Everyone dreams of getting that one wonderful job that's perfect in every way. But the reality is, glamorous jobs aren't always what they seem.
So when Reddit user u/MildlyPaleMango asked people to share which jobs are overly romanticized, they had a lot of interesting responses. Here were some of the most surprising ones:
1. "Knight at Medieval Times. You start off doing tons of grunt work as a squire, and then when you become a knight, you risk very serious injuries during practice and shows. All of my friends who have worked there have had multiple surgeries and broken bones."
2. "Traveling salesperson. Some of my old coworkers thought my job was whisking me away to exotic places and gourmet meals on the company dime. It's actually a lot of drinking alone and working late nights in hotels with bad internet."
3. "Zookeeper. You spend most of your time cleaning poop, and you're paid like shit."
4. "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."
5. "I worked for a private investigator 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."
6. "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 a lot of death and the worst of human nature. And the pay sucks."
7. "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."
8. "Film worker. The hours are grueling, and production doesn’t care about you, and most of us are addicts/drunks. It's difficult even getting time to spend with your kids."
9. "Veterinarian. My partner is a vet, and he's borderline suicidal at times. The clients blame him for 'killing' their pets, and we're barely scraping by financially because of his student debt. Now he can't switch careers because no other job would pay enough to cover the loans and cost of living."
10. "Video game tester. I had a boyfriend who did it for several years, and he would have to play the same five minutes of a game over and over again, hundreds of times. The job killed his passion for gaming."
11. "Animator. The field is unbelievably competitive, and the work is more difficult and mentally draining than anyone outside the field would ever guess."
12. "FBI special agent. I dated a woman who was with the FBI, and wow, it was dry. 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."
13. "Academic. People who aren't professors are likely not getting paid a whole lot above the poverty line, have few to no benefits, and have little to no input on what or how they teach. And the amount of unpaid labor that goes into getting a single article published is unreal."
14. "Jobs in music. Full-time jobs are difficult to get, so if you’re a part-time worker, you’re constantly chasing your next gig. During some parts of the year, you’re too busy to have a life. During the rest, you’re broke. The job is a lot of fun, though."
15. "Architect. It seems like lots of good rom-com boyfriends are architects, but in reality, the hours are long, the stress levels are extremely high, and pay is really poor for a skilled profession."
16. "Jobs in fashion. The pay is shit, the hours are long, the people are soulless, and there is zero conscious effort for sustainability. You can work and study very hard, but you'll always lose your position to someone more connected."
17. "Video game developer. So many people want to go into video games thinking they will get to design a game, but the reality is that most people have no creative input at all. They just make, place, and test assets exactly as they are told to while working 60 to 70 hours a week in a terrible environment."
18. "Journalist. You work long hours, weekends, holidays — sometimes in the middle of the night. The pay sucks (especially in nonprofit journalism), and being so plugged into the news every day is depressing."
19. "Librarian. It's not quiet, we don't read all day, we clean up our fair share of bodily fluids, and we plunge many toilets. 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 master's degree to have any chance of a decent salary."
20. "Military. It's mostly standing around waiting to hear orders from a superior. The paperwork is never-ending, and you'll spend long periods of time away from home. It also takes a physical toll."
21. And finally, "Airline pilot. People think you're 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 sitting in a cockpit."
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.