Most jobs are pretty unglamorous, even if they’re necessary. However, there are some jobs that we look at with admiration, and there’s even a tendency to romanticize them in our minds and our culture. Some of them, though, don’t live up to those images in reality. In some cases, they’re not only not the way we imagine but also pretty unpleasant to do.
Spy
Don’t expect daring missions, exotic locales, and meeting beautiful women if you go into espionage. That’s James Bond stuff. The real thing is much more mundane.
Antarctic Researcher
Being paid to go to the Antarctic sounds exciting, and it truly is a beautiful place. However, you deal with terrible weather, weeks of darkness in the winter, boredom, and loneliness much of the time.
Journalism and Publishing
Don’t think you’re going to go straight from school to a major publication and break huge stories. Instead, you’ll get assignments no one else wants to do, deal with people who don’t want to talk to you and live with low pay and very low job security.
Game Tester
To a gamer, this might sound like a dream job. Here’s the reality: you spend hours per day for days at a time testing features and providing feedback for the same game. You’re not just trying to beat your high score all day long.
Cowboy
Perhaps no lifestyle has been more romanticized in America than that of the cowboy. It never was and still isn’t adventures on horseback, epic trail drives, and glorious sunsets. Instead, it’s long days, hard work, low pay, and a high likelihood of getting seriously injured.
Film Production
Unless you’re the director or one of the stars, you’re probably not going to have much fun working on a film crew. It’s slow-paced, highly technical, and mostly very dull. But it sounds cool to say you’re in the movie business.
Therapist
People who get licensed as therapists have visions of changing lives for the better, and sometimes they do. But due to heavy caseloads, low pay, and working with some extremely difficult people, there’s not much glamor to it.
Archaeology/Paleontology
If you’re thinking these fields are going to yield a lifestyle like that of Indiana Jones, you’re in for a big disappointment. Relatively little time is spent in the field; mostly, it’s just research and writing in an office.
Lawyer
Hollywood has produced many exciting courtroom dramas that can inspire someone to become a trial lawyer. The truth is that most cases never go to trial and that the bulk of the time goes to research, technical work, and negotiating behind the scenes. And that’s just for actual trial lawyers.
Ballerina
Many a girl has dreamed of becoming a professional ballerina and earning the love and admiration of audiences all over the world. Physical pain, endless and exhausting practice, intense competition, short careers, and eating disorders are the reality for most professional ballerinas, though.
Jobs With Lots of Travel
Traveling for work sounds great because you get to see lots of different places and always experience new things, right? You live most of your life in airports and hotel rooms; there isn’t much time to enjoy the location, and you often just go back and forth between two or three places.
Lifeguard
Getting paid to get a tan seems like a pretty good deal. However, lifeguards themselves will list all of these negatives and more: boredom, discomfort, constant vigilance, extensive courses and certifications, and having to deal with ill-behaved children and their obnoxious parents.
Architect
People who decide to pursue architecture as a career often have visions of designing skyscrapers, museums, and other impressive buildings. The vast majority isn’t like that at all, and it doesn’t involve design of the beautiful and the inspiring.
Veterinarian
If you love animals, being a veterinarian might sound like the perfect career. Be aware that you’ll see a lot of the following: bad smells and messes, aggressive and terrified animals, sick, injured, and dying animals, and having to euthanize animals. The work can be gratifying at times, but it comes with heavy burdens.
Doctor
Doctors enjoy excellent pay and prestige, or so many people believe. It is true that after paying off medical school, most doctors do very well financially, but in a world of self-styled medical experts courtesy of Google, doctors don’t get the respect they used to, and they also see a lot of truly disturbing and heartbreaking things.
EMT
TV shows create the image of a fast-paced, exciting profession where you save lives daily. That sometimes happens, but like doctors, EMTs have to witness really difficult things such as drug overdoses, children with gunshot wounds, etc., and many of their patients die.
Musician
Most musicians love what they do, but it’s not the lifestyle depicted in songs. It’s a lot of travel, setting up and taking down, rehearsing, and sometimes playing before disinterested crowds. And unless you’re in the top tier, you won’t make that much money.
Teacher
Changing the world one child at a time isn’t exactly how most teaching careers play out. Instead, it’s low pay, public criticism, long hours, professional development during vacations, and other things that are contributing to a severe teacher shortage nationally.
Police Officer
Police officers have a lot of power, but it’s a hard job. They work with the worst elements of society and see some terrible things, and they work under a constant risk of being assaulted or killed.
Soldier
Serving in the armed forces is one of the most honorable things one can do, and those who make it look back on those years with tremendous pride. But that’s the catch– those who make it. Many soldiers who see combat and manage to survive return home with permanent disabilities, PTSD, depression, and other challenges.
18 Jobs You Can Do Without Ever Leaving Your Home (Or Your Pajamas)
When you can’t leave home for work or simply don’t want to, there is a wealth of jobs you can do from home.
Some of them require specific types of experience, while others you can learn as you do them. Here are 18 jobs you can do without leaving home.
18 Jobs You Can Do Without Ever Leaving Your Home (Or Your Pajamas)
19 of the Best Stay-At-Home Job Ideas
Earning money does not have to involve a commute or going to a place of work anymore. Thanks to modern technology, anyone can now work from anywhere as long as they have a strong internet connection. Because of this, there are now alternative ways of having full-time employment without leaving the comforts of your own home.
19 of the Best Stay-At-Home Job Ideas
20 Ways Make Money Really Fast
Maybe you have some unexpected bills to pay. Maybe you want to move out of your parent’s home into a place of your own. Maybe you need to make a down payment on a new car. Whatever it is, you need to make some money fast.
Fortunately, there are a lot of good ways to do that!
20 Ways Make Money Really Fast