What Glamourized Career Path Is Actually A Nightmare? r/AskReddit Reddit Stories | Top Posts

what glamorized career path is actually a complete nightmare [Music] the video game industry a lot of kids and teens want in it so bad because i grew up playing games blah blah blah they take me to another world blah blah blah then you become an adult and learn that it's all math and physics and making a video game has nothing to do with what you experience growing up it's all black screens of code polygons and being criticized for your work what's worse if you make games you probably never have the time to play them anymore the gaming industry is notorious for implementing 60 80 hours work weeks even worse depending on what company you work for you may never have stable work you finish a project and then the company tells you we don't have another project for your particular skill set and you gotta look for more work and if all that wasn't bad enough you will probably never work on a game you want to work on all those big fancy games and indie darling on steam are a very small fraction of what exists barbie's horse adventure those people got degrees and we're inspired by the same games as you crappy candy crush knockoffs same degree and inspiration stupid tabletop games that you only see in the family section at walmart those also utilize game designers programmers don't get into video games because you like video games get into video games because you're passionate about math and science modeling too competitive and not enough food [Music] chef long hours itty environment nothing is ever good enough myso is an attorney and isn't loving life right now she says you know how you did term papers in college well i do term papers every day all day endlessly veterinarian insanely competitive schooling that crippled you with debt with a depressing debt income ratio after graduation most of your patients don't like you and most of the owners think you're getting rich up selling them unnecessary services when their dogs is exploding eyeball cancer can be cured with raw organic exotic meat cbd coconut oil but you're withholding that information because you're in bed with big kibble high stress stagnant wages long hours it holiday leave rampant depression lost count of how many colleagues have committed suicide sometimes tempted to join them till all career paths appear to be nightmares flight attendant the travel would be amazing but let's face it you're a glorified waitress working in a cramped aluminium tube edit because i said steel tube and turns out i'm dumb [Music] political staffer most jobs in politics pay very little money and require you to work 80 plus hours a week for a boss who is guaranteed to have a gigantic ego you also have to look for a new job after every election day i've started working in television from a too young age it was amazing to witness all the behind-the-scenes stuff but the reality is that these days you just can't make enough money from performing on tv let alone the deprivation of creative freedom which is what got my show cancelled i think radio announcer like a lot of other jobs in the entertainment industry it's full-time work for part-time pay second jobs are common your pizza delivery guy just may be your favorite morning show host at least that's how the morning guy at my station made ends meet until he was laid off in the last round of cutbacks now we're a hybrid station which is a preferred business model these days that's a fancy way of saying one person does everything while you run a ton of syndicated programs 12 hours days of minimum wage most career paths glamorized or not can be a nightmare if you have a hit lord for a boss listen up kids any job that seems glamorized has more than likely resulted in an oversupply of people wanting to do that work while demand has not increased thus bringing the compensation down for that line of work i don't know if nightmare is the word but my wife has finally reached her lifelong goal of becoming a zookeeper at one of the top zoos in the us she is very happy to have the opportunity to hand food to otters have reindeer eat out of her hand and brush okapi however she took on tens of thousands of dollars in student loans and did months of unpaid work at the zoo to get the job which is seasonal requiring she be off two months a year she gets up at 4am and does farmhand style physical labor for eight hours a day for about nine dollars an hour with no benefits i am thrilled that she reached her goal and i am happy that she is happy but i am pretty disenfranchised with the whole thing farming on a large scale i was living in debt up to my ass 500 k1 dollars mill depending on the time of year haggling for every input land fertilizer seed equipment at the mercy of the weather and got to watch the commodity markets kick me in the nuts every business day the real cherry on top was everyone thinking you are trying to kill them with gmos and copious amounts of chemicals that we don't use not to mention farms are passed down through generations so you've got a bunch of dead and living ancestors watching your every move oh and a lot of farmers work a second full-time job for the health insurance there's a reason farm suicides are high in farm accidents and accidents are higher there's a million young rural ffa kids that will give their left leg for a chance to farm architect is really bad most people don't complete it and the mental health issues are quite serious there's a lot of criticism and stress in the beginning lots of late nights and hard work at the end of the work you get insulted in public there's no real reason for this you aren't going to be saving lives or anything there's no need to make it so expensive either so three