Jobs you thought would be fabulous but actually weren't?

[GardenDreams]

I was a full time fine artist for 30 years (traditional painting, mixed media and pattern design) worked with book publishing, freelance, galleries, online print sales, various large companies and a few partnerships with celebs. Not as exciting as it sounds though, lol.

Throughout this period, many people looked at me with awe after asking what I did, mostly in surprise that I could earn enough to live on (it came close, at times). I do get the impression that many people think that this is a very thrilling and freeing way to live, but the reality was quite stressful and scary, at least financially, at times. It was a good long slog, with some tricky customers and another full time job dealing with social media. And the work never, ever stopped - there was no clocking off or guilt free holidays. Aside from the online glamour of how it looks, it eventually becomes less about self expression and more like a production line. At times I was completely, visually exhausted.

There are tons of newly proclaimed artists of a certain age on insta, and now more than ever before are offering art courses (after only 6 months in to being self taught), so it's very much a competitive kind of 'grind' culture which has multiplied in the past 6 years.. It is 'sold' as an alternative, lucrative side hustle, but is actually far from the oh so relaxing vibe these insta accounts make out in their posts.

I am still creating but have moved over into a new field that I love, and only now can I see how utterly draining and hard it was when I look back on it. But I am sure so many people still think the idea is quite romantic and liberating.

Anyone else with a similar story? I am cure there are tons of careers that sound wonderful to me, that might be really soul destroying or at least stressful in reality. My fantasy job would have been an archivist, but I took such a different path at ui that I dare say that boat sailed a long time ago!

Architect - everyone assumes it’s a well paid job swanning around in black with blueprints and designing glamorous buildings and niche homes. The reality is it’s a lot of stripping back designs due to no one wanting to pay for quality, worrying about being sued, drawing bits of plasterboard around steel, drawing bin stores, worrying about being sued a bit more and the pay is pretty abysmal for a profession. Projects drag on forever and work life balance is terrible.

My friend is a zoo keeper. While she gets special moments now and then with the animals it mostly seems to be dealing with abusive bosses who bulldoze caring plans which aren't right for the animals, competitive colleagues who push her off the rota behind her back, no progression and often under intense surveillance - she was saying in a local zoo (not hers) that all staff are monitored by camera and microphone at all times, which means the public are too! The manager radios them if they're seen standing for too long etc. sounds miserable! And that's not even factoring in all the poo.

Acting- not that I lasted very long. You spend most of your time doing shit temporary jobs to survive and then have to endlessly audition. I became a teacher instead and do it in a dramatic fashion!

I’m a published fiction writer with a TV adaptation under my belt.

Publishing is awful. Too many books published, not enough support. You were expected to do so much marketing hustle on your own, for such little money - and for very little return. Books you spent a long time writing - and there is absolutely no holiday from writing, you get no break - often alongside other work - would end up barely making a dent in an overcrowded market.

it was exhausting and it sadly killed my love of writing.

You have to remember that they don't make much money from art too. They make money from YouTube and from telling that art is lucrative and is an amazing career.

Lifestyles journalist - I actually quite enjoyed it (the events and freebies were nice)

Radio presenter - so-so I always had to come up with something witty to say

Account manager at a music publishing company - we were fairly small, but I did have Enrique Iglesias in my books!

Receptionist/translator in an embassy. Boring as hell.

Teacher - absolutely loved it...exhausting, stressful, wonderful.

Just joining because I've never had the kind of job people see as a dream job, so it's interesting to read about people who have.

Playground design. And this was a proper design company, bespoke, lovely natural tree houses, interactive pebble water features with boulders etc etc.

The job gave me some kind of lasting trauma and I needed therapy afterwards. Worked to the utter bone, 50 hours a week for basically minimum wage, my previous job in waitressing paid better. The bosses were afraid to compliment anyone in case we asked for a pay rise, so all we got was criticism and pressure. They refused to say no to any work so our project list just got longer and longer with clients ringing daily to shout at us about their missing designs.

