We were all taught as kids that we needed to decide what we wanted to do with our lives as early as possible, but how could a kid possibly know what would be the best match for them from a young age, other than what sounds the most fun?
Perhaps not surprisingly, some people choose totally the wrong career, and they may wind up being wildly unqualified for the job, either because of their education or because of the natural skill set they bring to the field.
Redditor Pesci_Avocado asked:
"What industry attracts the wrong people who actually aren't qualified?"
Politics
" Politics."
- MilvElcon23
"Want to be the head of all healthcare in the country? How about the head of all strategic defense policies?"
"Great! All you need is a rich and well-connected daddy, some private schooling, a law degree and JD from Harvard, and many years of experience being silver-tongued and sucking up to the right guy. Make sure you get a whitened smile, for the photos."
"Once that is done, you're the perfect person to tell senior doctors and military generals what to do."
- Common_Sense_Dudd
Board of Education
"Not exactly a job, but any board of education."
"They have no idea what goes on in the classroom, let alone the offices of a whole district of schools, but they literally make every decision."
- Hour-Eleven
Caring for the Elderly
"Elder care (cries)."
- Yarlyy666
"My town has one place that pays 11 dollars per hour... and they don't do drug screening. It's filled with some of the worst people I've ever met, staff-wise."
- Me_Want_Pie
Hospital Administration
"Hospital Administration."
"They are often business-oriented people with little to no experience in the health field. So they have no idea what those on the front line actually do. For them, it's all about profitability."
- 10EightNine
Hotel Management
" Hotel Management... believe me, I know."
- Content_Pool_1391
"I took an interview as a maintenance manager for a Hilton. I asked to view their facilities (for work) and their tool shop was a closet with a husky toolbox."
"I was bitter after not getting hired (despite going to school for marine engineering, I basically keep ships and their systems afloat), but that would've sucked."
"I asked what preventative maintenance schedules they had and she didn't know what that meant. God save that building."
- mattmagnum11
Stockbroking
"Stockbrokers. I have some friends who are stockbrokers. I love them, but man, they are some bulls**t artists."
"And not like, 'Oh, they're a good salesman, and could sell you anything,' No, it's like they make s**t up as they go along and try to sound confident in what they say."
- artisticle732
Acting
"Acting. Just like anything else, acting is a craft and it takes training, practice, and experience to get good at it."
"But people think it's something you can just... do... with no qualifications. The worst part is because of the weird way acting works, some of those people do end up getting work."
- seanofkelley
"As a young (degree certified) actress who is now seeing auditions for commercials and brands and even some lower budget TV shows require large Instagram and Tiktok followings, thank you."
"It seems like even the casting directors have started forgetting just how much work needs to be put forth in order for a great performance to happen. It’s not simply saying lines and looking pretty, although that’s all the majority of actors on streaming network shows do right now, so maybe my point of view is outdated."
- Lihork
Information Technology
"IT. The demand for people and decent salaries, along with low barriers of entry, mean that all sorts of charlatans get into that industry."
"And don't get me started on the lies and qualification/CV fraud from a certain country."
- FlightBunny
Disability Support Services
"Disability support work."
- Yardages-Kyar-Hoki
"For real. I briefly worked for a firm that did this, they'd hire anyone with a pulse, and even that I'm not sure was mandatory."
"I had the displeasure of watching one of them trying to complete an e-learning course. Seeing them get the simplest questions wrong was like that scene out of Idiocracy with the shape into hole test."
- Worried_Jackfruit717
Professional Photography
"Professional photography. No, Susan, your Instagram photos of cats and sunsets do not qualify you to do professional studio work. It takes a h**l of a lot of practice and learning to do that properly."
- anon1984
Veterinary Medicine
"Veterinary medicine."
"Many people decide to go into vet-med because they 'love animals'. That's not enough."
"You have to be able to deal with people, because you're going to be treating the pet AND educating the owner, you have to be able to multi-multi-multi-task, deal with gross/sad/terrifying/depressing/angry/stinky animals and people, all while holding your bladder for hours, starving, getting yelled at by clients, answering the phone, writing in charts and trying not to forget all the stuff that need to write down, order, put away, clean..."
"It's not just 'playing with puppies and kittens all day.' Yes, I've been told that I was lucky to have that job because that must be what I did."
- Ill-Veterinarian4208
Law Enforcement
"Law Enforcement."
"It attracts bullies who claim to want to help people but most of them don't care and, worse, they don't have the right mentality. Of course, the job doesn't help. But the ones who end up hired are the ones who love using force on people are have a sadistic nature. They love causing problems for people."
"This is one of the things that has generated so much hatred for the police. They need better training and the correct attitude."
- GummerB
Medical Nurses
"Honestly... a lot of the time... nurses. I've met so many nurses that are just unnecessarily mean and grumpy and can't do their job properly."
- Alizoomzoom
"My mom is a nurse, and she swears up and down that it's a job you are compelled to do."
"So many do it because it's supposedly the highest paying 'girl' job, but few can actually handle the stress that comes with it."
- MarsHillMonster
General Repairs
"Handymen. Usually, it‘s people with zero actual training who think because they once built a deck with their friend that they are qualified to fix anything."
- Herr_Poopypants
Human Resources
"Community management and Human Resources. How are people that don't give two a**es about others think they're capable of managing others?"
- BrunoDeeSel
"Because their job is to extract labor or profit from employees or tenants. While saving their company as much money as possible. Neither or them are there to solve problems for you, they solve the problem (you) for the company."
- kora67
It's honestly to see how many jobs that are often held in high esteem attract such misaligned people. No matter what the income might look like, it would be really refreshing if people went after the jobs they'd actually be good at, and people would be more capable of working together and making a difference that way.
@JenWave95/X
@gearinco/Bluesky
