Check Out these “Dream Jobs” That Are A LOT Less Fun Than Most People Expect

Not like a hobbyist, but a business-owning photographer. Sucks the love right out of your work, because you started the business to take pictures.

Then Karen doesn't like the way she looks in one of them so she wants the whole set for free plus a reshoot for free plus those images for free.

Then the two high school kids getting into a very ill-advised marriage at EXACTLY 18 years old wants to book you for their wedding but their budget is only $50.

Then Karen calls back because she loves your work and wants to pay for another shoot, but only if you agree to do her friend's daughter's destination wedding for free.

Then you get a call from your last bride. It's been two weeks since their wedding. WHERE THE HECK ARE HER PICTURES?

Then you get no leads from a bridal expo.

Then a client finds out you don't support their candidate and tries to take you to court to get her money back.

Then some instagram model who thinks she's influencing people offers a "collab" where you take pro photos of her and she adds awful insta filters to it and claims her friend took them. And she's not gonna pay.

And then you get some entitled mom who wants you to photograph every day of her newborn's first year of life for $100.

I went back to being a hobbyist.

Park Ranger. Don't get me wrong, I loved it, but a lot of days it was less "talk about cool animals while wearing your ranger hat" and more "the toilets are overflowing again, go clean the septic tank filter and stir the tank with a shovel." With a little bit of "hey there's a methed-out guy down by the bridge, can you convince him to leave without killing anyone?" All for the low price of $26k/year with a college degree!

I do close captioning.

While I joke that yes, I get paid to watch TV, it’s actually very tedious. And if you don’t actually enjoy the programming, you’re being forced to watch something you don’t care for.

Or worse, if it’s something I do enjoy like a long-form drama, we usually chop those up into 15-minute increments and split between everyone so I only see chunks and not always even in order, so it actually ruins the show for me.

A pediatric nurse, being a nurse for children and adolescents. Everyone in nursing school talks about how much they want to work with kids. The reality is that a pediatric nurse sees more cases of abuse and neglect than any other specialty. Doesn't matter where you are in a pediatric hospital, it's the thing you see most.

I've seen so many DCS (Department of Child Services) caseworkers that I've gotten to know some of them and became acquaintances with them. Sure working with children and adolescents is great, but people don't think about the most essential piece of that puzzle which is their families. It doesn't matter how good of care you give to those kids, if you don't loop the parents into that care you may as well just not be doing anything for them.

Bar bouncer. Hours of tension and boredom are interrupted by moments of adrenaline-fueled fear for your life. Then some ahole pukes cheap booze on your shoes.

Edit: I was 19 when I started, and I thought I would be getting paid to meet lots of girls and listen to live music. Which I did. I also had knives pulled on me, endured threats on my life, got my nose broken (not even in a fight) and stood around and did nothing most of the time. You don’t get to relax, though, because you're constantly looking for trouble. Awful job.

Video game testing.

I've been working in the game industry for 6 years now and teaching for 2. Testing video games is thought to be just "oh you just play games all day? LOLOLOLOL" but it's actually very specific and arduous.

First of all, there are a bunch of testing methodologies such as load/soak testing, white room testing, version testing to name a few, but the most common one is functionality testing. Functionality testing is "so if I walk into that corner with the shotgun in my inventory, I can clip through the wall, but if I have my M16 in my inventory, I don't clip through."

Paleontologist. You don’t get to work with full dinosaur skeletons and do all kinds of awesome expeditions. You’re mostly sitting at a desk looking at some pictures and logging stuff on your computer, maybe examining a fossil occasionally. If you’re lucky you can go on a real dig, and OMG SPEND HOURS IN THE HOT SUN DUSTING OFF ROCKS!!!

Being an extra in a movie. Now, it can be super fun (I especially love historical and post-apocalyptic/sci-fi/fantasy type stuff), but a typical day on set wasn't what I thought it'd be when I started doing it. Often we have to get up at 3 or 4 in the morning to get to holding, and if you're a minute late to check in sometimes they'll kick you out. Then we sit around in holding with sometimes hundreds of other extras, and we're usually sitting there for a good three or four hours before they start telling us to get ready to film. During this time we go through the long wardrobe, hair and makeup lines where they reuse clothes (unless you bring them yourself), brushes and makeup without washing them.