In the mean time the bosses were custom building their second homes (and second wives) and taking 'marketing' trips to the middle east (blissful when they weren't there) I remember looking around in a meeting and everyone looked utterly haggered and down, like we were overseeing corpse recovery not tree planting. I had already decided to leave at that point but that certainly cemented things.

I moved onto garden design and landscaping which in general a stressful and low paid profession, but nothing was quite as bad as the first job.

After 12 years I asked DH if he would support me while I tried to set up something myself. I now work for other design companies, freelancing as a technical artist and 3d artist. It's wonderful not having to deal with customers. I have heard independently that some of my clients are hard to work for but I never get that as I'm not their employee I guess, they've all been lovely to me, two of them have asked me to become an employee but I tell them I couldn't possibly (I blame my Sen child but in reality I can't be asked).

So yes, now I really do just swan about doing art. It's fab. Took 15 years to get here though.

Academia! I like my research, but get to do it in ever-fewer slivers of time.

An increasing wave of student extensions, resits and requests for resit tutorials are wiping out research time, particularly August, when traditionally we have some research time and holiday.

Young people feel adrift and often come to us with major personal problems. Formally, we're meant to 'signpost' them to wellbeing services. In reality we have to listen first, and the cases are so sad.

There's a toxic working culture with little teamwork and no bandwidth for constructive challenge. You need to be relentlessly positive in the face of mediocrity, rather than trying to change what isn't working - there is no bandwidth at the moment.

I know that if I resigned, the institution would be pleased because I could be replaced by someone cheaper who delivers a more edutaining experience cutting standards and expecting less.

And the pension is gone.

This is a really interesting thread.

I’m the opposite, my job gets a lot of bad press, people are apparently leaving in droves. I came to it at 26 on a bit of a whim, I’d fallen into a well paid but boring career and I wanted a shake up. I was terrified I was going to struggle…but I didn't. And I absolutely LOVE it.

It is a very different job to what I expected though and it’s constantly evolving. Lots of different pressures, expectations and needs, lots of reevaluating of my own beliefs, idea, and opinions. Over a decade in and every day is still different. There is always something new to learn. I’ve accidentally found my forte.

I really want to know what this is!

For some reason I always thought working in a bar would be super fun as a student - it wasnt. Its exhausting, having to deal with drunks, aggressive lecherous men, huge crowds of people and having to clean toilets etc

Conversely- I also worked on a psych ward and I absolutely loved it. Most people would imagine it was awful (if you believe film/tv depictions- none of them are realistic btw) but it was one of the most fulfilling jobs I've ever had- listening to people and supporting them was lovely and so interesting. I got far more verbal abuse working in customer service than I ever did on a psychiatric ward.

Oh gosh, I didn’t mean to be elusive, I thought I’d said….anti climax, I’m a primary teacher.

I had wondered, when you said 'people are leaving in droves'...

I'm really glad people still love teaching. My children have been really lucky so far. I hope your love continues to evolve!

I can’t tell if this is sarcastic or not! Because fuck me midwifery was awful.

The bitchiness and downright bullying from colleagues, the endless list of paperwork pulling you away from actual patient care, the unrealistic expectations of clients (who were not necessarily being unreasonable), the huge level of responsibility, the safeguarding, the complaints, giving absolutely all of yourself and getting nothing in return, absolutely no job satisfaction as you are constantly aware that with more time and resources you would have done much better and are always worrying about something you missed.

In a postnatal clinic I was expected to change a cesarean wound dressing, complete newborn blood spot screening, ask a mother about her mental health (heaven forbid if she actually burst into tears), watch a FULL breastfeed, get asked if the baby had tongue tie - only to then be told ‘midwives don’t know about tongue ties/lip ties/buccal ties anyway’, complete a tongue tie referral, complete jaundice screening, weigh a baby, find the baby was probably 12% below their birthweight, spend hours of my life trying to get through to the paediatricians, write in two sets of notes, fill in some useless proforma - the results of which audit would probably create more paperwork, and probably stand around waiting for new parents to slowly undress and redress their baby (understandably). Never mind if they had actual questions or concerns. All of this had to be done WITHIN 30 minutes. WITH NO ADMIN TIME ALLOCATED.

