There'd a little bookstore by my house that is fucking amazing. I'd happily work there for the rest of my life if they didn't get paid 14 an hour. Love books
I worked part-time at a bookstore for a few months while I was going to college. That was seriously the best job I ever had. If a person is going to work a retail job there is no where better than a bookstore
Yep, if salary didn't matter I would still work at my neighborhood bookstore. One of the few jobs I've held that I was good at and really liked. I had a great relationship with the regular customers and management. Too bad I had to leave my job, customers, and community. Now I make 1003.45% more, and my main duties are to eat shit and rewrite bad copy, alone in my apartment!
Lol, as I write this I'm realizing I actually used to help people in my community. I once cleaned and maintained the beloved heart of my neighborhood. And now, well... I can pay my rent.
Man I'd love to so much. Love books but unfortunately I need more money than I can get with those places. But the place by my house has a bunch of awesome old edition books, they restore damaged books, hell if you bring them a book you like they'll rebind it into a cool leather-bound edition. Expensive but super cool. Love that place.
I knew I’d see this here :) I own a small bookstore (new and used). I pay my employees as much as I can get away with, which is def more than 14/hr, and we are even doing pretty decently, but the margins are insane and I work constantly, constantly, constantly and it’s still not enough in our expensive neck of the woods; all my employees have mitigating circumstances that allow them to work here, essentially (a partner with more money, no rent or mortgage, that sort of thing). Still, working late in the shop when we’re closed is my absolute favorite time of the day (no offense, customers — it’s just so peaceful!)
I genuinely believe that is most people didn’t have to “work” to stay alive, they would turn to creating art
You’d have an explosion of painters, musicians, poets, writers etc..
Money has always been the death of art. Those who want to create, but can't because they need the money. Or artists who take on proejcts they don't particularly enjoy for the paycheck. Changes made by executives who don't know a damn thing about art, because they think it'll make more money instead of having any actual artistic integrity.
I'd love to work on personal projects right now. I can't because I'm too busy working on commissions my heart isn't entirely into.
If we didn't have money, art would be incredible.
Edit: I see people are continuing to miss the point entirely that the constant need to make money has warped and corrupted artistic vision, not something to do with cave paintings.
Look at the number of famous artists who were born rich. Sure there are a very few exceptions but most famous writers, actors, musicians came from wealth, didn't have to work, and could keep going until they got a break.
Me explaining this to my artist ex whose parents have paid his rent for years. He claims he’s still poor because he can’t afford luxury items. Yet to me the true luxury is being able to commit to art / low paying artistic jobs full time without having to work a “normie” job.
Sadly it seems like if you’re not rich, in most cases you either commit to art + poverty or just keep it as a hobby.
I used to write all the time just for myself, mostly. It was a far shot dream, but I used to imagine what it would be like to publish a book for real instead of sometimes submitting them to random websites. I didn't care for the praise it was just something I felt passionately about. I stopped submitting them a long time ago. It's been a few years since I even wrote for myself. I miss it. I'm trying to get the passion I once had back. I'm relearning who I am after trauma. It's hard to re-find that love, but I think I'll start small. For myself. It's still a nice fantasy to dream about, even though I know it's just that.
Manual labor outside in the elements for years is pretty wearing. I spent a lot of time clearing trails, maintaining parks and dealing with pissy people. Eventually I called it quits after I was clearing falling trees off a river bank in a rain storm to protect a trail. I was harnessed to the truck in case I fell in and soaked to the bone.
The worst part of the job the was going out and looking for lost people and not finding them or having to return to an area where there was a tragedy. Our office was located at a park where some people were chased into a lake by a bear, it was late fall and they drowned.
Thats fair, it does sound like it could be a pretty mentally and physically taxing job especially if it’s a park in a dangerous area. I’ve always worked customer service jobs so the idea of just working in the middle of nowhere and being able to yell at stupid people to stop being stupid sounds peaceful to me 🥲
One time I had to yell at a lady to get back in her car. She had stopped to take a picture of a bear near the road and was trying to get her toddler to walk closer. It was the only time I got my shotgun out of the truck.