years later you get a degree and have to do a year of intern work then it's time for another year of study and projects and exams then two years of minimum wage work then you come back for more exams essays and projects it's really too hard for what it is i get paid very badly and i don't really use any of my training it was pointless really but girls like it at parties when i say i'm an architect that's a lie i don't go to parties i have no social life as someone who's going to graduate university in a year or two what i'm getting from this thread is that employment is awful unemployment is awful and i should consider a career in being dead judging by this thread all careers also being unemployed or alive for all of you smart kids with advanced degree of from top 50 colleges don't go into consulting you can do better find a line of work that is not a soul sucking and energy draining those frequent flyer miles and free hotels wining and dining in glamorous suits are just a smoke screen to cover up the misery from constant traveling networking guaranteed over time and no weekends are not worth it many people do it as a stepping stone to a real career which is smart staying in consultancy for five plus years will likely turn your life upside down medicine a close friend is a doctor he doesn't have a life teaching for sure i mean people know it sucks but still the idea of becoming a teacher and changing the lives of children simply by caring enough exists in a lot of people and sadly it's just not like that the very sad truth is it doesn't matter how much you care there are so many people who just want to make your job near impossible and people drop out of the position left and right investment banking people talk about the fancy plane rides expensive dinners wild parties with your colleagues or a client the reality of it is you're never truly off work always on call like a surgeon works weeks are usually 6 100 hours and can be brutal if one follows another it's really more like working from 9am to 10 p.m in office and then get home to work another bit and have any given presentation ready stat i've gone all nighters followed by client meetings where all i have time for is a quick shower and a seven stroke 11 coffee veterinary medicine certified vet tech i was a tech for four years and peaced out the work is back breaking and clinic owning vets are cheap you are bitten scratched occasionally left to get a 95 pound dog off the surgery table alone and if you work in a mix practice you can also get the ever-loving it kicked out of you and these were the things i was reasonably okay with dealing with all for a wage that's supplemental at best hope you got roomies or a spouse that makes a decent wage then you have the owners the ones who call you nasty names because your clinic doesn't take payment plans since the last 50 people we offered them to never paid and you have the audacity to charge an exam fee at the very least the ones who don't train their purse dogs and then screech at you when you get bitten because fifi is a holy terror and your patience dying some you know it's coming but you're trying valiantly to save and some it's totally out of the blue from something like a thrown clot after surgery or something that we don't even get to diagnose because what's the point of a necropsy for a family pet there's a reason the suicide rates among veterinarians is so high and a reason a lot of educated veterinary technicians basically animal rns we did everything but diagnose prescribe make a prognosis and perform surgery don't last very long in the profession film crew yes you sometimes meet famous people sometimes they're cool often they're really not the days are 14 plus hours of work with the commute of who knows how long on either end depending where you're shooting you have half an hour for lunch coffee breaks are whenever you're not needed on set so depending on your job i was in camera and we rarely had a down moment it could be almost never more often than not someone on set is yelling people lose their minds over making really itty entertainment you start work by 7am on monday and by friday you're coming in at 4pm and leaving when the sun comes up on saturday there are no paid holidays no paid sick days no paid vacation if you don't work enough qualifying hours the union kicks your health care and this is if you're in a union non-union much worse sexual harassment is through the roof but the kids who get it the worst are afraid to say anything or they'll lose their jobs i have been told some real horror stories about famous actors some of whom i still haven't seen get outed by the me too movement and i'm not talking word of mouth second-hand stories i'm talking about young women who whisper to each other what chose to avoid and make them swear to never use their name because if they want to work in this industry they can't be known as a troublemaker i watched so many co-workers fall into addictions lose family miss their children's lives over the dumbest tv shows in the world if you go union the money can be good but it's not worth it it's just not worth it behavioral health i spent a long time working towards a career in therapy and i've noticed that a lot of new people people looking to get into the field go in with the starry-eyed i want to help people mentality i did too you do help people but it is ducking hard to help people a lot of jobs are high stress low pay type of deals because a lot of the jobs available are through non-profits that only have so much funding to go around you are vicariously exposed to other people's trauma and it does affect you no matter how good you are at creating boundaries and practicing self-care it's an admirable profession but a grossly