When we finally get to film, it's often the same mundane motions over and over (exceptions of course, and those are always fun) Then we either get shuffled around or go back to holding. Several more hours pass, we go film again. Hungry? You get lunch six hours after your call time and a usually meager supply of snacks. In between takes, it's more standing around, often in heat or rain or we all get shuffled into cramped spaces to wait.

Days on set are often more than 12 hours, and I know someone who had to be on set for 26 hours straight. They can legally hold you there until they declared filming is done, so don't make plans for the next day. Not to mention that you rarely see yourself in the final cut. I'm not trying to bash other background actors or the film industry because I've met lots of awesome people and gotten to do some pretty cool things. For example, interacting with main actors in scenes, running around in the woods with fake guns or being a zombie. But when I did my first job as a teen, I definitely thought it would be a lot different.

1) You are on call (on reserve) forever, have a terrible schedule, have no life, and make no money for 5-10 years.

2) While you work for peanuts, you can’t afford to use your flight “benefits” in any substantial way.

3) Then, when you finally get a chance to use your benefits for a trip, you have to fly standby which means you aren’t guaranteed to get on the flight you want.

4) Then if you do make it out of town you better have like a week off so you can make damn sure you’re back in your base city in time for your next work shift.

5) Did I mention there is an act of US legislation (Railway Labor Act) that allows airlines to exploit so you don’t get paid for certain work hours that you actually need to be working? For example, FAs don’t get paid for boarding, or any time the plane is at the gate. WORST JOB EVER

Don't get me wrong, it's awesome to be around so many amazing animals and care for them… But the smells are ridiculously, insanely foul.

I have a really strong stomach and it's still tough for me...we've had some interns quit over it. I was warned about the smells when getting into the field, but thought "oh I've volunteered at animal shelters, I know what animal stink smells like"

Nope. Not even close.

Yea it's fun being able to see parts of an Airport people wouldn't normally get to see and drive around the airfield in spare time to have a look at some planes (especially fancy private jets) but my god is it hard. Long hours, no social life because when you have days off you spend them catching lost sleep.

Absolutely horrendous pay for hazardous work, in our training video they showed us the aftermath of someone who had been hit by an ATR-500 propeller and literally just smiled and said "Don't do this". Also what some people don't realize is that those bags don’t magically appear on the plane. Some are loaded individually by hand (This is called loose load) and not into bins which is a lot easier. You could be stacking over 200 bags in a space so cramped you can’t even be on your knees if you are tall. Some of the bags/cargo can weigh over 30kg so it is physically back-breaking work and on some days you may not even get a break on a 12-hour shift and yes that happens A LOT.

But the absolute worst part is the bodies. When someone is being sent home to be buried we are the ones who put that coffin into the hold and tie your loved one down and it's not easy for us. My most recent coffin was that of a 2-year-old baby and my god I was in tears tying that coffin down in the hold. So next time you’re packing for that vacation, remember we are down there.

As someone who worked as a kennel tech, I'd hear often "You get to play with dogs all day". No. Very far from it. I've had to shovel bloody diarrhea from a dog with liver cirrhosis 7+ a day. I had to walk dogs consistently and then do 10-minute playtimes non-stop. I only got a thirty-minute lunch and no break for the 8 hours I worked. Most people who own these businesses (in my experience) are stingy and don't care about the tech's well-being most of the time. It's not a fun job.

Gamemaster at an escape room.

It's the same repetitive script, resetting the same stuff, giving clues and hints about the same things. The patrons are often competitive families who argue, obnoxious impatient 13-year-olds, college students who have been drinking, idiots who break st and touch st that I SPECIFICALLY TOLD THEM NOT TO. They never remember your initial instructions. If something gets broken during one group, you have to hurry and fix it before the next group.

Veterinarian — TRULY shocked that nobody has said this one yet. We have the highest suicide rate of any profession.

It’s a lot more talking to people about money and a lot less doing medicine and saving animals than people hope going into it. Not all of the animals are grateful, some of them want to bite you because you’re hurting them and they don’t know it’s in their best interest. Clients can be hugely manipulative jerks. There’s lots of student debt. And don’t get me started on near-constant exposure to low levels of anesthetic gasses.

