What would be the most BORING industry you could imagine working in?

[MrsMerryHenry]

In my efforts to get my freelance career off the ground I am doing a writing project and am searching for ideas.

Your suggestions much appreciated!

I am an actuary working in financial services and love my job, it's really intellectually challenging. But maybe I'm just a geek....

I did have a job in aerospace engineering that people used to go "ooh that sounds really exciting" when I told them what I did, but it made me want to slit my wrists it was so dull.

I quit when I realised I was fantasising about how much time off I would get if I was hit by a car!!

So just because a job sounds/doesn't sound interesting doesn't necessarily reflect the reality!!

thought of another one....land surveyor....what is more boring than standing in the middle of the road and measuring how hih the kerb is off the road surface or how many windows a building has got...whilst wearing a woolly hat

For all those engaged in the Financial Services boring/not-boring debate:

It all boils down to whatever floats your boat really isn't it, as with any industry.

I've worked in education ever since graduating university, except for one year when I worked in Financial Services. I can honestly say it was the most incredibly boring, yet stressful (absolute bitch of a boss) year of my life.

(Thanks to Blueshoes by the way for the explanation of what I did - it was actually tongue in cheek when I wrote I had no idea.)

Having absolutely no interest whatsoever in the job industry that you are in would equal boring, wouldn't it?

However, the OP seems to need ideas for her writing project and there are certain job industry titles which would immediately jump out for most people as being "boring" "nerdy" and so on. For me, Financial Services ranks up there amongst them... though I freely admit that for others, these very same words stimulate their intellect into overdrive...

Message withdrawn

Of course, in the end, it is about what floats your boat. I work in IT, and I love project managing, but most of the guys I work with want to be hands on and doing it, and would rather put pins under their nails than fill in RAG reports....
BUT there are still mind numbing jobs that are usually poorly paid, and still haven't been mechanised...
I do, however, remember someone telling a story of how he visited a bottling factory somewhere in Europe, there were two women apparently just nattering as the convayor belt of bottles (empty) went past them (they were sitting side on), he assumed they were having a break until one of them shot out an arm and took a bottle off the line and binned it - their job was to look for flaws in the glass and apparently it was easier to do out of the corner of your eye!

It's not an industry, but the most boring job I ever did was as a temp for an electricity company. I was handed a pile of several thousand electricity bills and asked to put them in numerical order. Not very mind-expanding!

actually insurance is kind of interesting..

something like lubrications or chemicals

Trixymalixy - I am an aerospace engineer, and I love it. However I can't imagine working as an actuary or for financial sevrices, I think i would rather boil my own head!

Just gos to show, different strokes and all that!

I have a preschool-mum friend whose job is packing nails and screws into cardboard boxes on a production line. Now to me that would be totally soul-destroying, but she is the enthusiastic type who is the shop-floor rep for all the women there, takes pride in doing her job neatly, quickly and efficiently, helping her more clumsy mates when it's getting near to clocking-off... and bringing home a bit of extra cash to be able to treat her kids to the odd comic, ice-cream or day out. She's one of the happiest people I know and I love her!

cleaning not so bad - got to read reams of sordid smut instructive literature between cleans.

factory work also not so bad once you get into the rhythmn, a fast line keps your hand busy whilst your mind can be anywhere it wants.

sales actually more fun once you're into it.

shop work same (even nights)

most boring job i had was an office job where there wasn't anything to do bu i still had to look busy (so not read)..or alternately here was a factory job on a really slow line where I had to press plastic shapes for ten hours (the machine made you wait 28 seconds between pressings, I counted back from 28 every time to make sure i was ready to release the mechanism and do as many as possible)

These aren't industries but both were completely boring jobs. I had a Saturday job once just sitting on the changing rooms checking items customers were taking in/out in a very crap clothes shop in town. I used to pass the day by reading the dictionary (was the only thing to hand and now that I think about it, a bit odd to have a dictionary lying around in a clothes shop).

The other boring job I had was when I finished uni - I worked in a sewing factory whipping the edges of carpet samples. Was like being back at school, full of women/girls shouting and fighting all day long - I only lasted 1 week!

Well my part of the Civil Service may be deathly boring but the perks (mat leave/pay, flexible working, final salary pension scheme etc) are what keep me in the job

'Can I speak to the home onwner please?" No?- opps the phone's gone dead. Next!

Just has to be an awful job.

People who call to check your meter.God that must be so dull. Then finding them not in and having to write a little card out every time.

The highlight of your day must be when you get a really high reading and you think "ooooohh, a big unexpected bill awaits these unsuspecting customers"! That and getting covered with spider webs and dust as you grapple with old junk under the stairs for that elusive box.

I did some extra part time work last year as a library assistant. I thought I would love it, dealing with the public and all those books (I love reading) but it was SO boring ... sorting dusty books into alphabetical/numerical file order ....