underappreciated one and it most certainly isn't for everyone who wants to help people for a living going through college when you don't know what you want to do all these people from your hometown who think they can become public figures on instagram etc bunch of weirdos in my opinion i hear being a youtuber is pretty at work constant pressure to conform to a mysterious algorithm that's constantly changing around you and doing or saying something that it all the advertisers don't like means that the plug is pulled on your wages possibly even your whole livelihood law enforcement i went into it with the naive belief i would be making a difference i wanted to protect people and make my community safer instead i got to see the worst humanity is to offer day in and day out let's see if i can list all the negatives most departments are filled with arrogant [ __ ] with inflated eggos that love to condescend to other officers or the public when they themselves can bolly read many officers have severe anger issues and love to take it out on the public never saw it happen physically but verbally or by issuing ever ticket possible try to suggest changes to bring about better relations with the public prepare to be ostracized and bullied till you toe the line the overall level of incompetence is staggering with some officers barely knowledgeable of the firearms they carry every day your view of the public and people in general becomes very dark the amount of edps emotionally disturbed persons druggies and alcoholics you deal with each day is ridiculous and you start to wonder how society hasn't collapsed you arrest a violent offender just to see them quickly released over and over what's worse is how many times an abused victim files a complaint because you arrested their love despite almost being killed very few people are actually grateful when you cut them a break they do take it as a sign of weakness and try to push the envelope this is an often overlooked reason why some officers become [ __ ] you try to help people out and they spit in your face sometimes literally this gradually tears you down until you can barely recognize what you are becoming the uniform is a target you can be the nicest most patient officer in the world but to many the uniform means you are the enemy you will get cursed at attacked and have your private life laid bare low pay not even remotely commensurate with what you have to deal with there is so much more but i was lucky enough to get out and change careers before it all really got to me engineer i learned all this duck in math and still haven't driven a single train i like all the pushes to get people into stem fields specifically science they do all those demonstrations that make smoke or foam appear and make color changes they are like look sciences fancies when in reality it's the most growing repetitive high stress miserable work you can get plus countless industries just contract out the positions so you aren't even guaranteed benefits plus any businesses first and foremost a business so you have to spend countless hours in boardroom meetings explaining science and why things won't work to people who think the disk drive on their computer is a drink holder a lot of the problems detailed on this sub are actually due to america's toxic workaholic culture that lets companies force 50 60 hours work weeks on their employees with no paid or parental leave ballet dancer parents spend tens of thousands or more on training they give up their entire teen years in schooling most elite ballet dancers are homeschooled and a large percentage move away from home for training in high school most dancers you see on stage in a ballet are paying to be there the bottom rungs of ballet companies are paid to play then when you have paid to dance a few years you might be able to get a position that pays you with a dozen pairs of point shoes and a stipend for performances then maybe you'll be promoted to the bottom level where you get paid 20k a year and have no health insurance all while putting your body through major torture i'm a professional full-time voice actor i'm blessed to be successful and happy but about 99 of the voice actors i know are depressed most of the time struggling hard to find work wrestling with imposter syndrome questioning if they should give up and barely able to make rent particularly video game anime animation actors edit really this is true for most every creative freelancing career this is just about the most depressing thread i've ever come across [Music] foreign service officer you are paid to live in a foreign country and meet interesting people you get to travel you are paid tax-free allowances you also have to defend all government policies and practices to foreigners while keeping a straight face even the ones you disagree with or are totally inane you have to politely and respectfully deal with foreigners you know are lying to you trying to rip you off corrupt criminal or just generally horrible this includes foreign officials these are applicants business people and others the ambassador acts like he's the king of the world and expects you to kiss ass when in fact he's nothing special administrative regs mean allowances don't always cover genuine expenses in most countries locals think they can rip you off and charge you 10 times the price because you're a dip dip plates on your car are an invitation to smash and grab offices always look like they were fitted with cast offs from government surplus warehouse rejects you have a fancy title but not budget for local initiatives so you always look like a cheapskate you're the last to know what is going on in office practices and politics and coming back to hq means surprise everything changed while you