You think of an average office job which is way more boring and not even close to as entertaining as the one we’ve seen at the Dunder Mifflin office, and you wonder… What would your dream job be like? Let me get this one for you. Sommelier? Travel photographer? Private investigator? Video game tester? Each has their own vision of what that job would be like, but most definitely, everyone has one.

So let me just tell you that this viral thread on AskReddit may ruin it all. Maybe even in a good way. You see, someone asked “What is an overly romanticized job?” and the people who dedicated their lives to such romantic careers spill all the tea.

The responses may strip them of their accolades, but they also show that the grass is always greener on the other side, and you may as well stick with your job because hey, no job was made perfect.

#1

Military. It's 99% standing around waiting to hear orders from a bordering-on-inept superior. The paperwork is Neverending. You'll long periods of time away from home and will probably get divorced. Also, your knees and back will go to sh*t.

Image credits: JimmyTheOtherCat

#2

Journalist. Long hours, weekends, holidays, middle of the night. Pay sucks (especially in non-profit journalism) and being so plugged into the news every day is depressing. I worked in journalism for 16 plus years, maybe I did it wrong but never once did I sleep with sources to get information nor did I ever blow some giant story wide open, and worst of all - I met zero super heroes. Tv and movies lied.

Image credits: GoldenGrlz

#3

Chef. It involves getting screamed at, and it takes a really big person not to pass that down the line to younger chefs. It's lots of work and lots of expertise with little pay and little appreciation.

Image credits: Kennethrjacobs2000

#4

How has this not been said already: Video Game Developer.

So many people want to go into video games thinking they will get to design a game. The reality is 99.9% of people that work on video games get no creative input at all. That just make/place/test assets exactly as they are told. All the while being forced to work 60-70 hours a week in a terrible work environment.

Image credits: ColSurge

#5

Film worker. Hours are gruelling, production doesn’t give a f*ck about you, good luck spending time with your kids, and most of us are addicts/drunks.

Image credits: Ok-Preparation-5804

#6

Airline pilot. People think you area like Leonardo Dicaprio in Catch Me if You Can; swaggering through the airport, wearing sunglasses, surrounded by hot flight attendants. In reality, we're like glorified bus drivers whose job is 1% excitement and 99% absolute boredom just sitting in a cockpit waiting for life to pass by.

Image credits: Essex1820

#7

Architect. Seems like lots of good romcom boyfriends are architects. In reality, the hours are long, the stress is extremely high, and pay is really poor for a skilled profession.

Image credits: RandomRavenclaw87

#8

For some reason some of my old coworkers got in their heads that my traveling sales job was whisking me away to exotic places and gourmet meals on the company dime.

No. No no no.

Unless you think Syracuse is basically Paris and eating a poorly wrapped burrito while driving because you don't have time to stop for lunch between appointments is fine dining, sales is not sexy.

It's a lot of drinking alone and working late nights in hotels with sh*t internet. If you have a family it's hard on your partner because they're taking the kids several nights in a row.

You'll miss a lot of you don't have to freedom to schedule around your personal life.

I'm glad I got out.

Image credits: FistedTate

#9

Working at an animal shelter. Everyone thinks that you get to sit around and love on animals all day, but in reality you are exposed to alot of death and the worst of human nature. And the pay sucks because people just can't quit it because they want to help.

Image credits: traveler45246

#10

Teaching. Yeah you get summers, nights, weekends, and holidays off but it’s the most frustrating, mentally and emotionally draining job I’ve ever had. You aren’t paid enough for what you have to endure.

Image credits: Affectionate_Body_53

#11

Trucking. In over 42+ years I saw the finest warehouses in 43 states and 2 Canadian provinces. There are ZERO shows/movies accurately showing trucking for what it is. It's a soul sucking exercise in frustration. There are positive aspects in that you can generate a decent paycheck without extensive education or advanced training. All it will cost you is your soul, your friends, your family, and your health.

