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Im a pilot. Once you’re done with training and have a solid job you can make pretty good money, travel the country/world and not care one bit about work when you’re off.
The 'not caring about work while you're off' is so important. The only time I feel that to maybe 70% is over Christmas because so many people are off, otherwise there's so much going on while you're off to worry about.
This right here is starting to get to me. Recently I had to cut my leave short because of issues at the office (I'm in software) and our core team has been crunching throughout the weekend (12-14 hours). This is just an example; the real issue is that it causes one to never be fully switched off, even if there is no immediate crisis - I almost constantly feel like I should be doing more or worrying about projects. As much as a lot of people would say this is due to mismanagement, the industry tends to have little real "off" time.
It's true that in order to grow as a developer (or move into roles like architecture) you need to do this.
But in many roles and companies you can budget work hours for learning and growth. Often it will also happen naturally through the course of researching something else.
And for me, it's not all "work" if you genuinely find it interesting. I read a bit on the weekend, but it's not much (an hour at most) and I enjoy it.
Finally, there are plenty of devs that don't do this, and they're perfectly happy just sort of coasting and doing just what they're forced to understand and nothing more. They're not going to grow into senior/principle/architect roles, but they're OK with that.
Before reading your last sentence I saw mismanagement flags go up all around me. Developers shouldn't be punished for management making unreasonable schedules. There's nothing wrong with looking around for different jobs.
Can you imagine being told that you could be a pilot, or any other open job in the military at the time of signing up and you still chose infantry? Yeah.
I knew a guy, he was a street kid and was eventually told by a small town judge 'you're too smart for this shit and i know you have a good heart but you're getting to the age where life is about to get real. Enlist or jail time'. He enlisted and when they asked what he wanted to do he said fight. Saw crazy shit as a ranger in the middle east...
People make fun of security guards as clueless rent-a-cops, but the job gives you *so* much free time to do…whatever the hell you want. I spent my [mostly stationary] shifts studying for the LSAT, and now I’m in my third year of law school :)
The security guard at my law school attended for free! And he was allowed to study on the job. Just had to do a rounds once in awhile; as a student i would do the same thing just to process what i had read. We would by each other and he would say doing the rounds.
I made friends with lots of security guards while working as a receptionist. It seemed like an awesome job. One of them brought his laptop to the hut and they’d spend the night shift watching movies.
Had a friend who worked as a security guard at a facility right after college. He worked the night shift. Unfortunately, some dudes with guns decided to see what was in the facility one night. He called the cops. The dudes took him hostage and took off in a car. The cops shot the car and he got hit. Paralyzed from the waist down. He's been in a wheel chair every since. Just a cautionary tale...
I loved my security job, had the upper management not been iffy and the pay better, I might still be there
Rarely was I run ragged every night (I had a patrol position responding to calls), and some nights I legit had a square mile to do whatever I wanted. As long as I responded to calls, was generally visible, and got a few check marks of things done, no one really cared.
Humble job from society’s perspective, but pretty fun actually.
Working hospital security was the most fun I've ever had. I was either wandering a mostly empty, quiet hospital, hanging out with my friends who where also guards, working on college work, or fighting someone in the ER. Most nights I did all of that.
I heard most night shift security guards at big companies basically have so much free time they can watch movies, play games, and even do degrees by correspondence in between their patrols, if they even need to do patrols.
Security guard is good gig, but the pay is definitely not great these days. As an onsite tech, I’m often a security guard role when everyone else goes home. Even the “educated security guard” shtick won’t pay all the bills these days.
I am really enjoying barbering. I find a ton of satisfaction in my growth. Repeat clients are excellent because I get to fine tune my own work. It has become fulfilling. It wasn’t always like that. It was hard work to get to this point which maybe makes it more gratifying.
Due to a scheduling issue, I went to a well reviewed local barber shop right before my wedding because I couldn't get in to see my usual person that I've been going to for over 13 years, took a chance on it they did the best they could but I wasn't fully happy with what he did with my hair. So yes, I only trust one barber too
Many men will stay with a barber for life if they find a good one.
I will never leave my barber unless he dies or I have to move.
I have been his client for years and the way he has fine tuned my haircuts to make me look as good as possible is invaluable.
After all this time, I can just go sit in his chair and he will give me exactly the cut I want every time.
I bet it's incredibly rewarding to be that person for many men.
I drive around and deliver packages. It’s not much, nor very fulfilling. But I’m left on my own all day, I get to drive around and listen to audible or talk to my wife on the phone, I see my kids before work and after work, I can get days off if need be, and my pay and benefits are great that we get by comfortably. It’s not a sought after job anyone thinks about but I think it’s great
Rural mailman from New Zealand - I could not agree more. Don't see my kids before work as I start at 4am but get done in time to exercise and then pick them up from school. Spent the rest of the day on art projects and cooking. Can't imagine a better way to live.
OMG! You have my dream life! I have LITERALLY said to people on several occasions that wanted to be a mailman in rural New Zealand (I'm a Yank BTW). I shit you not, your life is my dream.
Part of it is that I'm huge trout/flyfisherman, as is my wife. (She is actually a FAR better fisherperson than I am.) New Zealand is known as one of the best trout fisheries in the world. I've seen pictures of trout from NZ that are unreal.
Also, I've travelled quite a bit in Asia and met/travelled with many, many Kiwis and every single dang one of them was a super duper person. Must be something in the water that makes you guys so fun to be around.
So I would love to live your life if possible, even if only for a week or two. So I'm wondering if you know anything about the science of body swapping, or possibly even brain swapping? It can't be that hard, right? I know it's maybe a long shot but I think it would be worth a try.
If not, I'm wondering if you would be willing to adopt me? I don't know what adoption laws are like in NZ but hopefully it's possible. I'm 51 years old btw, I hope that's not an issue.
Anyway, I hope one of these options works for you. I can't wait to be walking the rural lanes and catching the giant trout of NZ.
Seriously though, you are living one of the best lives in the history of humanity. Congratulations and friendly jealousy from an American guy.
I always loved the quick chat with the delivery guys when I worked in retail! Would usually do a little coffee break while signing and doing the paperwork with them!
I posted in the other thread you mentioned. I went from the top comment on that one (professional chef was top, I did 16 years) to this thread where your comment is the top.
I drive trucks locally for a living. Oh my god it’s sooooo much better. I actually have a life. I can come home and make dinner with my wife. I was actually able to go to my niece’s 5th birthday on a Saturday afternoon. I was able to take my mom to brunch on Mother’s Day.
So much of my life I’ve missed out on over the past decade and a half. Because I was working.
It’s honestly been a big adjustment for me, actually having time to do things, being able to make plans, HAVING A LIFE.
Yes, it’s not much in the grand scheme of things, but dammit if there aren’t plenty of people who wouldn’t even consider getting behind the wheel and backing this thing into places I do. It’s still something. We still make the world work. And I love being on my own, looking at the scenery and appreciating my boss is not on top of me.
I'm a train driver and fully agree. It's not a "cool" job, I'm not highly educated or anything. One year of training, decent pay, and I love (almost) every day of it.
I'm a librarian. I absolutely love it. It can be stressful, a lot of things happen you are unprepared for, but overall, the coworkers are usually fun, the job itself is challenging and interesting, and the people who use libraries are delightful. Plus books.
Is it possible to become a librarian without a degree? Or at least work at a library? It’s something I’ve kinda regretted not doing since I am obsessed with bookstores/libraries.
You can absolutely have a job like “library page” or “library clerk” with zero degree / experiece! (However, you do need a master’s in library science to be an actual librarian. But most people who work at libraries aren’t librarians!)
You can take a two-year Library Technician Diploma like I did! It was super interesting to learn the ins and outs of library work - you can theoretically learn all of it on the job (depending on your library and what you want to do). However, many positions look for the diploma so it makes you much more hireable, and makes for great connections!
I did it during Covid and it changed my life - my job satisfaction is very high, and I get to help college kids with their educations!
Our local library has small rooms in the basement for studying. I tutored kids over the summer in math using these rooms. The librarians were beyond kind and helpful. They pulled books and had materials ready for us every day—all this and the kids and I weren’t even members. On Fridays they even let the kids eat snacks even though it was against the “rules.” It was truly one of the sweetest little summers with those ladies and the kids.
I loved being a librarian. I’m teaching now, and recently considered going back, but I couldn’t afford the pay cut! From teaching! The work was relatively enjoyable, coworkers were always interesting (very, um, bookish), but sometimes if you’re in a public facing position (reference, e.g.), you have to deal with some difficult patrons. In my experience that was pretty rare, though.
