We all want to believe the perfect job exists – one that we’re happy to get up and go to most days and that compensates us in a way that allows us to live our best life, too.

If you think you’ve got a good idea of what jobs are amazing and without fault, well…these people say you should think again.

The sea was angry that day.

I’m a marine biologist. I spent the last week measuring defrosted fish heads.

As a bioscientist it’s never really “Eureka” and much more

“Are my cells dead?”

“Are my fruit flies okay??”

“Are they going to fix the microscope?”

“Will the microscope ever be free to book??”

“Is 6 coffees too many??”

And a large part of my day is spent just doing tasks I need to do to keep my work running. Ie making buffers, sorting fly stocks, splitting cells, cleaning things, etc….

And yet I miss my lab!

An impossible task.

Preschool teacher. Especially with new COVID-19 regulations.

Ever try social distancing 3 year olds?

It lacks stability.

Not a specific job but traveling for work. I’m in tech and a lot of people starting out talk about wanting to go to customer sites and get “out in the field”…

I love to travel for fun but it’s hard to fit in the fun stuff when you have presentations and stuff to worry about and a lot of times your customers aren’t in the fun cities anyway.

I also think I prefer the stability in day-to-day schedule of traveling less frequently.

The bad times are bad.

Oh my gosh, BUILD A BEAR. Weirdest and most frustrating thing. Granted I didnt make it a super long time in the job and seeing kids so happy is great.

But they are really strict and the bad times get pretty bad.

Part of the machine.

TV/Film production. I think most people dream of being the actor, the director, the people making the creative decisions, or the big shot producer calling the shots, but most of the people working in tv and film production are part of a machine, the grind, working in a system, trying to climb up to wherever they want to be.

Many don’t get to actualize their creative vision. Also the industry can be project based (job security concerns) and location limited (NY/LA, maybe other cities).

Pay can be low starting out too, though it can be good if you work way up. But I did enjoy the type of people that work these jobs, a little more fun than the business folk I work with now.

Extremely routine.

I’m a Forensic Scientist and it’s literally the only thing people ask me about on dating apps.

It’s very technical work and it’s extremely routine.

The thing you see the most.

A pediatric nurse, being a nurse for children and adolescents. Everyone in nursing school talks about how much they want to work with kids. The reality is that a pediatric nurse sees more cases of abuse and neglect than any other specialty.

Doesn’t matter where you are in a pediatric hospital, it’s the thing you see most.

I’ve seen so many DCS (Department of Child Services) caseworkers that I’ve gotten to know some of them and became acquaintances with them. Sure working with children and adolescents is great, but people don’t think about the most essential piece of that puzzle which is their families.

It doesn’t matter how good of care you give to those kids, if you don’t loop the parents in to that care you may as well just not be doing anything for them.

Sucks the love right out.

Professional photographer.

Not like, hobbyist, but business-owning photographer. Sucks the love right out of your work.

Because you started the business to take pictures.

Then Karen doesn’t like the way she looks in one of them so she wants the whole set for free plus a reshoot for free plus those images for free.

Then the two high school kids getting into a very ill-advised marriage at EXACTLY 18 years old wants to book you for their wedding but their budget is only $50.

Then Karen calls back because she loves your work and wants to pay for another shoot, but only if you agree to do her friend’s daughter’s destination wedding for free.

Then you get a call from your last bride. It’s been two weeks since their wedding. WHERE THE F**K ARE HER PICTURES?

Then you get no leads from a bridal expo.

Then a client finds out you don’t support their candidate and tries to take you to court to get her money back.

Then some insta thot who thinks she’s influencing people offers a “collab” where you take pro photos of her and she adds shitty insta filters to it and claims her friend took them. And she’s not gonna pay.

And then you get some entitled mom who wants you to photograph every day of her newborn’s first year of life for $100.

I went back to being a hobbyist.

Not that easy.

Video editor. The more I do it the more I can’t be arsed.

What I hate so much is that when you send a draft or edit to the client/boss they mostly seem so ungrateful. Or yeah “just make this easy change” and we’ll be good to go… no a$$hole, that’s not an easy change.

I do video editing on top of graphic design, and people just seem so unappreciative of how much time and effort goes into a “quick little video”

Not for bookish people.

barnes and noble, your job has literally NOTHING to do with books & it obviously attracts a lot of that type, myself included.

My younger sister worked in the Cafe for a long time.

She said it was really frustrating—especially since they sold Starbucks coffee but weren’t an actual Starbucks store so people would complain about not taking their gift/loyalty cards or minor variations in the drink or pastry menu.

That and making espresso drinks for people’s five year olds just felt really slimy.

The constant sound of buzzing.

Although not necessarily bad, Beekeeping.

Get used to the constant sound of buzzing during hive inspections/swarm removals plus wearing the protective suit in hot ass weather for hours on end (give or take the situation).

Also, there appears to be a large number of beekeepers allergic to bees so epipens are a must.

Not enough money.

Park Ranger. Don’t get me wrong, I loved it, but a lot of days it was less “talk about cool animals while wearing your ranger hat” and more “the toilets are overflowing again, go clean the septic tank filter and stir the tank with a shovel.”

With a little bit of “hey there’s a methed out guy down by the bridge, can you convince him to leave without killing anyone.” All for the low price of $26k/year with a college degree!

It’s a calculation.

I always say the more fun it is to go somewhere the worse it is to work there like amusement parks and arcades

Honestly, every job that lots and lots of people really want to do sucks, mostly due to supply and demand.

You’re gonna be treated like shit, and if you complain you’re gonna be fired because you’re inherently replaceable, because there’s thousands of people that would love to do your job for even less money than you are making.

It ruins the show.

I do closed captioning.

While I joke that yes, I get paid to watch TV, it’s actually very tedious. And if you don’t actually enjoy the programming you’re being forced to watch something you don’t care for.

Or worse, if it’s something I do enjoy like a long form drama, we usually chop those up into 15 minute increments and split between everyone so I only see chunks and not always even in order it actually ruins the show for me.

A burnt oven.

Baker. Coming into work at 3/4 am so you can have a six am baked goods is miserable.

“o00Oo0h y0u MuST L0vE tHe wAY U SmëlL WhEn ù G0 h0Me!”

nope…I go home smelling like burnt oven

Like any other retail job.

Working in a flower shop. It’s just like any other retail job, but people constantly tell you how fun your job must be.

Also helping grieving families chose funeral flowers is not fun.

I’m honestly very surprised!

I wonder if the perfect job does exist; it’s probably pretty subjective, though.