Image credits: DocHickory

#12

Video game testing. I had a boyfriend who did it for several years, so I know all too well that it's a horrible job. You play the same five minutes of game over and over again, hundreds of times (sometimes thousands). The job kinda killed his passion for gaming, and as far as I know, he still doesn't play anything for fun.

Image credits: QuinnRMonroe

#13

Fashion.

"Why dont you have your own brand?" "Bitch, do I look like I can afford to ship a container of tshirts made in Pakistan for 3 cents to compete with some fashion conglomerate?"

Everything abt fashion sucks...anyone can do it with no degree, pay is sh*t, hours are sh*t, people are bitchy and souless, the industry is shameless and zero concious abt sustainability.

You will work and study very hard to lose a position to a model looking daughter of some rich guy.

Its basically become a profession for rich girls who dont know what to do and like consuming goods.

The very few people who make it, usually do it for reasons other than talent.

Image credits: After-Woodpecker-595

#14

Academia. First of all, most people undergrads call "professors" aren't at actual professors (by rank). And people who aren't professors are likely not getting paid a whole lot above the poverty line, have few to no benefits, have little to no input on what they teach or how, not to mention having to put up with nonsense I've not seen or heard of in any other field. The amount of unpaid labour that goes into getting a single article published is unreal.

Image credits: greensandgrains

#15

Playing movies at the cinema. Everybody thinks this is a dream job-relax, watch movies, and get paid. Its actually very boring and you do plenty of other stuff.

Image credits: drmonz

#16

Writer. You picture yourself at a typewriter in a cabin by a lake, crackling fire in the fireplace, a golden retriever asleep at your feet and a glass of lagavulin in your hand dreaming up the next great American novel. Contrast that to reality where the writing jobs that actually pay the bills usually involve long nights and weekends sitting in a cube farm writing the instructions that come with a toaster that nobody will ever read while your spouse f*cks her coworkers.

Image credits: [deleted]

#17

Private Investigator. I worked for a PI a little bit. It was nothing but sitting in a car watching people who were supposed to be on disability, doing stuff they claim they can't.

Image credits: middleagethreat

#18

Librarian. It's not quiet, we don't read all day, we clean up our fair share of bodily fluids, plunge many toilets, and interact with homeless/mentally ill patrons fairly regularly depending on our location. Sure a bulk of our job is recommending books to readers and coming up with fun programs, but sometimes I feel like a community secretary who had to get a Masters to have any chance of a decent salary. Or a social worker, which I did not sign up for. One day I'm looking up phone numbers for psychics for a man who called around to police stations and threatened to kill cops in our town and making 60 copies for a rude lady who's rushing to get ready to teach a yoga class and I'm thinking what have I done?! But then the next day I'm getting picture books for an adorable kid and their appreciative mom, or 3D printing a missing piece from one of the board games we lend out instead of having to charge the patron to replace it, or helping a lonely old woman with no children nearby with her phone and having her look at me like I'm a genius, or helping a lady with her sister's visa so she can come to the US from a war zone (she made it here by the way and the lady told me she loves me for it). I love my job, but it is absolutely exhausting and gross and stressful and scary sometimes.

Image credits: _s_p_q_r_

#19

Working for USPS. I worked a few different positions over 6 years. When I told people where I worked they always had the comments about being a decent job and how it’s good I got my foot in the door assuming I would advance.

6 years and I was never considered a permanent employee. The positions they would put me in, while they transferred me to different posts offices, were always temp positions. Once a year they would force me to take a week off without pay taking me completely off the books then essentially re-hire me. My next check was always messed up so they paid me 60% of my check with money orders, then they would add the full amount to my next check and I would have to pay them back with money orders. Every single year the district would do this to me.

My last year I ran a post office by myself as an officer in charge. I did everything a postmaster did but without the decent pay and benefits.

I was a single mom and for a half hour a day I had to have my son at work with me, the preschool bus dropped him off with me and a half hour later I would bring him to daycare on my break. I did this for one week and I got written up for that so I quit. My son was 4 at the time. I got written up even though my boss had me bring him to work when he was a baby because he would sleep and no one knew he was there.

I quit and the next year the post office closed because they couldn’t staff it so they cut it.