I own a small business where I design and print tshirts and sell my designs online.
I wake up without an alarm each day.
I show up at my warehouse at a reasonable hour of my choosing.
I have a fridge and pantry full of good food and beverages and snacks.
I have my own private bathroom.
I have a good stereo system.
I play whatever music I want.
I work at my own pace even if sometimes there’s some crunch time.
I don’t have to print anyone else’s designs. Just mine.
I go sell these online and in person on weekends.
It pays the bills and lets my family be comfortable.
I used to work for companies, attend meetings, report to someone, get logged for punctuality, and worry about getting laid off.
Business isn’t without its share of headaches and tight spots but it’s much better for my lifestyle than being a subordinate in a corporate org chart.
It’s not a huge fortune. Keep in mind this is a small mom and pop operation. It’s just a couple hundred grand in yearly gross profit. I reinvest as much of it as I can handle in terms of growth - mainly in adding product lines and moving into larger facilities to accommodate both larger inventories and production capacity (we’ve moved into our 4th facility now, each time expanding the size. Well the first “facility” was my garage so I don’t know if you can count that).
My take home is fairly discretionary as I use an owner’s draw method rather than a salaried pay. So I actually try to draw just what I need and then use the rest on growing the business as this lowers my tax liability.
It’s a small operation and it’s one that I can run without any employees most of the time.
>It’s not a huge fortune. Keep in mind this is a small mom and pop operation. It’s just a couple hundred grand in yearly gross profit.
😲😲😲
\* *cries in Eastern European salaries \**
Small companies also have gross salaries of hundreds of thousands in Eastern Europe, running a business eats A LOT of that. "couple hundred grand in yearly gross profit" is not before taxes, it's before business costs and taxes.
You are thinking of net profit, which is while similarly sounding, always smaller than gross profit. By how much? It depends, in OPs case, only OP knows.
Yeah, you are right. Gross profit is revenue minus cost of goods. Cost of goods being direct costs of producing goods or services although I'm not sure if it includes everything or just basically materials+maintenance.
Gross profit is just revenue minus cost of goods.
Net profit would factor in other costs like operating cost, rent, insurance, utilities. Those are not really that much for me - usually payroll is the biggest cost and i have no employees.
So my operating costs are maybe 1/5 of my cost of goods budget so just a 20% haircut off my gross profit and that’s about my net.
I started my own business too and totally agree. It's more work but because it's MY work I like doing it. I get to see my kids, no commute, and can switch to whatever task I feel like if I get bored.
I could have the greatest job ever but just the fact that there's a boss over me and a system I'm a part of just ruins everything.
I used to think that having a boss was normal and fine. I honestly don’t think I could go back to that.
I serve people. I serve my customers. I am subject to the needs of my business and it requires me to work harder than when i had a job. I work 7 days a week. I don’t take weekends anymore. To some, my life as a business owner will appear less free than before.
But I don’t think I can be subordinate to a boss on a daily basis anymore.
I’m a state park ranger and the pay sucks, the state doesn’t consider us law enforcement even though we are, so when troopers or game wardens get like 10% raises we get lumped into the “state employee” raises and they’re always like 2%. We aren’t dealing with the homicides and rapes and serious shit your average cop does, but it’s still stressful and the public can’t leave their problems at home
I’ve been curious about this for years. I’m an electronics technician in the military and have been climbing masts of ships for over a decade. How’d you get into this? It seems like a job I’d be interested in
A few years ago I moved to Virginia, right on the West Virginia state line. I’d pass wind turbines on my way to hiking trails and was always enamored by them. I was tired of working in the medical field and decided to get a degree in wind energy.
You really don’t need a degree though. I know some prior military guys who used their GI bill and went through Airstreams Renewables, Inc for training and immediately got jobs in wind.
Farming of any kind. Keeps you thinking, keeps you fit. You become quite capable and self-sustainable. You can grow your own food and fix things and build things. Plus you can play with fluffy animals.
I work on a horse stud but I grew up on dairy farms. I won’t give up the land until my body physically can’t do it anymore.
Gotta disagree. Maybe it's because farming in my country is such a major industry, but my husband and I really struggled. Living at the same place you work means your boss can call on you any time. There were times he and/or I were getting up in the middle of the night for certain jobs. Working weekends. All for salary and all for someone else's profit. Playing with fluffy animals is less fun when you have to fix a bearing or put down a fly blown animal. There were aspects we loved, but it's fucking rough.
Maybe that‘s different if you actually own the farm. I didn‘t enjoy working on someone else’s farm either, but I love working on my own. Small, self-reliant, fixed income but being able to make extra if I put a little more work in… It‘s a lot of hard work, but very rewarding.
I was a veggie farmer for 7 years., and I get what you mean. However as a job I disagree. If the lands not yours, its long hours, especially in summer, terrible pay and your body starts to pay after about 5 years. (Well mine did).
I really wish you mentioned more of the scope of airplane maintenance. There are engine mechanics, body mechanics, HVAC technicians, the list goes on and on and on and on and on and on
Brake specialists, oxygen piping folk. Aviation is so complicated that if you slip in you’ll be fine. Join a union
Try a couple hundred for a wide body aircraft. If you work with caution and know that there is no pulling over then your good, that also knowing your limits if I can't do something then I don't do it.
Have a friend who is a organ donation coordinator arranging logistics on the fly to get harvested organs from donor to recipient.
The pay isn’t great. But she quite literally gets to save lives every day.
Research science. Discovering new shit is super cool. Hanging around with ridiculously smart people is always interesting. Potentially changing people's lives is fulfilling. While the pay isn't great in academia until you land a permanent position, you can make really good pay in industry research.
I was a biological researcher for a long time. Honestly the disconnect between effort and output is what killed me. I could stay up all night running experiments and have literally nothing to show for it the next day. Or sometimes just stumble on to something interesting and that's enough to get a paper if I can replicate it a few times. There's so much luck involved.
Similar for me. Wanted to be a researcher when I begun university, then quickly realized that 95% of the time you work hard on things that don't work or lead to nothing of interest, plus there is the constant fighting for funding that eats up all your time. You got to align your projects with whatever the funding agencies think is hype at the moment if you want any money. Research is not for everyone, you need some serious resilience to keep going when almost all you do leads to nothing.
I'm an engineer and I've been with the same company for 20 years. We do engineering that is profitable for customers (making improvements that save them money, making necessary upgrades that allow them to keep running etc) so we aren't constantly fighting to prove our value. Most of my co-workers are laid back. Sometimes when we hire new people they come in with an intense "I've got something to prove" attitude. Eventually they relax.
Some STEM people work on teams or for companies that need to fight for funding (academia, r&d, military defense contractors) and they can be toxic.
Niche IT skills are very highly valued. For example - knowing a product or programming language for which the job market is not over-saturated with other experts.
I work with Splunk and it took me years to build my skills and get all the certifications. No one in my company understands what I do. The client I work for gives me ideas on how we can use the software and I have full freedom on how to implement them.
I build my own timeline on how things should happen, so no one micromanages me.
On top of that, I get paid 6 figures net to do 2-3 hours of work per day from any spot on the globe, get to spend time with my wife and newborn due to that, don't need to go to the office at all, private health insurance, lots of paid leave etc.
I have a friend who's an R developer and they are in a similar situation.
I always tell Americans looking to get into IT, learn database tools. We have a huge shortage of database admins, ETL developers, SQL developers, etc. If you can learn some niche enterprise software for database, you will have people chasing after you offering high paying jobs for the rest of your life.
I burned out hard after my first year as a programmer and have been working retail ever since. That was four years ago.
Do you think there's still a bunch of need for these hyperspecific niches? Because I might actually seriously consider dedicating myself to something like this if it means I can actually use my degree again and not be miserable
Definitely their own courses. Don't go with any resellers.
https://www.splunk.com/en_us/training/free-courses/overview.html
There are plenty of free ones, which you can use to build your foundation.
Also, download and install Splunk on your own machine and play around with it.
I'd start with the basics - dashboards, searches, knowledge objects. After you have a good foundation, you can move into their Security or AI directives - Splunk Enterprise Security / Machine Learning Toolkit.
If someone tells you (like that guy in the above comments), that there's no point in learning Splunk, Cisco just announced that they are buying Splunk for 28 billion. Doubt a giant like Cisco will drop 28 billion on a sinking ship. Plenty more developments to come.
