Every job comes with stories.
And until you actually work a job, you never know the whole truth.
That doesn't stop people from having opinions.
As an actor, people always assume I spend a lot of time just lying around.
You work for a bit, then rest during takes you're not in or scenes that don't need you.
It's not all swimming pools and movie stars.
A lot of careers are like this.
Fun on the outside, daunting and difficult on the inside.
Redditor stiengineer wanted to discuss some career truths, so they asked:
"What's a misconception about your profession that you're tired of hearing?"
Every Word
"'Why do you need a dictionary? I thought you were a translator.'"
- PlatypusWrath
"Yeap, I have to be reminding people all the time... 'A translator is not a dictionary!!! No, I don't know how to say X part of a machine or tool in X language... I DO NOT EVEN KNOW WHAT THE HELL THAT IS IN MY OWN LANGUAGE!!!"
- udontnowme
Episode 17 Language GIF by The SimpsonsGiphy
Quiet Space Leaders
"I’m a librarian, and people think we just read books all day. In reality, we manage databases, assist with research, and conduct community programs."
- Real_Knowledge_426
"Many of us are also pushing for the library to be a lively community space and aren’t especially interested in shushing! The cardigans are 100% fact, though. The back room and the stacks are two wildly different temperatures all the time."
- reallivespambot
"Same. When I tell people I'm a librarian, they say, 'Oh I would love that! To get paid to sit at work and read all day.' I usually reply with, 'So would I!' And these are usually people who haven't stepped foot in a library in over twenty years."
- DontOverDueIt12
Connections
"Vegetable farmer. We get so many applicants wanting to 'connect to the soil,' yet have never touched a shovel before. So many people don't seem to understand that farming is manual labor with long hours and hardship every day. And It's all just to limp by. We aren't making much money."
- DeCapitator
"I run an animal rescue, and I get a lot of people who think they're just gonna cuddle animals. A shocking number of people are very upset there's poop and manual labor involved."
- LizardPossum
Soaking Wet
"Fire Sprinkler Designer here: Fire Sprinkler water IS NOT clean and clear like the movies depict. That water more than likely has been in those pipes for decades and is filled with corrosion and cutting oil. As soon as a sprinkler goes off, you are getting doused with black tar water."
- drainbamage826
"Oh, so that's why I've seen so many people complain that their furniture got ruined by fire sprinklers going off! It's quite obvious now that you pointed it out, but I always thought it was weird so many things could get so badly damaged 'just by getting wet.'"
- SuperPowerDrill
Danger - Danger!!
"As an electrician, the misconception that it’s not a skilled profession is frustrating. It requires rigorous training and adherence to safety standards."
- Square-Degree-1126
"Not an electrician by any means here, but I've been doing minor electrical fixture replacement and random little stupid electrical maintenance in a big and old commercial building with about 6 additions from 1980 to the present. I just want to say I never liked messing with electricity and I still don't like it. I hate getting shocked by anything even those little shocking pens piss me off. Learning anything passed basic electricity is definitely a skill hands down."
"Trying to figure out where all these wires go to that we're installed in the 1990s passing through a fluorescent light fixture feels impossible to me I still can't get it hooked up the right way you have 2 orange, 3 blues, 2 reds, 2 blacks, 2 whites if I am remembering correctly that's what it was."
"And I had a Pic of all of them hooked up before I cut them all, even taped and numbered the f**kin wires until I had to pull the wires through the fixture housing and ripped all the tape off. Now it's been like trying to figure out what wire is mated with the wrong wire when one of those blues particularly the light blue was hooked in with the wires I've hooked every corresponding color to its matching color tried everything still doesn't work like it should it turns on in the room I replaced the fixture in but flickers the lights in the next room over.
"I never went to school for the s**t but if I had I'd obviously understand what I'm doing wrong maybe but I f**kin hate electrical and give electricians props for doing such a job. You have to worry about your safety other people's safety and liability. Even my friends that are electricians are like pulling teeth to get them to come help with something no matter what you offer em. I don't blame them either tho. It's easy connecting wires but to have the skill to know what goes where especially in existing electrical that might be installed right or wrong is not easy at all."
- Russbuss311990
Need a Lyft?
"I drove a taxi. We don’t meet a lot of famous people. Not all passengers are unhinged lunatics."
- Love-Thirty
"A surprising thing my ex-husband told me about being a taxi driver was that he learned a LOT of juicy gossip."
- FknDesmadreALV
Lets Go GIF by PermissionIOGiphy
Hey Guys
"As a software developer, I'm tired of hearing that we're all just nerdy guys who code in dark rooms all day. It's actually highly collaborative."
- Motor-Progress9741
"I was pretty content being a nerdy guy in a dark room until the return to the office... lol."
- semantic_blockage
"This, and the fact that they're all guys. I'm a team lead now and I interview people to join MY team. One guy I interviewed clearly thought I was a recruiter and he ran into a buddy of his in the hallway who asked how the interview went. He told him "It's hard explaining technical stuff to GIRLS!'"
- MuffinMummy
Fun & Games
"That graphic design is fun, cool, exciting, and we'll do it for peanuts just because we enjoy it."