Image credits: littleblackwienerdog

#20

Ultrasound tech

You don't look at babies all day.

Image credits: KarthusWins

#21

Working in music. Most of the industry runs on contingent and part time workers. Full time jobs are difficult to get so if you’re one of the others you’re constantly chasing your next gig. During busy parts of the year you’re too busy to have a life and the slower parts of the year you’re broke. I worked in it for 4-5 years, it was a lot of fun though.

Image credits: psychedelicdevilry

#22

Zookeeper. You spend most of your time cleaning poop and you're paid like sh*t.

Image credits: Coc0tte

#23

Museum worker.

Fresh of my bachelor in history I had the view that museum worker is very educational and sociable. After only a few years I'm already planning a career change.

It isn't so much about holding tours, answering questions etc. It's 50 % dealing with costumers who, paradoxically, wants there to be cultural heritage and that it should be care for BUT also gets extremely aggressive that they have to pay to enter said cultural heritage (yes, it is surprising, but we need the money to keep old buildings alive, up and running). Half of these clients also mistake museums for amusement parks and gets appalled when we have to kindly ask them to look after their children because the environment they are in is incredibly fragile.

The other 50 % you will spend realizing that most museum bosses are Karens with god complexes: in my time me and my coworkers had to fight for the right to sit (you heard that right, to sit, we could work shifts of almost 9 - 10 hours where we were expected to be on our feet, in badly kept historical shoes, my own feet deformed and this rule was only dropped when another coworker brought a lawyer into the picture), constantly picking up the slack that our boss was creating by never delegating the right information and getting aggressive meetings about how we shouldn't be "correcting" our costumers WHILE also getting reprimanded for damage said costumers were causing to the building.

It was after a few of these that I realized why so many of my coworkers (who were all freaking legends in their own right and wonderful to work with) were quickly leaving for any job that paid better/better hours.

Historical work is wonderful but it is not worth the hassle to deal with the clients and bosses. I dearly hope that this is not universal though and might be just in the boarders of my home country.

Image credits: TheCrimsonValley

#24

FBI Special Agent.

I dated a woman who was with FBI and she enjoyed what she did most of the time but wow was it dry.

Imagine sitting in a car watching a house for 6 hours then going back to the office and spending a few hours writing a report. Or looking through 10 years of purchase records and receipts that you pulled out of the trash to build a case. Or sitting in a room at midnight listening in on a dude having phone sex with his mistress.

The overwhelming majority of her job was writing reports, status updates, and reviewing financial documents in an office. The hours were terrible, the work seemed boring, and the bureaucracy was thick.

Image credits: L_Bart0

#25

Youtuber. I remember reading about how Pewdiepie and a handful of other Youtubers made millions of dollars a few years back and thinking "Oh, cr*p. Now kids are going to think they can easily make big money doing this." And I was right.

Now I know kids have always wanted fantastical jobs for money and especially for fame. I myself wasted a ton of time imitating martial arts movies and TV shows in hopes of becoming a Power Ranger.

I am not a Youtuber, so please correct me if I'm wrong. But unless you have millions of subscribers who watch every single video you make and share them on their social medias so they get even more views, I doubt you'll be making those big bucks anytime soon.

Plus, Youtube's rules or whatever you call them seem to change constantly. You can spend a long time editing a vid to fit their standards only to find that you let one f-bomb slip through. Or maybe they change their policies and that video you made 2 years ago violates the new rules. Whoops! Now you can't make money from this video. But Youtube can still put ads on it and make money through it.

I know there are many Youtubers who are successful and rich, but I know there are tons more who fail, even if their content isn't bad. The amount of young people I know who genuinely think they can forsake education and career prospects for Youtube fame is staggering.

Image credits: KazumaWillKiryu

#26

EMS(I.E EMTs and Paramedics). We're not some heros who save lives. Saving lives is about 10 percent of the job. The other 90 percent is dealing with a broken Healthcare system, getting paid minimum wage, dealing with patients who don't need help and abuse the already broken Healthcare system, and if your lucky working for a company that doesn't give a sh*t about you.