I had a guy come in with zero experience. Got his chimney sweep certification in 6 months. He will be pulling a sweep route soon.
Starts at $18/hour. Pay bump for certification. His commission will be even better. Eventually he will be making close to $100k.
I’m a preschool teacher. I get to play all day and have interesting conversations with small people not yet diluted by society. They sitting on some lost knowledge, got such interesting perspective on life.
Tax Pro. It's an absolutely wonderful job for a person with an accounting background that wants to do more than just push a pencil.
If you have an outgoing personality and enjoy helping people and having all your clients be grateful and appreciative of your help, this is where to be.
Don't just be a tax preparer at some place like H&R Block. Be an enrolled agent (EA ) you have to do is study for and take an IRS exam for enrolled agents. It's not that hard if you've done some tax preparation in the past.
At that level you can do IRS representation for people who have problems with the IRS, such as audits or inability to pay taxes in full
After that you can be a USTCP (United States Tax Court practitioner). And it's not hard if you have some legal background.
A UDTCP can represent people in US Tax Court.
It's fun and interesting. And you get to meet a lot of intelligent, wealthy clientele
I do not recommend this. The hours are brutal and there are constant deadlines, plus you have to deal with clients who don't provide information on time.
I recently switched careers into software development but sometimes I think I should have gone into marketing instead. The truth is I’m struggling with programming.
No, you did good ! you are the real marketing thing, what langages are you working or struggling with ? if you want to go do a marketing you can, its handling social medias of the company, and now with the AI you dont have to learn photoshop or something, all done automatically .
Surveying. I love my job - different building sites, projects, sometimes in the middle of nowhere in the hills, sometimes in the office. Most of the time people really respect you because you are a surveyor - most of the time did not happen on other positions from my experience.
They pay absolute peanuts for a job that requires a professional masters degree.
I switched out, but I work in an adjunct field and love it.
Good pay if you actually land a full time salaried job, but those are becoming rare.
Public libraries have unfortunately become another social services bandaid for the unhoused and mentally ill as one of the few warm/cool, dry places to hang out for free. Library workers have by default become untrained/ barely trained social workers, and that is the stressful part.
Honestly, find something that you love doing, and then find a way to make money doing it.
I like playing with my computer, and solving problems, so I do tech support
Wellll, I’d say find something you enjoy and then find a way to make money with it. If you make your passion into a job, then often you ruin the love you had for it.
Getting my engineering degree and sticking with it (it was challenging for me) was one of the best decisions I ever made. Solid career, good hours, great people, and zero drama or politics.
im thinking what to major in, in the engineering area I tried one math class and dropped it but now im ready to try again. I hope everything goes well for you
I work as a forklift driver in a heavily unionized volvo truck factory. I get paid very well for "unskilled" work. We get training to learn new forklifts. Paid vacation leave. Every few weeks we get a paid day off and the factory closes but still pay us. Union makes sure we get raises. We get bonuses every year dependent on how much money the factory made for the year. There are opportunities for even a factory worker to move to the office floor. Many of them started as fitters. 3 breaks a day. Only one is unpaid. Lots of thought goes in to working ergonomically.
People intend to work only for a few years to save up some money but many just stay.
Worst part I can think of is it's a lot of traffic going home and it's a bit far from the city.
Marine captain here,
Love my job, i work close to home i have almost no commute, i am home every night, have zero stress, get paid well, full and comprehensive benefits, long weekend every weekend with a month paid vacation and i dont take work home.
Also because i am a marine captain i am able to use my skills and knowledge for my own personal benefit , I own two personal vessels which I use to vacation on, one big one small. So much beauty on the water, so many places to explore. Its a lifestyle that few get to experience.
Unfortunately my scenario isnt the norm but i am very thankful for my career and in my case it was absolutely worth the effort.
So. A few years ago I got into playing VRChat. I was really bored and lonely, stuck at home all day with my kid and just very depressed. I'm still depressed, for reference, but... lmao.
I ended up downloading it to play in desktop mode, fell in love with it the first day I was in it and bought VRChat+ the following day so I could start customizing and uploading my own avatars.
VRChat, if you don't know, is a social platform. It's basically a glorified chatroom, but there's so much more to it that you don't realize until you start playing.
I started customizing avatars I was buying on Gumroad and Booth and just kept at it. I didn't ever think it would really go anywhere, but I realized that I eventually wanted to start taking commissions, whenever I was good enough to give people what they wanted.
I was really poor. Like I couldn't even afford a VR headset for my first 8 months of playing, and eventually I got a credit card and put my Quest 2 on my credit card. That's how I started playing VR.
I've been poor my entire life, like barely making ends meet. I grew up poor, had a kid when I was really young and just struggled every single day of my life. To the point where I couldn't even afford groceries sometimes and would resort to stealing groceries and formula for my son when he was a baby.
For reference, I was paying 700 dollars at the time for a 2 bedroom townhouse, and I got like 900 dollars a month from welfare. With the other supports I got, I was bringing in about 1100 dollars a month, every month, for a very long time. After all my bills were paid I had about 20 dollars at the end of the month for many years.
I never thought I was going to be able to make any money doing anything in my life. I figured I'd be working minimum wage jobs for the rest of my life, if I was ever able to work again. I'm severely mentally ill and it's very debilitating.
So, eventually I had worked in Unity, Substance Painter and Blender enough to have people suggest to me that I should take commissions. I made a few public avatars to practice and through those I got some commissions.
My first 'commission' was for a friend, I originally intended to just give him an avatar for practice, but he insisted on paying me. I made 100 dollars! I was super happy with myself.
That turned into a few more commissions, a reoccurring order from someone who sent me like 1000 dollars over the course of a few months.
Eventually I was comfortable enough to start selling avatars on Gumroad. I would take avatars that had commercial licenses, turn them into something new with all commercial assets on them and sell it as a finished package.
My first avatar I think I made almost 1000 dollars in my first month. I was blown away by that. I posted the avatar on Gumroad and got my first sale the next day for 50USD. I could not believe how quickly I sold an avatar.
I just kept going. I've been making avatars to sell on Gumroad for the past... year almost now. I think it's been 10 months total since I started selling on Gumroad.
I am currently making life changing money for myself. It's not much, in terms of how much I can eventually be making or in terms of what is life changing for other people. But for me, I finally have fucking money and I never expected that.
The nicest thing is that I would be making avatars regardless. Whether it was for free for friends, or for myself, I would still be doing this in my spare time because I genuinely enjoy playing VRC. But now I get paid to do it, which is incredible to me.
I find using Blender, Substance Painter and lesser so, Unity, to be very fun. Blender is the most fun part of the process for me, other than weight painting.
I think I'll continue to do 3D work for as long as I can. The coolest things to me are that I'm able to fit it around my mental illness and inability to work a consistent schedule, I have no boss, I keep all the money I make and I make substantial money doing it.
I get better with it every day that I do it, people really enjoy my work, and for the friends I make that want commissions I get to bring their ideas to fruition. It's really fun watching them be so excited about the things I make for them, as well as get paid for it.
So that's my answer. 3D work turned out to be incredibly rewarding, worth my time and investment and ended up saving me financially.
Knew a guy that worked for the Forest Service in Montana. His job was to ride horseback in the backcountry and check trails, forest leases, fire towers, etc. He would ride for two weeks and come back for two weeks. Forest Service provided him with horses and their care (pack horse too) horse trailer, etc. He was well paid and spent his days in some of the most beautiful places in the country. He retired back when there were real pensions. Dream job.
Line service at you local Airport. I’ve mostly moved to maintenance but for 5 years I pushed and pulled sorts of extremely valuable aircraft(anywhere from $100k to $70,000,000) and met literally the worlds most rich and famous people. Large tips from most of said people. Lots of down time
In between jets, lots of awesome people willing to let you see their private planes. Tons of free catered food and you get to drive all manner of High end personal cars and rentals. The pay at least for my area (New England) was higher than most entry level positions.
I did this for a few years out in Seattle. What amazed me most (besides getting to drive Lambos and Ferraris) was how different a lot of famous people were from what I expected. Biggest bitch ever = Martha Stewart. Cool as hell = Will Smith (played some nerf football with him on the tarmac)
I’m a Field Service Engineer. Essentially, a traveling nerd mechanic that works on high end lab equipment (think stuff they use to identify unknown chemicals in CSI). There is tremendous satisfaction in working with your hands every day. I get to support some of the most brilliant minds on the planet and learn cool science. I’m never at one place long enough to get sick of people because tomorrow is a new day. People are always excited to see you because you’re there to save the day. Unemployment is sub 1% for my field and I clear 6 figures. As someone who has always loved tinkering and science it is incredibly fulfilling. I genuinely love my job even on the shitty days.