were away genuine promotions few and far between which means competition hinges on ass kissing realistic job appraisals and cutthroat competition with sociopaths postings seem to be assigned in order to make everybody miserable with the good gigs going to people the posting officer wants to kiss up to and when you come back to hq you realize it's even worse there veterinarians i am not one but i worked as tech support for a couple of years in one and here is the cycle they go through young shiny person loves animals wants to work with them get appropriate degrees and a load of student debt hit industry and learn that the industry is swamped all those roles which involve you queueing at cute pets and surgeries in cities for well-paid and caring owners are occupied by the previous generation of vets who have no intention of moving anytime soon the one place there are vacancies large animal practices in the rural areas no emotional attachment to the animals at all grumpy farmers as owners who want to spend the least amount of money possible to keep costs low you will end up working and paid overtime or doing favors on the side when you factor these extra hours in you realize your salary comes out to less than minimum wage work becomes a never-ending badly paid hellscape and out of work you're in a rural community there is no nightlife there are very few people your age the people that are there have been there for decades and don't open up to anyone who moved in before the millennium the internet is dodgy you are miles from your friends and family and have no time or money to spend going to see them what you do have lots of access to ketamine so many young vets leave the industry broken addicted or dead from odd it's well known in industry but never spoken about of it don't do it i've heard nothing but horror stories of how broken the machine really is when it comes to social work i honestly don't know if i've ever heard anything good from social workers and almost cringe whenever i hear about someone wanting to get into social work as a career prove me wrong game development work on the next aaa title you will be one among hundreds indie developer take huge financial risks without even knowing whether you will even see your investment give any returns the amount of work you have to do to make a game is enormous any mistake you make unbalanced weapons too much grind pay to win etc will blow up in your face with huge negativity edit also certificates mean jacket in our business who cares you studied how to code for eight years they only look at experience and you have to be lucky enough to find a company to take you for your first experiences also thanks for many upvotes it hasn't even been 24 hours since i started with redid less than three idk if military is glamorized but i saw a bunch of people who joined cause they wanted to be badasses and they couldn't wait to get out long hours sometimes dangerous work mind-numbingly repetitive tasks being stuck with our soul bosses at times not like you can just quit not the best pay etc add it all up and you get a large portion of people who do want enlistment and never come back non-profit sector you're mostly putting a band-aid on issues you go into it wanting to help people but far too many people are ungrateful not willing to help themselves or complain no matter how much you're trying i cannot tell you how many people have made threats even when you've gone well above and beyond for them so many people abuse the system for freebies i had people come in trying to get freebies who make over 100k a year the pay is always it unless you're at the executive level it is ridiculous how much executives make compared to the workers doing 90 of the work the ceo of my organization makes well into the six figures while we have to work three years to get a three percent raise on our low salary they also devalue you constantly you have people with master's degrees working entry-level positions being bossed around by some old lady with zero education but who's friends with the cfo or something you're constantly working with a ramen noodle budget expected to come out with steak and lobster results nine stroke ten volunteers are only there because they're trying to get ours or a reference and complain a lot you're constantly battling other non-profits even if you're just trying to share resources you can do completely different things and are just trying to refer clients back and forth so they can access all available resources but they'll guard their clients like gold the amount of shady practices that occur as well inflation of numbers total lies etc it is really sad how many places do nothing or very minimal but are garnerized does doing good edit thanks for the love academic it's not super glamorous but i hear people talking all the time about university professors sitting on their asses in an ivory tower it's not like that at all you spend years in grad school in my field it takes 6-7 years for a phd student even if you already have masters if you stick it out through grad school and get the doctorate there's a good chance that no university will hire you even if you did good work sometimes your particular niche research interest is out of fashion so you're screwed if you are lucky enough to get a 10 you'll track job in your field oh constantly balancing teaching research writing articles and monographs begging for funding networking at conferences serving on committees reviewing other people's books and generally trying to justify your existence to a crumbling system of higher ed that's suffering from budget cuts academics usually are able to work in fairly safe environments but not always field work can mean diseases parasites and political violence