Image credits: SporadicSporkGuy

#27

Animator. The field is unbelievably competitive and the work is more difficult and mentally draining than anyone outside the field would ever guess.

... Wouldn't trade it though.

Image credits: Twittle86

#28

Freelance Artist.

We often work over the healthy hour limit, constant need of looking for the next project, and you never finish with your studies.

On the other hand, love it and can't imagine myself doing a different job

#29

Racecar driver. Full time travel, very hot suit, hotter helmet, in a very hot car, with more time spent waiting to drive, than actually driving.

#30

Tattoo artist/body piercer I’ve been in this industry for years artist never stop working. When they’re home they’re drawing, responding to emails, then everywhere you go it’s all anyone wants to talk about and tell you tattoo sleeve ideas they’ll never get. People bark orders at you all day and expect you to bow to them because they’ll decimate you with a poor review. That last part goes for being a piercer as well and I hate that I have to give Karen types the best of me all day. That’s the worst part people being rude to me because they feel they’re entitled to treat me however they want because they’re paying me. I’m a piercer I am not an artist, we’re essentially a Tiffany’s or a high end jewelry store but instead the employees are freaks. People take their insecurities out on you all day, you are constantly gaining trust of others, people tell you how to do your job all day, Parents breathe over your shoulder while you pierce their kids ears. People don’t listen to aftercare and blame there Piercing problems on you. No one takes what you do seriously. D*ck piercing jokes never end and are the entirety for the conversation at family functions. But we do 50 piercings a day and have to be impeccable with our words, our work, our tone, move quickly it’s just a lot.

#31

The trades. People on Reddit seem to pitch it as the only sensible career choice, but a lot of them will just destroy your body.

#32

Geologist.

In school you go camping, learn cool stuff about the earth and get to have all these ideals about saving the world. In a career you manage construction workers who dislike you at best and are often a field bitch to collect contaminated dirt or test soil compaction on construction sites. Good luck getting a job without a very rough field component.

I lucked out and work in mining, and at least get to do fairly interesting work often, but it still is a drag compared to what I thought I’d get to do and the people I went to school with are drowning in rough jobs or unemployed.

Image credits: jaaaamesbaaxter

#33

Touring professional musician.

I’m not talking about the guys on top who fly in private jets and stay in five star hotels although it’s not always easy for them, believe it or not.

I’m talking most of the bands you’ve seen anywhere.

It’s often grueling and lots of running around catching flights (if you’re lucky) or getting in the van or bus at 5:00 am after a sh*tty complimentary breakfast at the hotel where you shared a room with the bass player then driving all day with a break for cr*ppy fast food and getting to the venue just in time for load-in (which you often have to do yourself).

Then there’s sound check and a quick dinner at another fast food chain with no time for a shower before you rush back to play the show.

You put on your stage outfit, which smells like sweat, beer and grime from the last three cities.

After the set you man the merch table and talk to a few fans, sign some CD’s, count the take and try to find wi-fi to catch up on emails, pay bills, etc. Speaking of bills, you count the take from merch and have almost enough for that.

You hang around forever for the venue to pay you. If you’ve got a tour manager, he’ll do a lot of this stuff for you but it’s still a pain.

Good news though. The hotel has laundry machines so you can either get your clothes clean or catch up on sleep - you can only choose one

Get up and do it all again.

Yes, it can be fun but there is a lot of work that goes into it and it’s not always glamorous.

In fact it’s almost never glamorous.

Image credits: BusyBullet

#34

Pizza delivery.

TV and movies make it out to be a fun, quirky job for older teens and young adults to want to work late hours cruising back and forth around the neighborhood with a a few joints pre-rolled in the car cupholder.

In reality, you are (more often than not) making minimum wage or less to put mercilessly-endless miles on your vehicle. Less than half of the customers under-tip or don't tip at all, and more often than not you're under-staffed so all the pizzas are getting sent out later than projected and the customers are mad and they take it out on the delivery driver.