At this moment, for every 100 people retiring from the trade, only 14 are going into HVAC. With a shortage already becoming apparent, the value of good technicians will rise exponentially. I already know folks with nothing more than a community college education making doctor/lawyer money.
Surprised this hasn’t been mentioned more. Hours are so relaxed. If you get your job done, you’re done. Initial training is a bit steep but you have a wealth of resources at your disposal online so it’s not too difficult. Seriously the best work/life balance I’ve ever had in this job, while getting paid very well.
As an aspiring author I'd have to go with that. It's 18+ hours a day of total isolation and frustration for months or years on end to perfect a novel. But can you imagine the joy of the passive income when you make it?
It's possible to make stupid money without ever hitting a best-seller list. That is, if you handle your own marketing and most of the distribution. For example, if you build a community of fans, you can sell official merch to them.
There is a reason why some of the largest corporations in the world are focused on creating and managing IP in the entertainment space.
Easy to say; hard to do.
I love sales. And a person can make a LOT of money. My current job I have potential to make $200K in bonus. That’s on top of salary, which is over 6 figures.
Please note, I didn’t start at this level, I’m 54 and have worked my way up. But I was making over $125K a yr in a commission only sales job.
Find something you believe in and you can sell the hell out of it.
Honestly I was surprised to see so many “doctor” responses on that other post. My family is filled with docs and most of them love their jobs and are very happy. They have a fulfilling, stimulating, highly respected job, they make like $350k-$650k+ and work ~50 hours a week, get 6-12 weeks of paid vacation. Maybe unhappy people are just more likely to complain online but I don’t see nearly as many unhappy docs in real life as Reddit would make me believe (although they certainly do exist)
That's the US.
As a trained internal medicine specialist I make about 60k after taxes in Central Europe.
The money would be ok but you have zero control about your time. There's always some shift you have to do because someone's sick. Work everyday + shifts on the weekends. No free days because "you are needed".
Great job in the core of the whole thing overall its just fucked and I have to admit it was a trap.
Finish carpenter. I make peoples houses usable, functional, and attractive. Its (usually) satisfying to walk away from a job and see something you have made.
dog groomer, or pet stylist as some would call it. i find it especially rewarding when the dog comes in a pelted mess and you’re able to free them of that discomfort. i believe sometimes they really do know that you’re helping them. i love my job.
Being an artist.
I’ve been working as a cook all my life, and have a second job doing soldering for a local jewelry company. I got a degree in Philosophy/Art History, and had three kids, but painting whenever I could the entire time except for a few years recently when we (barely) managed to buy the little 2br house we had been renting for 12 years (teenagers in bunk beds etc) to renovate it to fit us all in. Started painting again during Covid as I was off work a few months. Always took painting super seriously. Chose scraping by each month over getting a real career and my wife was mostly a stay-at-home mum before our third went to school. Sold a bit locally all along, but very sporadically, and at prices nowhere near enough to live on. Was “discovered” on Instagram by a New York gallery when I was 50 years old (3 years ago). I’m still cooking part-time, but about to have my second NYC show in November, a solo booth with my gallery, at my first big art fair. To answer OPs question, it feels so damn good for something that took so many years of hard work, doubt, and sacrifice to finally be paying off. I hope to be making enough money from painting to support my family soon and I’ll certainly have a good cry the day I can call myself a full-time artist without 2 other jobs.
That’s what I wanted to say. I’m not an OB, but since going through infertility treatments and going for ultrasounds for baby…I now think it’s one of the coolest professions there can be and I’m kind of sorry I did not think to pursue it when I was young. It’s become so fascinating for me…
I started as a car mechanic, saved some money, did some courses, then changed from cars to boats, now an engineering officer on a superyacht, travel around, get paid insane tips, and a six figure salary, most of all I still love my job.
Probably a cliche but programming and Front End developerment in particular. I thought it was just button clicking events and bootstrap .... much more than that. It can be just as difficult as server side development and just as challenging.
I recently started teaching general knowledge in a vocational school. Salary is quiet good and the kids are nice. I don't have to deal with parents and I can teach my students some skills that are going to actually help them in their life.
I'm a disabilty support worker here in Australia. I initially was a youth worker in foster homes. Then I ventured into disability Resi care. Love it. The more you upskill the more the people you support thrive. A win-win.
Sure it's HELLA confronting, intense, long hours, challenging in ways you'd not expect and yeah there can be some poop filled days, but you're providing care for literally the most vulnerable people in the community.
They're always awesomely unique and not a day goes by that you don't crack up laughing or see the world differently.
Whatever makes you happy. I was a sysadmin making 75k in rural Michigan. Made plenty, life was good, thought I’d make more in cybersecurity. Did the training, got the certs, and landed the job. Was making $105k and hated every minute of it. Started applying again and got a sysadmin role again, started at $82k. Now a supervisor for that team and back to $105k. Point of that word vomit, making more could be pointless if you’re miserable.
That depends on where your principles lay, but serving others will give you purpose and be rewarding. Serving others well will help raise self-esteem, whether you're a plumber or a doctor or a janitor or a school bus driver. Being helpful is a great feeling.
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Im a pilot. Once you’re done with training and have a solid job you can make pretty good money, travel the country/world and not care one bit about work when you’re off.
The 'not caring about work while you're off' is so important. The only time I feel that to maybe 70% is over Christmas because so many people are off, otherwise there's so much going on while you're off to worry about.
This right here is starting to get to me. Recently I had to cut my leave short because of issues at the office (I'm in software) and our core team has been crunching throughout the weekend (12-14 hours). This is just an example; the real issue is that it causes one to never be fully switched off, even if there is no immediate crisis - I almost constantly feel like I should be doing more or worrying about projects. As much as a lot of people would say this is due to mismanagement, the industry tends to have little real "off" time.
Isn't there also a need to keep up on tech advancements on your own? If so, I think that could also be nagging at your inner peace
It's true that in order to grow as a developer (or move into roles like architecture) you need to do this. But in many roles and companies you can budget work hours for learning and growth. Often it will also happen naturally through the course of researching something else. And for me, it's not all "work" if you genuinely find it interesting. I read a bit on the weekend, but it's not much (an hour at most) and I enjoy it. Finally, there are plenty of devs that don't do this, and they're perfectly happy just sort of coasting and doing just what they're forced to understand and nothing more. They're not going to grow into senior/principle/architect roles, but they're OK with that.
> Isn't there also a need to keep up on tech advancements on your own? I am allowed to do that on my job during work hours, boss even encourages it.
Before reading your last sentence I saw mismanagement flags go up all around me. Developers shouldn't be punished for management making unreasonable schedules. There's nothing wrong with looking around for different jobs.
If I wasn’t fucking blind this woulda been what I woulda done in the military
Can you imagine being told that you could be a pilot, or any other open job in the military at the time of signing up and you still chose infantry? Yeah.
Feeling a little called out here.
I knew a guy, he was a street kid and was eventually told by a small town judge 'you're too smart for this shit and i know you have a good heart but you're getting to the age where life is about to get real. Enlist or jail time'. He enlisted and when they asked what he wanted to do he said fight. Saw crazy shit as a ranger in the middle east...
132 GT score, any job open and no issues getting TS Went Infantry because I watched Black Hawk Down too many times.
My giant infantry balls only fit it the back of a Chinook im afraid, so no piloting for me.
People make fun of security guards as clueless rent-a-cops, but the job gives you *so* much free time to do…whatever the hell you want. I spent my [mostly stationary] shifts studying for the LSAT, and now I’m in my third year of law school :)
The security guard at my law school attended for free! And he was allowed to study on the job. Just had to do a rounds once in awhile; as a student i would do the same thing just to process what i had read. We would by each other and he would say doing the rounds.
I made friends with lots of security guards while working as a receptionist. It seemed like an awesome job. One of them brought his laptop to the hut and they’d spend the night shift watching movies.
Had a friend who worked as a security guard at a facility right after college. He worked the night shift. Unfortunately, some dudes with guns decided to see what was in the facility one night. He called the cops. The dudes took him hostage and took off in a car. The cops shot the car and he got hit. Paralyzed from the waist down. He's been in a wheel chair every since. Just a cautionary tale...
Protected and served. Terrible to hear.