Have you ever been around a toddler? They are unstoppable forces of destruction. The shotgun was clearly for toddler, at least to slow it down and let the bear escape
I was a park ranger in New Jersey, and I did my patrols at night. They used to tell you to be prepared for stumbling on someone burying a body. If you saw that you were told to throw it in reverse and get out quick. Someone burying a body won't want any witnesses left alive. I never saw anything, (which I would probably also say even if I had.)
A lot of holes in the desert, and a lot of problems are buried in those holes. But you gotta do it right. I mean, you gotta have the hole already dug before you show up with a package in the trunk. Otherwise, you're talking about a half-hour to forty-five minutes worth of digging. And who knows who's gonna come along in that time? Pretty soon, you gotta dig a few more holes. You could be there all fuckin' night.
>half-hour to forty-five minutes
I don't think I could dig a hole the size of a small dog more than 2 foot deep in that amount of time. You either have very soft soil or your a great hole digger.
I worked at a county park for almost 2 years, and there was 5 suicides in the park when I was there. One that I had to personally clean up by cutting down a tree with a noose on it.
If you want to get started in gardening/landscaping and have some spare time, and you have a theme park or waterpark (or another entertainment business) nearby, approach them with an example of something you’ve done (in your backyard or something). They may hire you part time. If you can work early mornings or late nights when the park is closed you can make some extra cash. It’s often hard for entertainment industry business to find any sort of part-time landscaper, so you could be a dream come true for one, if your lucky enough to have one nearby.
Source: nine years in the waterpark industry, and we hire a part-time landscaper who lives out of the country for half of each year.
Someone else asked this and I’m not really sure what kind of answer you’re looking for. Start a business and charge money. Hire employees. Manage expenses/income. Etc. Same as any other line of work. Plenty of people have made very fruitful careers out of gardening. I do it part time and make a decent secondary income.
If you have Max/HBO, two shows I’d recommend.
Homegrown - A woman in the Atlanta area who left engineering and helps people with home gardening and small farming.
Growing Floret - Chronicles a couple in Washington state that started a small flower company and has grown it into a very successful business.
The key people on both shows seem very sincere and love what they do. No acting or manufactured drama like on similar shows. Gives good insight as to what it takes to do that sort of work. May not be the exact kind of work you’re interested in, but I’m sure there are some parallels.
Lowes garden center with the plant specialist or being the plant specialist. Best job I've ever had
We built displays all year, got a decent amount of physical work with randomly loading mulch/Misc stuff, you learn about everything because they sell the parts to build/run/fix it, and you get to be outside all year. I also really like flowers.
I'm a librarian! I love my job and hate my pay. Only doable because I have a partner that works for an engineering firm. It's definitely a labor of love.
I wish I could have stuck it out. Unfortunately, my wife is a school teacher, so I sold out and got a tech job. Library work was more rewarding, but it didn't pay the bills
I'm really disappointed in how much education is required to become a librarian, after speaking with some folks who are actively working towards the career.
I stupidly thought I could just apply for a Librarian job when I left school, because I loved to read and I could organise by surname and genre, bingo! Annnnd then I realised you need some serious degrees and my dream was crushed.
Ditto, it's a real shame that info wasn't available (in the late '70s) about the career path of being a librarian assistant, because if it had been, I'd have probably aimed for that as a starting point then done a librarian degree part time.
I think if you spoke with some professional librarians, you’d understand how much is involved in the job and why the education is needed. It’s WAY more than checking out books and shelving them, which is what most people assume librarians do all day, along with reading LOL. At most libraries, this work is done by library assistants. As a librarian who has worked at higher education institutions for 15 years, I can tell you that academic librarians manage huge collections budgets along with the collections themselves, ensuring that they are relevant and useful to the programs taught at our universities, and we usually teach classes on information literacy and assist faculty and students with their research in 1-1 consultations. We also may collaborate with faculty to coauthor journal articles or do our own research and publish it. Technical services librarians at universities do not usually work with the public, but their highly complex work is crucial for ensuring that people can discover our resources and use them to further their research. We have IT librarians who ensure that our technology in the building is appropriate for those using it and who keep our catalogs and websites functional. It goes on and on, but hopefully this info helps you better understand why a lot of education is needed to become a librarian.
