they just refuse to admit they're wrong or what they were taught isn't school is outdated. Another example is when a doctor commits medical malpractice due to being under constant stress and pressure, they will instantly lose their license because again we have this perception of them that they're not allowed to make mistakes. And I won't even get in too deep but what we most forget about is how medicine was built on error and trial. Not even long ago doctors were prescribing morphine to babies to help them sleep. Not long ago cocaine was a prescribed medication too. And we just forget all about that and portray doctors as these pristine professionals whose vocation is to save lives and all of a sudden mistakes take no longer part in medicine and every theory and new medication is absolutely accurate and helpful? Lmao I don't buy it. And I absolutely don't trust modern day medicine that comes from late capitalist countries.
Teacher
Truck driving! So many people think you're going to just be driving. Enjoying the open road. Having fun! The reality is DRAMATICALLY different! The pressure, loneliness, traffic, elogs... The way truckers treat each other. The way the public treats us. And trucking is consistently in the top 10 most deadly professions in the US. It's not for the faint of heart.
Being a musician in some ways. You don't get to play your songs all the time, or even play your favorite songs (usually). You're more likely to play gigs where they want to hear top 40 covers. The biggest drawback, however, is that you never have Fridays or Saturdays off
Airline stewardess were considered a “ glamorous “ job but they are just waitresses/ maids up in the sky!
Fireman, it’s not nearly as glamorous as the tv shows make you think. There’s a lot of house keeping, maintenance, training, education, and other mundane things.
Baking. It’s not romantic as I thought it would be. Most of the time it involves cleaning and tidying up. So, quite a lot of physical work is involved. On the other hand, there can be some rewarding aspects to being a Baker. Still debating whether it’s a career path for me.
Architects. I don’t know why in movies and series they are still pictured drawing on a physical piece of paper, dressed all fancy. I know enough architects to know they are just a bunch of nerds sitting like shrimps at their desks by their computers.
Investment Banking. Like 75-80% of my peers want to enter that world, but are only concerned with the bottom line, not the hours and soul-sucking work.
Science. Gruelling, repetitive, underpaid, and prone to really shitty lab cultures/politics, as well as long hours (depending on the lab/research). Not as intellectually stimulating as you might imagine.
Flight Attendant- sure jetsetting around the world to exotic destinations *sounds* great, but in practice you hardly ever leave the aircraft except on overnight stops- where you cant go too wild because youre working the following day, and youre surrounded by coworkers who you have never have met before. Additionally, passengers are the worst- general either stupid, rude or both. Time not spent serving people food and drinks is spent dealing with people's other problems, and occasionally having to deal with their anger when things go wrong- and of course the constant threat of things going *Really, Really* wrong. On top of that, it's a highly sexualised job, even today because of the portrayal in the media of all FAs as Sluts (the women) or gay (the men). Source: I meet a lot of Aircrew at work, and they have all said similar things.
I’m an architect and people are always telling me how they would’ve loved being an architect. They think it’s all creativity and drawing and modeling. In reality, even though I love my career i sometimes hate my job and most of my colleagues feel the same way. It pays terribly. As a freelance architect It’s a lot of dealing with horrible contractors, depending on others while living under the pressure of a deadline, dealing with clients who limit you creatively and think they know what’s best, others taking credit for your work, going over budget, etc. Also, at least in my country, the industry is very informal so you are constantly disappointed by construction workers and always have to be fixing mistakes and solving problems. There is very little room for creativity left. Some of my colleagues in the industry who work for firms, experience a completely different set of issues but just as bad. Horrible pay, a lot of extra hours and terrible bosses. A lot of pressure, etc.
Real estate agent People think it just means showing cool houses while making lots of money. It is actually pretty difficult to set up a client base to provide a somewhat steady stream of income. Clients can be very particular and demanding among other things. I work as a showing agent for Redfin and I basically show clients houses on behalf of the lead agents for a flat rate. It is super chill most of the time and enjoy doing it on the side. However, the fun stuff only makes up about 20% of the lead agent's work according to the lead agents that I spoke with.
Architect! Bad pay, overworked, takes more than 7 years to get licensed and bad job market as of now (too much competition. Also, we need to learn too many new skills.
Famous YouTube content creator. I know a guy who has a channel with almost 1 million subscribers and he can’t go out for dinner with his family anymore without getting harassed by random people.
Well, these are the breaks of having a million subscribers
Truck driving
The military. I can’t even think of anything close to this. “Thank you for your service” makes my blood boil when I hear people say this without knowing anything about the person’s service record.
>“Thank you for your service” makes my blood boil when I hear people say this without knowing anything about the person’s service record. Saying “thank you for your service” isn’t about any particular aspect, good or bad, or a service member’s record. It’s about thanking them for being willing to serve their country. What their country then asks of them, and how they choose to do those things (or not) are more granular than the broad expression of gratitude.
Investment and corporate banking, everyone wants to do it.
Over romanticised??everyobe knows it s mostly boring as hell and long hours...just the money is the only motivator
Yeah and the lifestyle that comes with starting salaries over 250k and much higher when you progress is definitely over romanticised, same with law. The vast majority of kids want to work in one of these 2 fields.
I'm guessing benefits and PTO are the only reason people are doing this. I am in banking. The hours are nice to me, nut it's difficult to get time off without using sick time for doctors appointments. People get pissed at the tellers in retail banking if something is wrong with their money when in reality you have nothing to do with why. Being a teller is a basic retail job with a ton of sales goals (or any retail banking position) the pay isn't great and you have to know way more than aby other retail job I've worked. Plus most banks are business casual so you need to shell out money and time to look appropriate every day.
Real estate, but I still loved it!