I spent my evenings and days off in a state of panic about what I had missed. Whose baby might die because I failed to notice subtle symptoms of pre-eclampsia, who might take an overdose because I couldn’t actually listen to their mental health concerns, who would give up breastfeeding because I couldn’t support them.

It’s horrific. I did it for the best part of a decade. It got worse and worse as time went on. The paperwork is unfathomably bad.

I was a large music venue backstage artist liaison for 10 years. There’s not many huge artists I’ve not looked after and though it sounds so glam and exciting, it basically was carrying stuff, ticking stuff off lists and cleaning whilst waiting for the moment they’d all leave 🤣

Speech and Language Therapist: high caseload numbers, constant phone calls from wards asking when you are going to see X. Difficult conversations with service users and families about recovery potential. Unrealistic team members who think you can solve all of their problems. Constant staff shortages.

Glad I’ve left.

Everyone always thinks my job sounds fun but the reality is so far from it. I work as a product developer for food. Currently I work for a supermarket on their desserts and puddings. Don't think there's a single cheesecake on sale I've not tried and we go out to restaurants to try theirs too. But the hours are long, the deadlines are tight and we're under constant pressure to hit price points and still deliver the necessary margin. We do 2 major range reviews per year and it just never stops. If a competitor launches something amazing we're hauled over the coals as to why we didn't launch it. If suppliers mess up we have to deal with it.

And as for the actual tasting, sometimes I eat 30 things in a day, it sounds far more fun than it is and spitting mouthfuls out in front of colleagues is gross even though we all do it.

Working in visitor services at one of the most beautiful buildings in the country that people travel across the world to visit. The building was (and still is) lovely and it felt like an honour to be there early in the morning or late at night when it was deserted.

By my god the day time - it was basically crowd control with awful moaning entitled adults and sullen bored children. Massvie tour groups who just wanted to all come in at once and people who couldn't follow basic instructions like - remove your hat, please wear a top, don't eat food inside.

It was utterly exhausting.

Screenwriter. Particularly at the moment when the UK tv&film industry is in a really bad place.

It’s possible to make big money at the top but this only applies to a handful of writers - the same ‘big name’ writers tend to get hired over and over, while the rest of us scramble around trying to get work.

The work itself can be soul destroying- so much time spent hustling and pitching ideas. Production companies expecting a lot of work for free. Getting pummelled with rejections….it’s exhausting tbh.

Also I grew up on a small farm and Mr Monkey's family ran pubs. We often get looks of envy from friends who say "I would love to do that" and we do THE LOOK.

It was mainly poorly paid, relentlessly hard work without a single day off.

I’m a vet. Horrendous hours- you literally can’t go home until it’s all done. 1 in 7 nights/ weekends on call on top of normal working hours. If you’re up all night, tough you still work the next day. A weekend on call starts 8am Friday morning and finishes 6pm Monday evening if you’re lucky. I get a half day the following Friday to make up for it and that’s it. Pay is terrible, still paying student loan in my 40s because it was 5 years of training.
And just constantly having clients complaining about the money, telling us we must be rolling in it etc. It’s soul destroying!

Definitely zoo keeping. Did it for years. Lots of washing windows and sweeping which i actually enjoyed. The animals are obviously wonderful. But management and staff were the worst people ive ever worked with. Huge egos and in fighting within the place. I still feel upset if i think about it. Heard awful stories too about animals not cared for properly who suffered. I was paid a pittance, and no job security. Animals clearly deserved more than we were providing and i don't visit zoos now. I was very qualified, as are many keepers, but earned a pittance.

I still work with animals in a different area and love it.

Modelling. It's my full time job but so unpredictable. The rejection. The travel. The not knowing when you're going to be booked or not. The people in the industry! Yeah, not all that fun at all.