I saw some of the wildest, weirdest sh*t as a pizza delivery boy. Sometimes it was really interesting but more often than not it was just miserable. One time I delivered a pizza to a seedy motel and the door was answered by a man wearing nothing but jeans and a cowboy hat, and a big leather belt with a revolver tucked into it without a holster. He was paying cash and took it out of the boxers.

Another time I was sent with 5 pizzas and a metric f*ckton of wings to a little house that looked like it hadn't been painted in years. The woman who answered the door was supposed to pay cash but she didn't have any, so she asked if I could run a card over the phone. To do this I had to call the store and read the card off to my boss and have her enter it into the computer manually. The first card declined. So did the second, and the third. After the fourth card she told me to wait and slammed the door. I waited about 5 mins before I decided that I needed to keep moving with my deliveries. I was halfway back to my car with the pizzas and wings when the door swung open and a short, chubby kid in his underwear out with a fourth credit card. This one worked and I was extremely glad to be out of there.

One of the worst encounters I had was when I knocked on a guy's door and he answered it by kicking it open (his hands were busy with an Xbox controller, I could see his TV with some FPS going on in the background) and as he did this his huge dog ran past him and came at me barking and snapping. I shoved the pizza box into its mouth and bolted for my car while the as*hole screamed at me about his pizza being ruined now.

Another time, I made a pizza delivery to the front door of a nightclub where as I was waiting FOREVER at the front door for the customer I saw a policeman get out of his cruiser, in uniform, and solicit one of the dancers who was also standing outside. Their brief conversation gave me the impression that this was a regular thing.

It wasn't all bad though, I'd say it was about 10% to 15% pleasant. Consistently my best tippers and nicest customers in general were working-class immigrants.

Image credits: gunnathrowitaway

#35

Therapist. To be clear, I love being a therapist overall. People definitely romanticize it though. Big time.

#36

Small Business Ownership.

I can't in a million years recommend it. For most people, they 'switch' off at 5pm and go into a mental state that isn't work. That's not the case for small business owners. You're always "On". For many of us, that also included working 7 days a week in the first few years of opening up shop. Everything is our problem. The toilet is broken. The employees drama. The internet is down. Customer complaints. Inventory. Marketing. Most people have one role & responsibility; not the small business owner! No paid holidays or vacations. No PTO. No "mental health days". No sick days. I probably work the most hours out of all my corporate friends & family.

Lots of disgruntled employees often get recommendations to "open up their own business". I always chuckle at those comments. As if opening up your own business means you'll work less or have less stress. Quite the opposite!

Image credits: 12vElectronics

#37

People working in athletics—professional or collegiate. While there are some perks, for most, it’s sh*tty salaries and working 90-100 hours a week.

#38

Marine Corps (specifically infantry). It’s very overly-romanticized. Commercials make it seam like all we do is run and gun, shoot and blow stuff up. But in reality you’ll spend months just sitting on your butt doing nothing. And if you’re one of the new guy (boots) then you’ll be cleaning all day everyday. Moppin and sweepin

#39

University Professor

If you work at a non-research institution, it's not all that bad, but it's when research is expected, it becomes a slog. There is so much work to be done and so little time to do it. You're almost always working late, grading papers and exams in your own private time at home.

Academia is a huge d*ck measuring contest, too. Everyone is fighting to prove they're the smartest or that their intelligence is valid. It can quickly become a cesspool of narcissism. The environment is incredibly cutthroat.

Even worse, any profit gained from research or whatever almost exclusively goes to publishers and administration. Professors themselves see very little of it.

Image credits: Phernaside

#40

Scientist, Artist, Chess Player, Musician.

It's mostly drudgery, not brilliance, eureka moments, and the pursuit of passion.

#41

Urban planner or designer. A surprising amount of time and applying theory goes into the work you do to try and create beautiful livable and sustainable development only for it all to be scrapped by a group of useless local Councillors pandering to a vocal monitory of NIMBY boomers.

#42

Brewer. Generally poor pay to be a glorified janitor.

#43

Working in a popular nightclub. Everyone knows you is kind of the fun part.

But everyone parties, you don't if you want to keep your job. It pays very well but man there are so many downsides.