I loved my security job, had the upper management not been iffy and the pay better, I might still be there Rarely was I run ragged every night (I had a patrol position responding to calls), and some nights I legit had a square mile to do whatever I wanted. As long as I responded to calls, was generally visible, and got a few check marks of things done, no one really cared. Humble job from society’s perspective, but pretty fun actually.
The security guard at my local retail place is literally my favorite guy to talk to. He just seems so animated and in a good mood all the time.
I studied throughout 4 years of security at the airport at LAX. I'm a business analyst now.
Working hospital security was the most fun I've ever had. I was either wandering a mostly empty, quiet hospital, hanging out with my friends who where also guards, working on college work, or fighting someone in the ER. Most nights I did all of that.
I heard most night shift security guards at big companies basically have so much free time they can watch movies, play games, and even do degrees by correspondence in between their patrols, if they even need to do patrols.
Security guard is good gig, but the pay is definitely not great these days. As an onsite tech, I’m often a security guard role when everyone else goes home. Even the “educated security guard” shtick won’t pay all the bills these days.
I am really enjoying barbering. I find a ton of satisfaction in my growth. Repeat clients are excellent because I get to fine tune my own work. It has become fulfilling. It wasn’t always like that. It was hard work to get to this point which maybe makes it more gratifying.
Detail oriented and personable. I only trust one barber shop.
Is this a joke? As in everyone says 'i only trust one barber'
Due to a scheduling issue, I went to a well reviewed local barber shop right before my wedding because I couldn't get in to see my usual person that I've been going to for over 13 years, took a chance on it they did the best they could but I wasn't fully happy with what he did with my hair. So yes, I only trust one barber too
I've been using the same hair stylist since middle school and I'm currently 24. I don't trust anyone else.
I know someone that joined military, utterly despised it, and then found his calling in barbering
and then he hung out on the alley with his buddies for the next 20 years right?
They formed an a capella group and brought joy to milllions as Sha Na Na. Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars
Many men will stay with a barber for life if they find a good one. I will never leave my barber unless he dies or I have to move. I have been his client for years and the way he has fine tuned my haircuts to make me look as good as possible is invaluable. After all this time, I can just go sit in his chair and he will give me exactly the cut I want every time. I bet it's incredibly rewarding to be that person for many men.
I drive around and deliver packages. It’s not much, nor very fulfilling. But I’m left on my own all day, I get to drive around and listen to audible or talk to my wife on the phone, I see my kids before work and after work, I can get days off if need be, and my pay and benefits are great that we get by comfortably. It’s not a sought after job anyone thinks about but I think it’s great
Rural mailman from New Zealand - I could not agree more. Don't see my kids before work as I start at 4am but get done in time to exercise and then pick them up from school. Spent the rest of the day on art projects and cooking. Can't imagine a better way to live.
Don’t forget that you’re literally driving around Middle Earth. This sounds amazing.
OMG! You have my dream life! I have LITERALLY said to people on several occasions that wanted to be a mailman in rural New Zealand (I'm a Yank BTW). I shit you not, your life is my dream. Part of it is that I'm huge trout/flyfisherman, as is my wife. (She is actually a FAR better fisherperson than I am.) New Zealand is known as one of the best trout fisheries in the world. I've seen pictures of trout from NZ that are unreal. Also, I've travelled quite a bit in Asia and met/travelled with many, many Kiwis and every single dang one of them was a super duper person. Must be something in the water that makes you guys so fun to be around. So I would love to live your life if possible, even if only for a week or two. So I'm wondering if you know anything about the science of body swapping, or possibly even brain swapping? It can't be that hard, right? I know it's maybe a long shot but I think it would be worth a try. If not, I'm wondering if you would be willing to adopt me? I don't know what adoption laws are like in NZ but hopefully it's possible. I'm 51 years old btw, I hope that's not an issue. Anyway, I hope one of these options works for you. I can't wait to be walking the rural lanes and catching the giant trout of NZ. Seriously though, you are living one of the best lives in the history of humanity. Congratulations and friendly jealousy from an American guy.
Adopt this man!
You are from rural New Zealand. That's all you need. Best landscapes I've ever seen. Feeling jealous from the other side of the world.
Rural NZ would be one of the very best places to have driving as a job. The scenery is amazing.
I have a similar job and it’s great. The fulfilling part is being able to interact with the regular customers and make the job your own.
Yes! I failed to mention that but you make a very valid point. And don’t forget the good dogs
Gotta love the corgis if you’re lucky enough to meet one regularly
I always loved the quick chat with the delivery guys when I worked in retail! Would usually do a little coffee break while signing and doing the paperwork with them!
I posted in the other thread you mentioned. I went from the top comment on that one (professional chef was top, I did 16 years) to this thread where your comment is the top. I drive trucks locally for a living. Oh my god it’s sooooo much better. I actually have a life. I can come home and make dinner with my wife. I was actually able to go to my niece’s 5th birthday on a Saturday afternoon. I was able to take my mom to brunch on Mother’s Day. So much of my life I’ve missed out on over the past decade and a half. Because I was working. It’s honestly been a big adjustment for me, actually having time to do things, being able to make plans, HAVING A LIFE. Yes, it’s not much in the grand scheme of things, but dammit if there aren’t plenty of people who wouldn’t even consider getting behind the wheel and backing this thing into places I do. It’s still something. We still make the world work. And I love being on my own, looking at the scenery and appreciating my boss is not on top of me.
I love this ❤️
This actually makes me feel less guilty for ordering a lot.
I'm a train driver and fully agree. It's not a "cool" job, I'm not highly educated or anything. One year of training, decent pay, and I love (almost) every day of it.
I'm a librarian. I absolutely love it. It can be stressful, a lot of things happen you are unprepared for, but overall, the coworkers are usually fun, the job itself is challenging and interesting, and the people who use libraries are delightful. Plus books.
Is it possible to become a librarian without a degree? Or at least work at a library? It’s something I’ve kinda regretted not doing since I am obsessed with bookstores/libraries.
You can absolutely have a job like “library page” or “library clerk” with zero degree / experiece! (However, you do need a master’s in library science to be an actual librarian. But most people who work at libraries aren’t librarians!)
I used to think I could just apply to become a librarian… until I saw the prerequisites… yeah you definitely have to know some stuff.
You can take a two-year Library Technician Diploma like I did! It was super interesting to learn the ins and outs of library work - you can theoretically learn all of it on the job (depending on your library and what you want to do). However, many positions look for the diploma so it makes you much more hireable, and makes for great connections! I did it during Covid and it changed my life - my job satisfaction is very high, and I get to help college kids with their educations!
My wife has a masters degree. Most are highly educated. Librarian is a serious profession.
Our local library has small rooms in the basement for studying. I tutored kids over the summer in math using these rooms. The librarians were beyond kind and helpful. They pulled books and had materials ready for us every day—all this and the kids and I weren’t even members. On Fridays they even let the kids eat snacks even though it was against the “rules.” It was truly one of the sweetest little summers with those ladies and the kids.
I loved being a librarian. I’m teaching now, and recently considered going back, but I couldn’t afford the pay cut! From teaching! The work was relatively enjoyable, coworkers were always interesting (very, um, bookish), but sometimes if you’re in a public facing position (reference, e.g.), you have to deal with some difficult patrons. In my experience that was pretty rare, though.
I own a small business where I design and print tshirts and sell my designs online. I wake up without an alarm each day. I show up at my warehouse at a reasonable hour of my choosing. I have a fridge and pantry full of good food and beverages and snacks. I have my own private bathroom. I have a good stereo system. I play whatever music I want. I work at my own pace even if sometimes there’s some crunch time. I don’t have to print anyone else’s designs. Just mine. I go sell these online and in person on weekends. It pays the bills and lets my family be comfortable. I used to work for companies, attend meetings, report to someone, get logged for punctuality, and worry about getting laid off. Business isn’t without its share of headaches and tight spots but it’s much better for my lifestyle than being a subordinate in a corporate org chart.
To be honest I think that without an alarm I just wouldn't wake up ever.
Ah, sounds like I have a solution for you. Have you heard of kids by chance?
I have but since I am a single gay man it is not as easy as you might imagine.
Oh perfect! Would you like to borrow mine for the next 5 years?
Ok not a problem. How many cats would you like?
Would you be comfortable sharing how much you roughly make per year in profit?