lab work can mean back pain repetitive motion injuries and long-term exposure to dangerous substances the hours alone i'm in grad school and i work 60-70 hours per week grind you down trades welder pipe fitter electrician etc which radiate loves to glamorize as an alternative to basically any other job because of the pay i'm not in a trade but my family members are and it is some of the most growing and crazy work out there they've been in dangerous situations like solar panels flying away during a nor'easter or lax fire safety at a nuclear power plant they've worked crazy amounts of overtime just trying to meet impossible deadlines my husband has been lucky but when my dad was in the union he would get laid off and be out of work for months where he would do side work the alternative to this is working at out of range jobs and being away from home for months at a time they take a toll on your body my husband will most likely need a knee replacement and my dad had to retire early due to his health working for yourself is all well and good if you can balance your own books maintain your codes licenses and are insured all while homeowners freak out at the price for rewiring their 1930s fire trap house they feel like reddit tries to paint trades as these simple jobs that anyone can do with easy pay when there's a lot more that goes into it it's not just your ability to weld hang drywall or wire but understanding and remembering code requirements safely using all of your tools and keeping yourself sane while you figure out how we're going to finish all this in a week i still think anyone should give it a try if they really want to just understand that it's harder work than people like to think about i don't think my husband would do anything differently but i know my dad actively steered me away from a trade as a kid should go without saying but any be your own boss job akka pyramid scheme mlm setting your own hours working from home unlimited profit etc all sounds great until you realize you're the consumer graphic design the whole we're looking for a passionate creative blah blah designer blob laughing is just an advertisement especially if you're looking for a job at an advertising company the non-graphic designers only care about the image of the company and their exposure awards and it while making graphic designers work for more hours than what was agreed not paying them enough and generally the whole passionate and creative criteria is a bait you might start as a passionate and a creative human but you'll end up a wreck eventually being an artist people think it's just fun drawing time in art class but it is so stressful especially if it's a job you do when i get commissions i spend hours just thinking of the idea i start sketching it person usually a non-artist artists are usually more gentle about it or don't mind says it's not how they wanted it redo the sketch hopefully it's okay now do the two-hour line art they say oh this is wrong this is too big wtf is that etc after spending another one two hours fixing it you color it in there's usually no problem with that unless it's an artist with a color palette you're not used to when you're done you send them to picture and hopefully they paid you while you were drawing because there's a lot of people who just make excuses also if you're a small artist you probably undercharge that commission that drawing you slaved over for five days the person was only willing to 15 and you'll take anything because everyone loves to ask for free stuff pro wrestling like a small chance of making not only wwe but any other company in general and injuries and travel some people are forced to retire young even if you never been in the independent scene wwe has an infamous schedule and travel time i am the official photographer at a famous beauty pageant and it's not as glamorous and it looks to start off the girls barely sleep you can always see them worn out and wearing eye bag patches at rehearsals at the photo shoots i'm always a hot mess i sweat i get dirty because i have to drag around ella in the floor i run here and there and on finals night it's a complete chaos people running around dressing rooms with clothes all over the place makeup stains and so on musician everyone knows the money is it but people think you either starve early and give up or you're talented and you break out not so there are normal music jobs out there unfortunately they're subject to the following constraints one nobody who hasn't also trained for 20 years knows whether you're doing a good job many of them don't either two the products produced by the music industry have value the services involved in producing those products can't easily be assigned a value as a result you have no leverage and pay negotiations three everyone ignores wage laws and nobody is interested in enforcing them the government never enforces them there is only effective unionism in the us and uk whereas for example in australia musicians are represented by the same union which represents actors and journalists which laughs at the idea of giving a writ about musicians four this includes things like state and federal minimum wage overall not just the sector minimum it's not uncommon to be making approximately five dollars an hour to be working your ass off constantly without breaks five you will eventually be able to find work that pays above minimum wage it will have nowhere near full-time hours six you will do as many unpaid hours as you do paid hours minimum sometimes you will do 2x as many i'm 14 and you guys destroyed 94 7 of my hopes you

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Id: NgyTps7MT5g

Length: 30min 38sec (1838 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 06 2021