Being a Character Performer at Disney.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some amazing perks and truly magical moments. I know I’m super lucky and tons of people would love to be in my shoes.

But the day-to-day work is EXHAUSTING in ways I never thought possible. Guests are ridiculously abusive...I’ve had things said and done to me I never would have imagined. The company isn’t always great - it highly depends on your leadership. And there’s so much focus on your body and face (good and BAD) that it can be incredibly depressing and difficult emotionally.

Plus, you have to accept that there’s very little upward mobility. Most people “grow out of it” and it’s rough to know that one day you’ll get “too old” or “too fat” and you will have to start all over in a new career field. So you constantly are thinking either, 1) what you’re going to do when you leave, 2) how you’re going to keep yourself there. I personally knew it would be temporary, and I now only work there seasonally while I have a “normal career”. But Disney has a way of sucking you in.

Lawyer, no it isn't like they show on TV.

Hey, finally the case is before the judge, crap the other party didn't show up. The next date that judge has given is 3 months away.

EDIT: Now, a little bit about me. I am from India and have moved on from litigation to academia. Personally, it was the right decision for me as now I am way less stressed and can work on things that intellectually stimulate me. Having said that, I need to clarify that law is still a very rewarding profession there is something in it for everyone, for those who want to change the world as well as for those who want to make money. It just demands too much of your time plus the results of all your efforts are not immediate and that can get stressful.

Also, Yes that song "Don't be a Lawyer" by Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is pretty spot on.

Being a chef. All the flare and awesomeness they show on vice and Netflix is far from what actually happens in the industry. It’s not all fancy plates and tattooed/cool-haired guys doing their thing. It’s a drug-infested, law-breaking work environment that only benefits the owners of a restaurant

I don't understand why people think librarians get to sit around and read on the job. Like, do they just not understand what a job is? When they go shopping at a retail store, do they also think those employees hang out and try on different outfits or play with the merchandise all day? It's baffling.

I had a similar situation when I worked at a LAN center- people would come in and say "so, you just get to sit around and play video games all day? This must be an awesome job!" Like, dude, I am clearly sitting behind a desk with a cash register/check-in computer system and a conspicuous lack of video games. My job is to keep the place running smoothly so you get to play. Does it seriously look like I'm just sitting around playing games?

Google Street View driver.

You're all alone for 8+ hours a day, can almost never take a break, need to constantly be "on" and focused (lest you crash the $25,000 Subaru with $60,000+ worth of camera equipment on it), you end up becoming an amateur meteorologist to keep track of weather patterns and cloud cover, and in my experience, there are a lot of people who just get insanely upset at you, at Google, and the job in general for a wide variety of reasons. I enjoyed myself when I did it, but it was nowhere near as glamorous or fun as I or my friends & family assumed.

My mother’s an accountant. From what I can tell, it’s a lot of staring at large numbers and making sure they’re all correct and going through vast amounts of spreadsheets. Then discovering you made a mistake somewhere on the spreadsheet that was for January, so now you have to redo January, February, March, April, and May. Meanwhile, your deadline for June is in 3 hours.

Some of my (least) favorites:

Person who thinks playing well and playing loud are the same thing.

Person who wants to make sure you know they are very smart and you are very lucky to be in their presence.

Person who goes to absurd lengths to test out drum sticks to make sure they're pitch matched without knowing how to execute any of those techniques. Extra points if they're just going to shred them to splinters in a week anyway.

People who act like you're in their way because you're trying to do your job.

People who assume you couldn't possibly know anything about the instruments you play and sell all day long.

Side note - I mostly loved my time working in a music store and I enjoy helping people but the people who come in with aggressive egos and nasty attitudes are insufferable.

Wow I expected everyone to say this but I haven’t seen it yet. 100% bartender. We’ve all had fun in bars but never the bartender. Imagine throwing a house party where you’re responsible for everyone and you can’t drink yourself. Yes, yes, I know a lot of places are fine with you drinking but I always found it made the job harder rather than easier.

What I hate so much is that when you send a draft or edit to the client/boss they mostly seem so ungrateful. Or yeah “just make this easy change” and we’ll be good to go... no ahole, that’s not an easy change. I do video editing on top of graphic design, and people just seem so unappreciative of how much time and effort goes into a “quick little video”.

