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!

Another library professional here. I have loved many aspects of my jobs over the years, but also hated plenty! Absolute worst - school libraries. The bureaucracy and tiny budgets, the not really being a teacher or admin, the many many arsey students to one who actually wants to be there. School librarian roles (and public libraries!) are being massively de skilled right now and the majority of schools will not be employing a qualified librarian any more, library spaces are being taken over as classrooms, budgets are being shaved so that we can’t even buy essential software licences for the year. I was in a school over the pandemic and it nearly broke me!

I do still work in libraries but back at a uni and working in accessibility which I’m loving, but I haven’t touched a book in a long time 😂

A PR for celebs and the entertainment industry.

People used to tell me how exciting and glamorous it seemed.

The reality was being on the clock 24/7 on big jobs, wrangling egos, doing deals with journos who had dirt on clients, media training actors / celebs who were thick as mince and couldn’t be trusted not to say something stupid that would end up on the front pages.

Being screamed at by clients because their coverage wasn’t good enough / wide enough / gushing enough, A listers treating you like something they’ve stepped in until they wanted something and suddenly became your best friend.

Constant hustling for work, being backstabbed by mates in same industry.

I stuck at it much longer than I should have and had crippling burnout as a result. I used to turn the horrors into funny stories and gossip but it’s actually a pretty shocking work environment that needs to be regulated a lot more!

And I now can’t watch a lot of the big TV programmes as I can’t bear to be reminded of how badly some of our national treasures spoke to me, often because they were just in a bad mood or bored.

I thought there would be lots of medical posts here from any hospital or GP staff but only midwives so far. its fascinating! I am not a fan of working (although I always have done,a variety of jobs) so my expectations were always low,some being better than others

Lion tamer.
Poor job security and limited health benefits.

I thought I would be a human rights/immigration barrister, only got to a paralegal for a charity and hated it. A lot of the people I felt compelled to help actually didn't deserve the help because they were liars, wasting a lot of our time and resources on lies that they would then reveal in piecemeal. It was extremely frustrating trying to help them only to find out they fabricated the whole thing. I can still feel empathy for them and I get there are many reasons why someone might lie or not trust 'authority' but it was at the cost of my own wellbeing when I had to say you know what I give up on this, I do not want it anymore.

Clients are so rude and entitled whether poor or rich. You might say well you are paid for it, the reality is in non-profit and pro bono it involves unpaid hours at the infringement of my family and personal life. It's just not 'in the spirit' to 'set boundaries' and walk away when a destitute single mum with no English might be deported or evicted that night.
The clients were largely time wasters, liars, entitled. I was too naive and hopeful for the role and would get too emotionally invested. I still think that working for human rights is a noble role but I am so disillusioned by charity and immigration.

I think if you work in charity or law you need a thick skin, something I do not have. Master the empathic facial expression but don't actually care.
I am still dealing with the consequences of this shitty job on my health, years later! 0/10 do not recommend if you are so hopeful to change the world you won't.

I always regretted not trying harder & becoming an architect…

Me too, Club 18-30 😂. I think the holidays makers thought we had the best job when in reality it was badly paid and exhausting. We worked 7 day a week, only 2 of us had any idea how to do the paperwork so would spend all of Sunday doing everyone else’s as well as our own. Check out days were exhausting trying to find lost items, being abused when refusing to refund deposits because apartments and rooms had been trashed. I once went to the apartment of 6 young lads and they’d removed all the doors, no one knew where they were 😂 We did have a good laugh and I have the best memories but it’s definitely not a 6 month holiday .

Junior doctor.

Medicine is one of the most over-subscribed university courses and masses of bright, interested and interesting teens want to do it. Of course, not only do they have to do exceedingly well in their A levels (or equiv), they are supposed to show that they are good all-rounders, so the successful candidates often have other achievements like playing sports or music at a high level too.

Then they get to uni and it all unravels. So many of them are such high-achievers and yet suffer awful imposter syndrome, there's a high level of MH problems amongst medical students and doctors. The undergrad course is full on; contact teaching 5 days per week for 7+ hours a day, plus "homework", and in most unis, after the second year, they don't get the long uni holidays as that's teaching time too. They are also dealing at a young age with some things that many people would find unmanageable - blood and guts, death and dying.