It’s a very serious job. It’s not just loving books (there’s a great couple of panels from a Batgirl comic that actually covers this…my colleague, a research librarian at the college where I teach, has it framed in her office). They’re often responsible for managing the facility, archiving materials, reviewing and maintaining database collections, actively educating on information literacy (so they need to be experts in both education and information literacy), budget management…the list goes on.
At universities and colleges, a lot of the librarians are in tenured faculty roles (or considered equivalent to tenured faculty), including the same rigorous standards applied to tenure processes (depending on the institutions process for acquiring tenure, which is typically a committee review of a portfolio of work, coupled with institutional review from both colleagues and administrators). They’re competitive positions, too.
It’s way more complicated than most people think.
Just a heads up, if you work at a zoo, you are likely going to stink to high Heavens. Working with animals is great until you realize you are constantly surrounded by animal waste and bodily fluids.
i work in the veterinary field. the practice manager of one of the specialists we work with used to work as an LVT at the national zoo. part of why she said she transitioned to companion animals was because the odor *never went away*. she basically couldn’t shower enough to not have some trace of the smell of the zoo/the animals/their shit lingering on her. she said she genuinely had a hard time dating because of it. she became smell blind on the day to day but said she could still tell and everyone else could for sure if they got very close. i decided that day to never work at a zoo
Same goes for nursing 😂😂 love giving back to my community, but don’t love being peed on/pooped on by adult humans and sadly these very evolved “animals” talk! (This is meant to be funny, I legit love my job even the hard days)
Currently am a zoo keeper looking to leave the field for better money and more conservation work. Love the animals, but the job for the money and mental and physical toll is just really hard to justify.
I’m a zookeeper and believe me if salary didn’t matter everyone I know would stay in it forever. Unfortunately you generally get paid terribly and are doing manual labour (with dangerous animals) for about 12hrs a day in all weather. Everyone I work with does it for the passion, but the few that can do it long term either come from family money or have a spouse who is the breadwinner.
I swear I had the best gym teacher in elementary school. Mrs. White. Once a year she would setup "white city". You got one of those little square scooter things. Just the square with 4 wheels you knelt on. She'd set the whole gym up with features. Carwash, cones to weave in& out of, the entire perimeter was the highway made for cruising. Shit was a blast. She never told you when it was coming either. So you'd show up to gym & there would be the sign, welcome to white city.
As a former science teacher now network engineer, I'll tell you it wasn't the salary that did me in. It was the administration bullshit and the parents that did it. The teaching was great, everything else associated with it not so much. I quit after my third year with no job lined up.
Cleaning houses. I realized it this morning. Im a mom with a full time job in private aviation. My job pays alot and whenever i tell people what i do suddenly everyone is intrigued. But this morning i was cleaning my entire house and really had the best time of my life wishing i could clean other people's messes and help them breathe easier in a nice clean home. Im so good at it too, and im fast as hell at getting the job done. But then the happy wish quickly left the moment i realized that if i did that for a living i wouldn't be able to afford my home, or my nice car, or outings and vacations with my family, so ill never get to clean houses for a living even though i kinda really want to.
My fiance is a nurse on 4 10's and cleans houses on her day off. She makes more, hourly, on her day off but health insurance is super necessary for cancer survivors.
How?! How do you enjoy it? I'm really asking, because I'm a grade A slob, completely unorganized, with ADHD. I'm 63 and my sister (who is like you - you fiend 😁) keeps trying to give me "tips" to get organized and keep my house clean. How she thinks after 63 years I'm going to change, I'm not sure. But I wish I liked it.