Working in entertainment in general. You really need to love what you're doing to succeed in it. It's long hours, no social life, and you need to be 100% on the ball or else someone else will take your gig. Not only that, but you need to be at least tolerable to work with. People think everyone in entertainment is a self-centered ahole, but that's not really true. They definitely exist, even the highest positions, but it's still rare overall. And unless they're talented enough for everyone to put up with, they tend to be snuffed out pretty quick. You work 12-14 hour days (on a good day) in a team environment, no one wants to spend that much time with a jacka.

Customers think it's easy to design and create arrangements. Flowers are honestly more heavy than you think. Your hands will become dry and cracked too since it's wet pretty much most of the time. Super stressful during the holidays and wedding/funeral season, there's just too many orders and not enough hours in the day.

Yup... As a bioscientist, it's never really "Eureka" and much more

"Are my cells dead?"

"Are my fruit flies okay??"

"Are they going to fix the microscope?"

"Will the microscope ever be free to book??"

"Is 6 coffees too many??"

And a large part of my day is spent just doing tasks I need to do to keep my work running. That is making buffers, sorting fly stocks, splitting cells, cleaning things, etc...

And yet I miss my lab!

My partner is a baker, the only baker at the bakery. He works six days a week starting usually at 4 am and works until 4 pm. On holidays he starts at 2 am (sometimes earlier) and doesn’t get off till 6. Last year he managed to get three consecutive days off for Christmas.

Although not necessarily bad, Beekeeping.

Get used to the constant sound of buzzing during hive inspections/swarm removals plus wearing the protective suit in hot a weather for hours on end (give or take the situation). Also, there appears to be a large number of beekeepers allergic to bees so EpiPens are a must.

I produced fashion shoots for the past 7 years.

We shoot swim in January and tell the girls to relax and not look so cold, here hold this hot tea to warm you up until we rip it away from you for the photo. Drop your shoulders, unclench your fists, try to rub out your goosebumps.

And we shoot winter in July and tell the girls to stop sweating. Sometimes they have to change 100+ times a day and get a front, side, back and detail shot for each one of those looks (outfits). And they need to look good, seem relaxed and confident, when really they are exhausted and uncomfortable.

I always had cold brew coffee and peanut butter cups at the ready to help them get through it. Brutal job.

So first of all, no-one actually wants to drink beer at 9.30 on Monday morning in a corporate office. But you rock up to a dozen glasses of beer in front of you, you make small talk about what your colleague’s kids did on the weekend, and then you’re tasting.

Things you’re tasting could involve:

-stuff that’s come back from consumers because it “tastes weird”. Usually, because they left it in the back seat of their car in the full summer sun for two weeks, and cooked the st out of it

-stuff that’s come in from the breweries because something has gone wrong and they can’t figure out what

-stuff that the R&D team are working on and haven’t gotten right yet

-stuff that the lab team have aged well past the best before date. Just to see how bad it really gets (very)

Other problems (these aren’t all me, they’re a collection from a bunch of colleagues):

-if you’re at the breweries, it could be 30 odd samples of exactly the same beer, just from different storage tanks you have to check is ok

-if you’re tasting at beer festivals, there are 200 odd whack craft beer samples. Which means by the time you’re done, your palate is wiped, you’re too drunk to enjoy the festival, you have to network with the rest of the industry who are sober, and you spend the weekend recovering. Worse if you’re a small woman and the other tasters are faring better than you

-if you go out to client sites to work on new developments, and there’s more tasting involved than you expected or it’s high alcohol content, you end up leaving your car in the middle of nowhere and have to get home and back again. Especially embarrassing when you’re a small woman and the other guys are ok to drive

-there’s always one guy who spits and it’s gross

-you go out to a bar on the weekend with your mates, and they all ask you for opinions on beer when you’re just trying to enjoy one. Or if you want to switch off from work and order a nice girly cocktail and get given st for it

-the looks of judgment from the doctor when they ask how often you drink and you tell them the truth

-if you want to lose weight, good luck calorie counting that

Don’t get me wrong, there are worse jobs out there. But I don’t even like beer.