On holidays, you are there to watch all your friends party but you have to keep it together enough to make it through the rush of customers and by the end of the night you better have the correct amount in the registers or end up flipping the entire bill and ripped a new one for f*cking up.

Fights happen several times a night. Some comical, some really violent. There is blood and even deaths happen.

Bodily fluids everywhere all the time, that comes out of every possible orifice and you come out every night smelling like piss, sh*t, sweat and cigarettes. I would imagine that's what an orgy smells like.

You lose all sense of time. You get home at 4am and when you wake the world has passed by and you have to get into work again. Days start to blur together, holidays don't matter because that's the busiest nights so you celebrate nothing. Weeks turn to months then years. It all goes by in a hangover haze of sleep deprivation.

Drugs are everywhere, with drugs come crack heads that are totally out of their damn minds. I had to fight a guy trying to steal my car while he was having a drug/alcohol fueled episode.

Getting molested. I got groped too many times to care to remember. Both males and females. You never get used to it. I'm an easy going person but man its a horrible feeling when someone grabs your privates without your consent.

Last of all the depression of seeing regulars. Yeah sure regulars can be fun but more than not some are there everyday to drink their problems away. They are about the most depressing people you come by and they will latch on to you because you are conveniently working there every night. You also see a lot of creepers/predators who regularly get in but you can't pin them with anything because they are good at hiding what they trying to do. I tried to kick out as many as possible and save as many customers as I can but some nights, you know in the back of your head, someone out there is going to have a bad night out on that big dark, fake fog filled dance floor.

That was my time 4 years of working in a popular night club in a huge city basically.

#44

Lawyer. The job inherently sucks. It’s boring, detail-oriented, stressful work for which nobody wants to pay a fair rate. And on top of it all, the job is actually so important that your failures are all possible career ending violations of your professional duties.

Image credits: olBillyBaroo

#45

Call Center Representative. People think you just sit there and talk to someone on the phone all day. But, I’m sure you all know all of this: we get cursed and yelled at by the customers/clients 50% of the day. Think of how stressful it is to pacify that very same person who just threw huge insults at you.

#46

Professional gambling.... poker players, card counters, sports bettors, etc. I know several who make their living from this, and they lead relatively boring outside lives with the same work hours as a car salesman (nights and weekends). A casino atmosphere gets old quick when you're there all the time.

#47

Pilot, the job is demanding, airlines will abuse you and you will be thrown out at the slightest f*ck up/medical issue. However its a very rewarding field, despite the being away from home and being worked like a dog. If you like work, then its a great job for you. Most pilots you see as airline pilots, cargo pilots or other commercial jobs have worked years to get to their position for seniority. That alone is a great accomplishment because it means they spent countless hours in the seat while spending more then what should be for even a college tuition. Behind the glitz and glamour of a proper uniform is a tired, overworked person who went hungry last night before bed because he arrived when all the places closed. However he loves where he is at because he can say he did it with a good salary too!

Everytime I think about how far I have come, I keep bringing up that quote JFK said...
“We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”
I never really understood what he meant by it until I started working and flying more. Working to fly, Fly to work.

Image credits: LankyKangaroo

#48

Venetian gondola operator, probably

#49

Mechanic. Unless you have the will and the skill to do it. It's a high stress, high critical thinking, and physical demanding job. Don't think that job is for dumb people because some drop out kid do it. You have to have good detective to find problems and can't just throw parts and guess and if you do, you lose money.

#50

Doctors work long hours, they often don't really get breaks. They have a huge amount of debt to pay off from school, and the insurance they have to maintain is ridiculous. They don't make nearly as much as they should, but they still make a lot more than the average person. This goes double for nurses, but they make even less money.

#51

Knight at Medieval Times. Those guys start as squires and deal with tons of grunt work and when they become knights, hours are still terrible but now you risk very serious injuries during practice or during a show. All of my friends that have worked or work there have had multiple surgeries, broken bones, you name it. They do like having the spotlight on them and they’re like brothers but usually hate it after a while.

Image credits: Linas416