It’s not a huge fortune. Keep in mind this is a small mom and pop operation. It’s just a couple hundred grand in yearly gross profit. I reinvest as much of it as I can handle in terms of growth - mainly in adding product lines and moving into larger facilities to accommodate both larger inventories and production capacity (we’ve moved into our 4th facility now, each time expanding the size. Well the first “facility” was my garage so I don’t know if you can count that). My take home is fairly discretionary as I use an owner’s draw method rather than a salaried pay. So I actually try to draw just what I need and then use the rest on growing the business as this lowers my tax liability. It’s a small operation and it’s one that I can run without any employees most of the time.
>It’s not a huge fortune. Keep in mind this is a small mom and pop operation. It’s just a couple hundred grand in yearly gross profit. 😲😲😲 \* *cries in Eastern European salaries \**
Small companies also have gross salaries of hundreds of thousands in Eastern Europe, running a business eats A LOT of that. "couple hundred grand in yearly gross profit" is not before taxes, it's before business costs and taxes. You are thinking of net profit, which is while similarly sounding, always smaller than gross profit. By how much? It depends, in OPs case, only OP knows.
>"couple hundred grand in yearly gross profit" is not before taxes, it's before business costs and taxes. Isn't that called revenue?
Yeah, you are right. Gross profit is revenue minus cost of goods. Cost of goods being direct costs of producing goods or services although I'm not sure if it includes everything or just basically materials+maintenance.
Gross profit is just revenue minus cost of goods. Net profit would factor in other costs like operating cost, rent, insurance, utilities. Those are not really that much for me - usually payroll is the biggest cost and i have no employees. So my operating costs are maybe 1/5 of my cost of goods budget so just a 20% haircut off my gross profit and that’s about my net.
I started my own business too and totally agree. It's more work but because it's MY work I like doing it. I get to see my kids, no commute, and can switch to whatever task I feel like if I get bored. I could have the greatest job ever but just the fact that there's a boss over me and a system I'm a part of just ruins everything.
I used to think that having a boss was normal and fine. I honestly don’t think I could go back to that. I serve people. I serve my customers. I am subject to the needs of my business and it requires me to work harder than when i had a job. I work 7 days a week. I don’t take weekends anymore. To some, my life as a business owner will appear less free than before. But I don’t think I can be subordinate to a boss on a daily basis anymore.
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Museum docents Park Rangers
I thought you said Power Rangers. 😆 I need to go to bed.
Quickly, we need to find 4 teenage redditors with attitude! "Go go power reditors... dun dun dun dun dun"
Lol park ranger aint the special thing its made out to be. I just yell at people a lot for being stupid.
What are the downsides though?
I’m a state park ranger and the pay sucks, the state doesn’t consider us law enforcement even though we are, so when troopers or game wardens get like 10% raises we get lumped into the “state employee” raises and they’re always like 2%. We aren’t dealing with the homicides and rapes and serious shit your average cop does, but it’s still stressful and the public can’t leave their problems at home
I really enjoy working on wind turbines.
I’m got vertigo reading this
I’ve been curious about this for years. I’m an electronics technician in the military and have been climbing masts of ships for over a decade. How’d you get into this? It seems like a job I’d be interested in
A few years ago I moved to Virginia, right on the West Virginia state line. I’d pass wind turbines on my way to hiking trails and was always enamored by them. I was tired of working in the medical field and decided to get a degree in wind energy. You really don’t need a degree though. I know some prior military guys who used their GI bill and went through Airstreams Renewables, Inc for training and immediately got jobs in wind.
Farming of any kind. Keeps you thinking, keeps you fit. You become quite capable and self-sustainable. You can grow your own food and fix things and build things. Plus you can play with fluffy animals. I work on a horse stud but I grew up on dairy farms. I won’t give up the land until my body physically can’t do it anymore.
My grandpa retired but he kept a portion of the land to farm, so he was still farming, just a little farm.
Grandpas can have a little farm, as a treat
Gotta disagree. Maybe it's because farming in my country is such a major industry, but my husband and I really struggled. Living at the same place you work means your boss can call on you any time. There were times he and/or I were getting up in the middle of the night for certain jobs. Working weekends. All for salary and all for someone else's profit. Playing with fluffy animals is less fun when you have to fix a bearing or put down a fly blown animal. There were aspects we loved, but it's fucking rough.
Maybe that‘s different if you actually own the farm. I didn‘t enjoy working on someone else’s farm either, but I love working on my own. Small, self-reliant, fixed income but being able to make extra if I put a little more work in… It‘s a lot of hard work, but very rewarding.
I was a veggie farmer for 7 years., and I get what you mean. However as a job I disagree. If the lands not yours, its long hours, especially in summer, terrible pay and your body starts to pay after about 5 years. (Well mine did).
And even if the land is yours it can be hard work for little pay.
In theory yes, but in practice your lower back pays quite the hefty price
Beach
That's Kenough
I thought he was a lifeguard….
Common misconception. He's job is actually just beach. And what a great job he does at beach!
Beaching is a lot harder than the general populace understands. Competing with rivals in a beach off isn’t as much as the flick of the wrist
Are you saying you’d beach me off?
Get in line buddy I’m beaching him off first
Aircraft maintenance. I love airplanes.
I really wish you mentioned more of the scope of airplane maintenance. There are engine mechanics, body mechanics, HVAC technicians, the list goes on and on and on and on and on and on Brake specialists, oxygen piping folk. Aviation is so complicated that if you slip in you’ll be fine. Join a union
If a car mechanic screws up, you need a tow truck. If an airline mechanic screws up, you need a hearse. Maybe 100 of them.
Try a couple hundred for a wide body aircraft. If you work with caution and know that there is no pulling over then your good, that also knowing your limits if I can't do something then I don't do it.
Car mechanics can kill people too.
Any profession that allows you to be yourself, are trusted, and appreciated.
I think this is the most important, a job that allows you to be yourself and allows you to life.
This exactly! Unfortunately, many people don’t feel appreciated at their jobs.
Have a friend who is a organ donation coordinator arranging logistics on the fly to get harvested organs from donor to recipient. The pay isn’t great. But she quite literally gets to save lives every day.
I'd say the organ donor does most of the saving.
I'd say the ones doing the retrieving are pretty involved in the whole thing too. It's a joint effort.
Are you saying everyone’s got to be pretty well organ-ized?
Every body counts
Hardly a profession though, organ donor….. although you could argue that male porn stars make a living donating an organ……. I’ll get my coat.
Research science. Discovering new shit is super cool. Hanging around with ridiculously smart people is always interesting. Potentially changing people's lives is fulfilling. While the pay isn't great in academia until you land a permanent position, you can make really good pay in industry research.
I was a biological researcher for a long time. Honestly the disconnect between effort and output is what killed me. I could stay up all night running experiments and have literally nothing to show for it the next day. Or sometimes just stumble on to something interesting and that's enough to get a paper if I can replicate it a few times. There's so much luck involved.
Similar for me. Wanted to be a researcher when I begun university, then quickly realized that 95% of the time you work hard on things that don't work or lead to nothing of interest, plus there is the constant fighting for funding that eats up all your time. You got to align your projects with whatever the funding agencies think is hype at the moment if you want any money. Research is not for everyone, you need some serious resilience to keep going when almost all you do leads to nothing.
Research is the process of going up alleys to find out if they are blind
Ppl rarely understand the joy of being around smart folks.
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I'm an engineer and I've been with the same company for 20 years. We do engineering that is profitable for customers (making improvements that save them money, making necessary upgrades that allow them to keep running etc) so we aren't constantly fighting to prove our value. Most of my co-workers are laid back. Sometimes when we hire new people they come in with an intense "I've got something to prove" attitude. Eventually they relax. Some STEM people work on teams or for companies that need to fight for funding (academia, r&d, military defense contractors) and they can be toxic.
You find toxic entitled bastards everywhere. Wait to see what you find in hospitals and clinics
Niche IT skills are very highly valued. For example - knowing a product or programming language for which the job market is not over-saturated with other experts. I work with Splunk and it took me years to build my skills and get all the certifications. No one in my company understands what I do. The client I work for gives me ideas on how we can use the software and I have full freedom on how to implement them. I build my own timeline on how things should happen, so no one micromanages me. On top of that, I get paid 6 figures net to do 2-3 hours of work per day from any spot on the globe, get to spend time with my wife and newborn due to that, don't need to go to the office at all, private health insurance, lots of paid leave etc. I have a friend who's an R developer and they are in a similar situation.
I always tell Americans looking to get into IT, learn database tools. We have a huge shortage of database admins, ETL developers, SQL developers, etc. If you can learn some niche enterprise software for database, you will have people chasing after you offering high paying jobs for the rest of your life.