"Sorry to break it to you, but I have bills to pay and most of the time I'm trying to protect the client from making really bad decisions because they feel they could 'do it themselves if they could just draw a little better.'"
- lorum_ipsum_dolor
"I’ve been a graphic designer for almost 15 years now and have been in a design management role for 7. It never ends... lol."
"I’m client-facing now more so than design and it is just amazing the comments I get. I had a client one time who didn’t like a color we chose. I asked her what color she would prefer and her answer was 'I saw this real pretty purple one time. I want something like that.' When asked what shade of purple it was or what the item was so we could get an idea, she scoffed and said 'You’re the artist, you should know.' 🫠"
- wisewitch1992
Be a Doctor
"Lawyer here. Just because you fail to understand a nuance doesn’t mean it’s a 'loophole.'”
- TravelJefe
"Also a lawyer. The one that gets me is the idea that we're unethical tricksters just trying to run up our fees. First, there are some slimy lawyers out there, but I think as a whole we're probably more ethical than the general population. Our entire career depends on having a license that can be taken away for minor ethical lapses."
"We're also not pulling some kind of voodoo to win cases. The facts are what they are, and the law is defined within some pre-existing boundaries. I'm just trying to put the two together in the light most favorable to my client."
"And we're not running up fees intentionally. It's hard work and I'm much more worried about my reputation and getting repeat business/referrals than I am about doing as much work as I can justify on your case right now."
- clucker7
On call 24/7
"I'm a long-time caregiver to a mother who lives with dementia. For some reason, people don't consider it 'work.' That includes doctors. I'm on call 24/7. I can't leave for long periods of time. My own health went to s**t. Geriatric care costs are astronomical. Yet, all people hear is 'You're not working.'"
- pookie74
"Why isn't this talked about more? Age is coming for all of us, and a great deal of us will face some form of dementia and be forced to rely on others for care or be in your position caring for a loved one. I see you. You are doing real, physically, mentally, and emotionally demanding work. It's like taking care of a small child in some ways."
- Black_Sunshine
Hard Work
"Construction. No, I’m not looking to build your deck for a cheeseburger and a six-pack of beer."
- LiquidSoCrates
"My other favorite is Contractors are Dumb."
"Sure, there may be a few morons holding shovels, but in general the people I work with are brilliant. Engineers, contract administration, accounting, management, visual-spatial planning. Experts, all of them. People with patents on industry-changing processes, systems, and equipment. And that's just project-facing."
"On the company-facing side, there are MBAs, lawyers, architects, engineers, etc."
"People that say, 'just another dumb contractor' know next to about modern construction."
- RobertLahblaw
Sad Times
"People think being a chef is glamorous thanks to cooking shows, but the reality is long hours in a high-stress environment."
- AbbreviationsSad8923
'You must eat so well!' I eat cold pizza while crying, actually."
- astamar
Jeremy Allen White Cooking GIF by The BearGiphy
Big Kibble
"As a veterinarian, I’m most certainly not in this for the money… I also don’t magically know what is wrong with your dog/cat just by waving my magic stethoscope."
- rockerbabe88
"I agree 100% with the overall sentiment, but as a working adult with a crapload of student loans as a result of my DVM, I most certainly am doing this for money. I love medicine, I love helping pets and pet owners, but I need to live. In a perfect world where bills and loans didn't exist, I'd totally do everything for free."
"If anyone can convince the student loan providers/government to accept my free pen or free tote bag kickbacks from 'big kibble,' I'd totally do more stuff for free. I think it's complete garbage that human doctors don't get the same degree of judgment while making SIGNIFICANTLY more than we do in the US."
- Kmdvm
Remedial Counting
"Accounting. No, you don't have to be good at math. No, I will not do your taxes."
- Snoochey
"Exactly this. Math was actually my weakest subject. I tell people it’s more about applying literature and rules to the math. The calculators do the rest. Also that we aren’t social. I’ve never had a more social/personality position than when I started in public accounting."
- lilahsnebula
"Also: I'm not in the business of instructing rich people where to put their money/what odd things to do to avoid tax. I look at the figures after the things have already happened in most cases. I'm really more of an administrator within the tax and corporate filing sphere."
- strawberry_wang
Lucky Genius
"Musician: 'You're lucky to be born with talent.' I worked my whole life practicing every single day, invested so much money in great teachers and great gear to be able to do what I do for a living."
- delorca
"I feel like this is the same for any artistic talent: painting, writing, etc. People think you are just born with it naturally. It’s like looking at an accountant and being like 'Well, I could never, you are so lucky to have been born with accounting talent!' And this thinking totally discredits all the effort that comes with being good at something, anything. For me, people always say 'You’re so smart!” Like, sure, except there is a large amount of effort that makes me seem 'smart' it’s frustrating."
- True-Tree-5102
Boring
"I'm a handyman. None of those things that happen in those human mating ritual documentaries that you watch on the internet have ever happened to me."
- arkofjoy
Work Working GIF by ABC NetworkGiphy
I feel lied to.
So some professions are more fun and others... not so much.
Although I am intrigued enough to drop a few applications maybe.
I'm terrible at math... so maybe accounting is where it's at.