What’s the worst job you’ve ever had, pandas? Was it working in a high-stress restaurant where cooks and customers constantly blamed you for their own mistakes and berated you for being too slow? Or was it a mind-numbing desk job that sucked the life out of you and wasn’t nearly worth it for the disappointing paychecks you earned? No matter what your preferences are when choosing a place of employment, I’m sure you can relate to having at least one job that you wouldn’t wish upon your worst enemy.
As it turns out, there are plenty of career paths out there that even the people in them wouldn’t recommend. Last week, Reddit user HalosOpulence asked readers to detail why they wouldn’t recommend their professions to others, and these workers were brutally honest. Below, we’ve gathered their most eye-opening, and frankly unfortunate, responses, so you too can know which career fields to be wary of.
Keep reading to also find an interview with HalosOpulence to hear what inspired this conversation in the first place, and be sure to upvote the replies you resonate with. Then if you’re interested in reading about even more careers that aren’t all they're cracked up to be, check out this Bored Panda article next!
#21
Musician.
It's countless hours of practice (and talent doesn't hurt either), just to get to career level, and countless more to maintain that level. And even *that* doesn't guarantee you a spot on stage or in the studio, or that people will like what you do enough to pay you.
It's also about who you know. Which is a combination of networking skills, a tasteful amount of pushiness, and sheer luck. So if you're not a people person (and that's ok, lots of musicians aren't, even some successful ones), your task is even harder.
We certainly must do it for the love of music, mustn't we...
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56points
#23
Union Laborer. Mainly concrete work but occasionally I do asphalt or other stuff like that.
The money is great and there is always work but unless you want to have very bad back, neck and joint pain by the time you’re 25 I wouldn’t recommend it.
I’ve seen countless people(basically 75% of the people I work with) addicted to all sorts of painkillers because it’s so rough on the body. I’m only 27 and I’m starting to see why they all are, my body aches all the time.
Go to college.
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50points
#24
Realtor. Seems like everyone and their mothers are getting their real estate license, then quitting a couple months in. The only reason me and my husband have found success is because my mom is the broker and owner of our firm and has devoted time to teaching and guiding us 1 on 1. If you are thinking of becoming a realtor, here are some things you will need to actually make it in the business
— At minimum 8 months of living expenses saved up. You will make zero money the first year, and if you try to do real estate and a side hustle you will fail. You have to devote yourself full time in order to learn and market yourself.
— Be ready to put yourself out into the community like a jackass. You basically have to show up to every community/public event the first year and act like those people in the quad on orientation week, or maybe like a mall kiosk person. If you don’t market yourself hardcore then you won’t have any clients. The first 2 years in this job my husband door knocked and gave his sales pitch everyday from 2-5pm. He definitely has a soft spot for door to door salesmen and gives them water and snacks when they show up to our house.
— You have to have a mentor who can teach you the ropes. You will not learn enough in school for your license. Find someone you can shadow for the first year, or someone online you can take classes from. There’s so many intricate details to contracts, appraisals, loans, inspections, and closings that you just have to learn from asking a pro. I’ve seen sooooo many dumdum realtors who get themselves sued because they didn’t know something was legally binding, they misread a contract, they weren’t aware of a deadline, even seen something as simple as they didn’t know to attach a lead based paint addendum. My mom suggested we memorize a standard contract front to back. I’m glad we did.
All in all we are very successful. I no longer work, I’m a stay at home mom, but my husband is still very busy in the industry and last year his income was $230,000. You do very well in real estate but the stigma that it’s and easy, over paid, hands off job is so stupid and just wrong. My husband works longer hours than 9-5 but he is paid accordingly. To anyone who read this entire post and still wants to get into real estate, best of luck to you!!
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50points
#25
If you want to live in Japan and don't care about not earning very much money, come "teach" English. Literally the only real requirements are 1) be alive and 2) at least kind of speak English. If you can read this comment you're probably overqualified.
Reasons not to do it:
- Pay is s**t.
- No benefits.
- You will either spend your days sitting around doing f**k all but waiting to or being worked to exhaustion.
- No advancement, this is it.
- Feels utterly pointless. The curriculum is garbage. Most students don't give a f**k and won't learn much of anything. The few who *do* give a f**k and have some degree of aptitude will be f****d over by a combination of the s**t curriculum, their classmates weighing them down like an anchor, and the Japanese English teachers may not even actually speak English themselves and/or teach weird and wrong s**t as a result.
- You'll probably get shunted off to some random mountain town that's been hemorrhaging population steadily for decades with an average age of 48 and absolutely f**k all to do there unless you like hanging out in smokey old people "snack bars" or smokey pachinko parlors.