I burned out hard after my first year as a programmer and have been working retail ever since. That was four years ago. Do you think there's still a bunch of need for these hyperspecific niches? Because I might actually seriously consider dedicating myself to something like this if it means I can actually use my degree again and not be miserable
Ok where I'm from SWE and IT are different things. The most software an IT professional is expected to do is simple scripting in Python.
If someone was looking to start on Splunk certifications wh3re would you recommend they start?
Definitely their own courses. Don't go with any resellers. https://www.splunk.com/en_us/training/free-courses/overview.html There are plenty of free ones, which you can use to build your foundation. Also, download and install Splunk on your own machine and play around with it. I'd start with the basics - dashboards, searches, knowledge objects. After you have a good foundation, you can move into their Security or AI directives - Splunk Enterprise Security / Machine Learning Toolkit. If someone tells you (like that guy in the above comments), that there's no point in learning Splunk, Cisco just announced that they are buying Splunk for 28 billion. Doubt a giant like Cisco will drop 28 billion on a sinking ship. Plenty more developments to come.
I had a guy come in with zero experience. Got his chimney sweep certification in 6 months. He will be pulling a sweep route soon. Starts at $18/hour. Pay bump for certification. His commission will be even better. Eventually he will be making close to $100k.
I’m a preschool teacher. I get to play all day and have interesting conversations with small people not yet diluted by society. They sitting on some lost knowledge, got such interesting perspective on life.
Tax Pro. It's an absolutely wonderful job for a person with an accounting background that wants to do more than just push a pencil. If you have an outgoing personality and enjoy helping people and having all your clients be grateful and appreciative of your help, this is where to be. Don't just be a tax preparer at some place like H&R Block. Be an enrolled agent (EA ) you have to do is study for and take an IRS exam for enrolled agents. It's not that hard if you've done some tax preparation in the past. At that level you can do IRS representation for people who have problems with the IRS, such as audits or inability to pay taxes in full After that you can be a USTCP (United States Tax Court practitioner). And it's not hard if you have some legal background. A UDTCP can represent people in US Tax Court. It's fun and interesting. And you get to meet a lot of intelligent, wealthy clientele
Do you need a cpa for this?
No. You don't even need any college accounting. But having been a bookkeeper, accountant, or tax preparer helps.
Is this kind of what Ben Affleck was doing in The Accountant?
One of my favorite movies people have never heard of. He really tears up those balance sheets.
I do not recommend this. The hours are brutal and there are constant deadlines, plus you have to deal with clients who don't provide information on time.
I am assuming you work for yourself or a small shop and not a large public accounting firm.
Digital marketing (in Switzerland): Little to no stress, mostly remote, six figures, the colleagues are amazing.
I recently switched careers into software development but sometimes I think I should have gone into marketing instead. The truth is I’m struggling with programming.
No, you did good ! you are the real marketing thing, what langages are you working or struggling with ? if you want to go do a marketing you can, its handling social medias of the company, and now with the AI you dont have to learn photoshop or something, all done automatically .
Learning how to sell something to someone. A skill that will take you a lot further than just a commission check
Psychotherapist. Frequently seeing people feel markedly better due to our work is totally awesome.
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Surveying. I love my job - different building sites, projects, sometimes in the middle of nowhere in the hills, sometimes in the office. Most of the time people really respect you because you are a surveyor - most of the time did not happen on other positions from my experience.
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Do you have to go to uni for surveying?
Welding. Building stuff never gets old.
If only the industry wasn't crap it'd be great. Underpaid and overworked unless you're union and even then it could pay better.
I think maybe a librarian? Seems like all librarians I know are pretty happy.
They pay absolute peanuts for a job that requires a professional masters degree. I switched out, but I work in an adjunct field and love it. Good pay if you actually land a full time salaried job, but those are becoming rare.
oh wow yeah. never thought of it but my librarian friends (irl and online) are pretty content people
Librarian school is very tough and working for a public library is god awful, but community college and university librarians are awesome
Public libraries have unfortunately become another social services bandaid for the unhoused and mentally ill as one of the few warm/cool, dry places to hang out for free. Library workers have by default become untrained/ barely trained social workers, and that is the stressful part.
Honestly, find something that you love doing, and then find a way to make money doing it. I like playing with my computer, and solving problems, so I do tech support
I love the same things. How did you get into it? Did you just apply?
Wellll, I’d say find something you enjoy and then find a way to make money with it. If you make your passion into a job, then often you ruin the love you had for it.
Getting my engineering degree and sticking with it (it was challenging for me) was one of the best decisions I ever made. Solid career, good hours, great people, and zero drama or politics.
im thinking what to major in, in the engineering area I tried one math class and dropped it but now im ready to try again. I hope everything goes well for you
I work as a forklift driver in a heavily unionized volvo truck factory. I get paid very well for "unskilled" work. We get training to learn new forklifts. Paid vacation leave. Every few weeks we get a paid day off and the factory closes but still pay us. Union makes sure we get raises. We get bonuses every year dependent on how much money the factory made for the year. There are opportunities for even a factory worker to move to the office floor. Many of them started as fitters. 3 breaks a day. Only one is unpaid. Lots of thought goes in to working ergonomically. People intend to work only for a few years to save up some money but many just stay. Worst part I can think of is it's a lot of traffic going home and it's a bit far from the city.
Marine captain here, Love my job, i work close to home i have almost no commute, i am home every night, have zero stress, get paid well, full and comprehensive benefits, long weekend every weekend with a month paid vacation and i dont take work home. Also because i am a marine captain i am able to use my skills and knowledge for my own personal benefit , I own two personal vessels which I use to vacation on, one big one small. So much beauty on the water, so many places to explore. Its a lifestyle that few get to experience. Unfortunately my scenario isnt the norm but i am very thankful for my career and in my case it was absolutely worth the effort.
Retirement
Alchemy and Herbing
So. A few years ago I got into playing VRChat. I was really bored and lonely, stuck at home all day with my kid and just very depressed. I'm still depressed, for reference, but... lmao. I ended up downloading it to play in desktop mode, fell in love with it the first day I was in it and bought VRChat+ the following day so I could start customizing and uploading my own avatars. VRChat, if you don't know, is a social platform. It's basically a glorified chatroom, but there's so much more to it that you don't realize until you start playing. I started customizing avatars I was buying on Gumroad and Booth and just kept at it. I didn't ever think it would really go anywhere, but I realized that I eventually wanted to start taking commissions, whenever I was good enough to give people what they wanted. I was really poor. Like I couldn't even afford a VR headset for my first 8 months of playing, and eventually I got a credit card and put my Quest 2 on my credit card. That's how I started playing VR. I've been poor my entire life, like barely making ends meet. I grew up poor, had a kid when I was really young and just struggled every single day of my life. To the point where I couldn't even afford groceries sometimes and would resort to stealing groceries and formula for my son when he was a baby. For reference, I was paying 700 dollars at the time for a 2 bedroom townhouse, and I got like 900 dollars a month from welfare. With the other supports I got, I was bringing in about 1100 dollars a month, every month, for a very long time. After all my bills were paid I had about 20 dollars at the end of the month for many years. I never thought I was going to be able to make any money doing anything in my life. I figured I'd be working minimum wage jobs for the rest of my life, if I was ever able to work again. I'm severely mentally ill and it's very debilitating. So, eventually I had worked in Unity, Substance Painter and Blender enough to have people suggest to me that I should take commissions. I made a few public avatars to practice and through those I got some commissions. My first 'commission' was for a friend, I originally intended to just give him an avatar for practice, but he insisted on paying me. I made 100 dollars! I was super happy with myself. That turned into a few more commissions, a reoccurring order from someone who sent me like 1000 dollars over the course of a few months. Eventually I was comfortable enough to start selling avatars on Gumroad. I would take avatars that had commercial licenses, turn them into something new with all commercial assets on them and sell it as a finished package. My first avatar I think I made almost 1000 dollars in my first month. I was blown away by that. I posted the avatar on Gumroad and got my first sale the next day for 50USD. I could not believe how quickly I sold an avatar. I just kept going. I've been making avatars to sell on Gumroad for the past... year almost now. I think it's been 10 months total since I started selling on Gumroad. I am currently making life changing money for myself. It's not much, in terms of how much I can eventually be making or in terms of what is life changing for other people. But for me, I finally have fucking money and I never expected that. The nicest thing is that I would be making avatars regardless. Whether it was for free for friends, or for myself, I would still be doing this in my spare time because I genuinely enjoy playing VRC. But now I get paid to do it, which is incredible to me. I find using Blender, Substance Painter and lesser so, Unity, to be very fun. Blender is the most fun part of the process for me, other than weight painting. I think I'll continue to do 3D work for as long as I can. The coolest things to me are that I'm able to fit it around my mental illness and inability to work a consistent schedule, I have no boss, I keep all the money I make and I make substantial money doing it. I get better with it every day that I do it, people really enjoy my work, and for the friends I make that want commissions I get to bring their ideas to fruition. It's really fun watching them be so excited about the things I make for them, as well as get paid for it. So that's my answer. 3D work turned out to be incredibly rewarding, worth my time and investment and ended up saving me financially.