They graduate with megadebt due to the long course and lack of opportunity for part time working through the course, then the NHS hits them with job allocations (you don't apply for a particular job at a particular place, although you can state a preference; you have to apply through a deanery so can get sent to any crappy hospital across a huge swathe of the country -- and change job and location every 6 - 12 months. How you fit this in with finding somewhere to live, having a relationship or having children is your problem). And of course you're working horrible shift patterns, and watching other people's earnings soar past yours, whilst working in what is a very stressful, understaffed, high-demand environment.

Then instead of helping people, you're constantly being challenged by them as anyone who can google thinks they know more than a doctor; and other HCP, especially PAs (and sometimes nurses) are not beyond saying that they are "as good as" doctors (they may well be in their own roles but each profession is different and they are not interchangeable no matter what some may think!). People are disrespectful, rude, aggressive, violent, and constantly threatening to report to the GMC because they "don't like" the doctor. And the GMC has a terrible reputation for hanging individual doctors out to dry when it's really the system at fault.

As you can tell this has opened a can of worms and it's a deep dark can! I could go on but it's already reaching the TL:DR stage!

The very recent announcement of a pay rise for doctors is a small salve to some of these wounds but it would take more than this for me to recommend medicine as a career.

If any of you have teens who are interested in being a doctor, please show them this post.

I feel so sad when I think I had to put my DC into long hours childcare that they hated, how stressed and short tempered I was at home, how my health deteriorated for a job that burnt me out. I suppose a good thing is that it made me appreciate being a SAHM and completely cured my enthusiasm for a career in law.

Interesting that no one has mentioned doctor. When usually the profession is prorated as the word, at least in the NHS.

Model - sounds very glamorous but it's self employed so you are constantly worrying about the next job. The day rates are good and buy outs can be really good but then you might have a month with no work. Lots of travelling (which looks glamorous but you usually spend more time travelling than in the glamorous location). You've got to be free at the drop of a hat so it's hard to have another side job. Oh and people getting annoyed that it's somehow your fault if their clothes aren't a great fit!

Nursing - horrible. It was impossible to care because you were too busy writing notes and chasing your tail.

Teaching - too much about targets and meeting this test or that test or panicking about Ofsted. And you work such long hours planning and marking and everything else.

I've yet to find a job I like!

Tired of the point-scoring and back-stabbing in banking risk management, I took a big pay cut to go work for a charity promoting horse welfare, a cause very close to my heart. I really thought it would be my dream job.

Instead, I found lots and lots of petty politics, possibly more than in my previous job. I got a decidedly frosty reception from a few of the employees of long standing. Some liked to indulge in a game of horsey one-upmanship. They'd say things like, "oh, haven't you heard of so-and-so, how very strange, I thought you were a horse owner", or "oh, you haven't mastered piaffe, I thought you did dressage, are you quite novice then?".

I told myself I was there for the horses, but was quite happy when a relocation abroad required me to resign!

Well, to those of you who expressed surprise that no-one has said Doctor, I have now! (long post above!)

I can echo what a PP said about working in Film & TV. It is not glamorous.

I work in documentaries, and went through a period of hating it as we were so overworked, but the culture at my company has changed and we have more support now, and I'm (mostly) loving it. Shame I'll probably have to change careers as it's a dying industry.

On the other hand, I refuse to work on Drama Docs. Just one look at the poor crew we hire from the drama / film side of things says it all - it's a completely different world to documentaries. Insane work hours, cliquey environment, huge pressures from budgets/schedules, no job stability. They look so haggard and down trodden, like walking corpses. Wouldn't touch it with a barge pole.

Architect, always portrayed as extremely well paid in the movies. The reality is it's the lowest of the construction related industries and the expectation on output is huge! It's the one thing I don't want DSS to do 😞

Solo tribute artiste (to a very famous female country star). Long drives, lugging heavy equipment around, having to change in disgusting ‘green rooms’ (usually a cupboard or horrible staff quarters. It’s also really hard to eat well when travelling. I still do the same job now, but run a band instead so at least I have a gang of my musician buddies with me for company. When the workload is shared it’s much more enjoyable. The performing makes it all worth it, but it’s only a couple of hours onstage in what often turns out to be a 12 hour day! I also lost all my work during the pandemic when my job became ‘unviable’. I was only skilled to do minimum wage jobs and am still trying to get back to where I was financially. Aged 45, Instead of saving anything towards a pension I’ll be lucky if I am back at 0 by the time I’m 50. Terrifying really!