- Pay is s**t.
- No benefits.
- You will either spend your days sitting around doing f**k all but waiting to or being worked to exhaustion.
- No advancement, this is it.
- Feels utterly pointless. The curriculum is garbage. Most students don't give a f**k and won't learn much of anything. The few who *do* give a f**k and have some degree of aptitude will be f****d over by a combination of the s**t curriculum, their classmates weighing them down like an anchor, and the Japanese English teachers may not even actually speak English themselves and/or teach weird and wrong s**t as a result.
- You'll probably get shunted off to some random mountain town that's been hemorrhaging population steadily for decades with an average age of 48 and absolutely f**k all to do there unless you like hanging out in smokey old people "snack bars" or smokey pachinko parlors.
49points
#26
Freelance filmmaker here (cinematographer, director, producer).
Upsides:
- I can charge $150+ / hr.
- I can usually survive on less than 100 days of work per year.
- Seeing your name in the credits of a film/TV show feels pretty good.
- I can charge $150+ / hr.
- I can usually survive on less than 100 days of work per year.
- Seeing your name in the credits of a film/TV show feels pretty good.
Downsides:
- There is not a clear career path / road map to success. It’s mostly right time, right place, luck of the draw.
- There is not a clear career path / road map to success. It’s mostly right time, right place, luck of the draw.
- A normal shift is 10.5-12.5 hours and have often gone 18+hrs…for WEEKS AT A TIME with sporadic days off.
- It can require extended travel, often with no warning.
- A job typically gets booked as a “hold” (which is a soft “maybe this will actually happen” kind of commitment) and will often get pushed or dropped with zero explanation or recourse for payment.
- With every job, you must negotiate against a shrewd producer who is always “working with a tight budget” whenever the client is: Disney, Facebook, Nike, Coldplay (insert Fortune 500 company / organization not hurting for money)
- Getting work often has zero to do with your portfolio or level of talent.
- Competition for work is FIERCE and often results in people undercutting each other (even as friends) to get that gig.
- For equipment, I have invested tens-of-thousands of dollars with the hope of rolling the new gear into my rental kit…only to have a client decline to use my camera or lenses in favor of cheap / inferior rental equipment.
- Films are no longer “fun” to work on
- I am self employed and have no insurance
- It costs $10k to join the Union to not have to fight for a decent rate
- The divorce rate in the film industry is extremely high
- There is zero stability as a freelancer
- I’m always “working”
- My mental health has suffered during periods without work. You begin to question why so-and-so is working and you are not. It’s a vicious cycle.
- On the best days, I feel like a disposable cog in a machine and not an artist.
46points
#27
Politician
No matter how good you are at your job, how much you have done, you will still be hated by half of the population
Your private life will be under microscope by either side of the MSM and any small mistake will become the biggest news and headlines for them.
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44points
#28
Accountant/Auditor.
It’s mentally exhausting. People are f*****g sensitive and weird when it comes to money. I have to request pretty standard information, which make some clients get very defensive. I’m not questioning the quality of your work, jesus christ calm down.
People also don’t understand the importance of little things like keeping receipts/invoices. It’s rare to find business owners who are organized and know anything about accounting.
I helped with the back end work of doing tax returns and it amazes me that there are people who have been doing taxes for 20+ years yet you still have to beg them for the same information every year. I’m the type of person who after 2-3 attempts, I will just move the f**k on.
Also, it’s funny how growing up the saying is “if you don’t want to deal with people, be an accountant!” Big nope. You have to not only get information out of people, you have talk about money with them and like I said before, always a sensitive issue.
It’s mentally exhausting. People are f*****g sensitive and weird when it comes to money. I have to request pretty standard information, which make some clients get very defensive. I’m not questioning the quality of your work, jesus christ calm down.
People also don’t understand the importance of little things like keeping receipts/invoices. It’s rare to find business owners who are organized and know anything about accounting.
I helped with the back end work of doing tax returns and it amazes me that there are people who have been doing taxes for 20+ years yet you still have to beg them for the same information every year. I’m the type of person who after 2-3 attempts, I will just move the f**k on.
Also, it’s funny how growing up the saying is “if you don’t want to deal with people, be an accountant!” Big nope. You have to not only get information out of people, you have talk about money with them and like I said before, always a sensitive issue.
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43points
#29
Advertising
Most people in advertising get aged out of the profession between the ages of 35 and 40.
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37points
#30
I build power lines-
it’s extremely hard on your body, long hours, work a lot of weekends and holidays. The pay is good but you can only do this trade for so long before your body gives out.
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35points