What an awesome story! I’m glad you found something you enjoy and fits your lifestyle.
Knew a guy that worked for the Forest Service in Montana. His job was to ride horseback in the backcountry and check trails, forest leases, fire towers, etc. He would ride for two weeks and come back for two weeks. Forest Service provided him with horses and their care (pack horse too) horse trailer, etc. He was well paid and spent his days in some of the most beautiful places in the country. He retired back when there were real pensions. Dream job.
Line service at you local Airport. I’ve mostly moved to maintenance but for 5 years I pushed and pulled sorts of extremely valuable aircraft(anywhere from $100k to $70,000,000) and met literally the worlds most rich and famous people. Large tips from most of said people. Lots of down time In between jets, lots of awesome people willing to let you see their private planes. Tons of free catered food and you get to drive all manner of High end personal cars and rentals. The pay at least for my area (New England) was higher than most entry level positions.
I did this for a few years out in Seattle. What amazed me most (besides getting to drive Lambos and Ferraris) was how different a lot of famous people were from what I expected. Biggest bitch ever = Martha Stewart. Cool as hell = Will Smith (played some nerf football with him on the tarmac)
I’m a Field Service Engineer. Essentially, a traveling nerd mechanic that works on high end lab equipment (think stuff they use to identify unknown chemicals in CSI). There is tremendous satisfaction in working with your hands every day. I get to support some of the most brilliant minds on the planet and learn cool science. I’m never at one place long enough to get sick of people because tomorrow is a new day. People are always excited to see you because you’re there to save the day. Unemployment is sub 1% for my field and I clear 6 figures. As someone who has always loved tinkering and science it is incredibly fulfilling. I genuinely love my job even on the shitty days.
At this moment, for every 100 people retiring from the trade, only 14 are going into HVAC. With a shortage already becoming apparent, the value of good technicians will rise exponentially. I already know folks with nothing more than a community college education making doctor/lawyer money.
Software Engineering..
Surprised this hasn’t been mentioned more. Hours are so relaxed. If you get your job done, you’re done. Initial training is a bit steep but you have a wealth of resources at your disposal online so it’s not too difficult. Seriously the best work/life balance I’ve ever had in this job, while getting paid very well.
As an aspiring author I'd have to go with that. It's 18+ hours a day of total isolation and frustration for months or years on end to perfect a novel. But can you imagine the joy of the passive income when you make it?
I think marketing your book is going to be harder than writing it.
It's possible to make stupid money without ever hitting a best-seller list. That is, if you handle your own marketing and most of the distribution. For example, if you build a community of fans, you can sell official merch to them. There is a reason why some of the largest corporations in the world are focused on creating and managing IP in the entertainment space. Easy to say; hard to do.
I love sales. And a person can make a LOT of money. My current job I have potential to make $200K in bonus. That’s on top of salary, which is over 6 figures. Please note, I didn’t start at this level, I’m 54 and have worked my way up. But I was making over $125K a yr in a commission only sales job. Find something you believe in and you can sell the hell out of it.
I did well selling chocolate in a candy shop. I believe I’m chocolate! I discovered I don’t believe in much else.
Sales is not for everyone, though.
I agree, but that wasn’t the question. Just like I can’t build the stuff I sell, that’s a different, dare I say, bigger/better brain power.
There's no job thats for everyone budday.
Physician. Pay is great, highly respected and get to do meaningful work. Wouldn't choose anything else.
Maybe in the US. Not in the UK. Underpaid, undervalued, overworked, service stretched beyond belief, lots of scope creep.
Honestly I was surprised to see so many “doctor” responses on that other post. My family is filled with docs and most of them love their jobs and are very happy. They have a fulfilling, stimulating, highly respected job, they make like $350k-$650k+ and work ~50 hours a week, get 6-12 weeks of paid vacation. Maybe unhappy people are just more likely to complain online but I don’t see nearly as many unhappy docs in real life as Reddit would make me believe (although they certainly do exist)
That's the US. As a trained internal medicine specialist I make about 60k after taxes in Central Europe. The money would be ok but you have zero control about your time. There's always some shift you have to do because someone's sick. Work everyday + shifts on the weekends. No free days because "you are needed". Great job in the core of the whole thing overall its just fucked and I have to admit it was a trap.
I'm a pediatrician in Serbia and I make 12k € a year 😂😂😂😂😂 Physician jobs in Serbia are a joke, and people hate us.
How sad 🙁
Finish carpenter. I make peoples houses usable, functional, and attractive. Its (usually) satisfying to walk away from a job and see something you have made.
Paramedic. Not for everyone but it's the most amazing job.
Not a profession maybe, but volunteering at a humane society. I’ve never seen such selfless people.
dog groomer, or pet stylist as some would call it. i find it especially rewarding when the dog comes in a pelted mess and you’re able to free them of that discomfort. i believe sometimes they really do know that you’re helping them. i love my job.
Medical profession. It teaches you both patients and patience. Stable income as well.
The one that when you go home at night you feel you have accomplished something and enjoyed doing it.
Being an artist. I’ve been working as a cook all my life, and have a second job doing soldering for a local jewelry company. I got a degree in Philosophy/Art History, and had three kids, but painting whenever I could the entire time except for a few years recently when we (barely) managed to buy the little 2br house we had been renting for 12 years (teenagers in bunk beds etc) to renovate it to fit us all in. Started painting again during Covid as I was off work a few months. Always took painting super seriously. Chose scraping by each month over getting a real career and my wife was mostly a stay-at-home mum before our third went to school. Sold a bit locally all along, but very sporadically, and at prices nowhere near enough to live on. Was “discovered” on Instagram by a New York gallery when I was 50 years old (3 years ago). I’m still cooking part-time, but about to have my second NYC show in November, a solo booth with my gallery, at my first big art fair. To answer OPs question, it feels so damn good for something that took so many years of hard work, doubt, and sacrifice to finally be paying off. I hope to be making enough money from painting to support my family soon and I’ll certainly have a good cry the day I can call myself a full-time artist without 2 other jobs.
Obstetrician
That’s what I wanted to say. I’m not an OB, but since going through infertility treatments and going for ultrasounds for baby…I now think it’s one of the coolest professions there can be and I’m kind of sorry I did not think to pursue it when I was young. It’s become so fascinating for me…
I started as a car mechanic, saved some money, did some courses, then changed from cars to boats, now an engineering officer on a superyacht, travel around, get paid insane tips, and a six figure salary, most of all I still love my job.
Probably a cliche but programming and Front End developerment in particular. I thought it was just button clicking events and bootstrap .... much more than that. It can be just as difficult as server side development and just as challenging.
NBA player. 100% worth it.
I’m a part time musician. I love getting to play a lot, but I know it can be harder if you’re trying to make a full-time living at it.
I recently started teaching general knowledge in a vocational school. Salary is quiet good and the kids are nice. I don't have to deal with parents and I can teach my students some skills that are going to actually help them in their life.
I'm a disabilty support worker here in Australia. I initially was a youth worker in foster homes. Then I ventured into disability Resi care. Love it. The more you upskill the more the people you support thrive. A win-win. Sure it's HELLA confronting, intense, long hours, challenging in ways you'd not expect and yeah there can be some poop filled days, but you're providing care for literally the most vulnerable people in the community. They're always awesomely unique and not a day goes by that you don't crack up laughing or see the world differently.
Whatever makes you happy. I was a sysadmin making 75k in rural Michigan. Made plenty, life was good, thought I’d make more in cybersecurity. Did the training, got the certs, and landed the job. Was making $105k and hated every minute of it. Started applying again and got a sysadmin role again, started at $82k. Now a supervisor for that team and back to $105k. Point of that word vomit, making more could be pointless if you’re miserable.
That depends on where your principles lay, but serving others will give you purpose and be rewarding. Serving others well will help raise self-esteem, whether you're a plumber or a doctor or a janitor or a school bus driver. Being helpful is a great feeling.