@mauvish
Your post is interesting. Any redeeming aspects of the job?
I always think that being a doctor must be so hard and certainly not your 9-5 office job. Candidates who want to apply to med school really must feel a deep calling to do medicine and being a doctor in order to put up with all the difficult parts.

I wouldn't personally recommend it to mine unless the were obsessed with the idea and had a pretty thick skin. I also do not believe empathy is all that required in doctors, as long as they have learned professional bedside manners. Those who are very empathetic would probably burn out quickly. You need to be able to compartmentalise and remain detached to deal with it.

Fascinating thread.

Friend did event planning in London. She regrets allowing it to overtake her life and push out relationships/ family opportunities . Mornings spent chasing new business, afternoons at the evening venue setting up, getting changed in a loo or behind a curtain, doing the event then being the last to leave to check all is okay. Not getting home until the early hours. Repeat, repeat. She arranged a conference for 2,000 people when the CEO of a hugely well known company was due to speak. He rang her as people were gathering and mingling to say that his brother had flown in to surprise him and he'd be an hour or so late. Ffs

I fancied a break from nursing and decided to become an airline stewardess. Shorthaul with Dan Air as I had a child at home. I always looked great in blue.
6 months later I left in disgust and went back to nursing for a break. Worst job ever.
Bitchy hell hound staff with claws out for any rich passenger in sight, always feeling awful from the altitude with swollen ankles, I ended up wearing compression tights like my granny, rushing around like a blue arsed fly, being groped by everyone, doing 3 paris flights in one day, pissed passengers.
I could not wait to get out of there.

Being a vet - seeing so many poorly treated animals combined with owners who don’t understand basic animal care…just heartbreaking.

I left after 15 years and work in the civil service now because I couldn’t stomach seeing one more obese/under exercised dog who’s owner complained about the cost of various treatments that were entirely down to the owners neglect of their pet and likely wouldn’t have arisen/would not have arisen for many more years if the owner had actually bothered.

That and the abuse towards vets (as evidenced on mumsnet threads). Just completely destroyed my love for my profession

Spot on! 😁

Very interesting thread but slightly depressing seeing that most of the jobs listed on here are the ones I have dreamed of doing.

I have always had very boring jobs which never lived up to my expectations as I knew they would be dull.

Dh and I have a touring caravan and always dream of purchasing a house with land and running our own little camp site but having worked in many customer based jobs in the past I know that anything involving the general public will be a nightmare scenario in the end.

Not a job, but it made me think of the stunningly beautiful social media photos of people in camper vans

We have a classic camper van, that we maintain ourselves

White interiors are not compatible with muddy, wet fields

If you are unable to do the ongoing maintenance or repairs yourself, you need to pay someone else to do it

If you have not pre booked somewhere to park for the night, you need to find somewhere with no parking fine & not upsetting the locals

I know people that have paid for a camper van & it has not been delivered, due to scammers.
The scammers are rife, selling a lifestyle that does not exist.

However, there is a good community out there & if you suit the real lifestyle, it is a great way to travel, meet people & enjoy life

Redeeming aspects? Well, the human body and its workings is so interesting, and people and their stories can be endlessly fascinating (but you don't get to learn much about the latter if you work in a hospital, you really need to have the ongoing community contact forthat -- and that's being lost in GP as well).

The money can be good (eventually! but not for many years!)

Most people are actually nice, and pleasant, but it doesn't take many unpleasant people to ruin a day.

I agree 100% with your comments on empathy. Students are told that this is almost an overriding requirement; but in fact those that are overly empathetic can really struggle with switching off. "A problem shared is a problem halved"; but if you have 30 people a day sharing their problems with you, that can be 30 peoples' problems that you take home. That way (amongst many others!) lies a swift burn out.