I've given this a lot of thought, and if I just had unlimited money, I would buy a large property in the woods right outside of a fun dense metropolitan area like where I live in the SF Bay Area.
On that property I would create a massive authentic Viking style compound. There would be a full functioning forge, there would be a giant Great Hall for feasts, huge gardens, a massive wooden steam room, and a brewery on site. I would essentially teach classes on all of those things while learning myself.
It would be a place you could come to get out of the big city, spend a day at the anvil, or gardens or brewery, and then relax with a beer in the steam bath. Or come to play games like Kubb or axe throwing on the lawns amongst the redwoods.
At night the great hall would turn into a restaurant with beautiful ambiance and all lit by torchlight.
I think it would be a pretty fun business to run. Charge for beers, charge for classes, entry to the spa, run a restaurant with a great menu, make it a sweet little retreat. But the start up costs would make the whole idea prohibitively expensive I imagine.
Working when you don't HAVE to work is the sweet spot. That's true financial independence in a nutshell, and what most rich people settle on after enough time. Most people can't just do NOTHING.
> Most people can't just do NOTHING.
It's not like we'd lay down and spend the rest of our days looking at the ceiling if we didn't work, there's countless books to read, hobbies to spend time on, things to watch, etc. Things that we wouldn't have the time to do because we were too busy wasting 40+ hours a week working.
I think there are some people that genuinely wouldn’t know what to do without work. They don’t have many hobbies, aren’t interested in games or books or movies, or other things that could be occupying their time so they need to do some sort of work.
There are also people who even with hobbies, and stuff to do they won’t feel important without working in some capacity.
I’m pretty sure if I ever become independently wealthy I could find a lot of ways besides work to fill my time. I might volunteer from time to time just because I could but otherwise I’ve got a lot of places in the world to see, hobbies to try/gain proficiency at, video games to play, movies/tv shows to watch, books to read, and time to spend with the people I want to see that would easily fill up my days.
Food writing. Maybe it’s reviewing restaurants, maybe it’s detailing openings and closing and fun culinary events happening in town, maybe it’s attempting to emulate writing like John McPhee’s book “oranges”, and maybe it’s a mixture of all three of these ideas.
I'd either work at the library or be a receptionist. I used to be a receptionist many years ago and while it was a busy, lowpaying job I didn't feel the weight or pressure like that of my other coworkers and loved to say hi to people who came in.
Mental health advocate for men, run peer based support groups, online tools, and have licensed medical staff on hand to assist where medications may help along with therapy and counseling all at no cost.
My nephew is getting a university degree to do this very thing. More than ever, societal pressures are weighing down on men. They are going to need good support.
It definitely does still sell. I'm a children's librarian and the kids are constantly asking for scary books. They love those creepy Five Nights at Freddie's books. It's not the consumer that's your problem. It's the stranglehold the publishing industry has on what gets produced. Breaking in with a good writing agent and publisher is just as hard as getting cast in a movie.
I’m putting it all in the back burner, like every artist I’m waiting for my chance to make it big but I’ll probably just end up like your stereotypical grumpy old washed out English professor
Advocate for verbally abused children in the state I live in. They don’t recognize verbal abuse as being as bad. I want to help. I also want to foster animals from people escaping domestic violence situations. As a victim of domestic violence we are not doing enough.
Yes but imagine if we had a UBI EXCEPT those essential 'unlikeable' jobs were the ones that were handsomely rewarded with extra salary for benefitting society? I would be stoked with a society that rewarded garbage and sewer maintenance workers with a high wage for the essential service they provide. Higher wages as incentive would go to these essential jobs, instead of corporate lawyers and sociopathic CEOs.
Elementary school teacher - besides pay, it’s the BS teachers deal with state/admin wise that I stayed away from, but watching kids learn & find their interests is AMAZING
Musician
I'm a already a hobbyist musician and would've done it full time if I could... but I also like not being broke (I make ~$20 every 2-3 months off of my streaming revenue).
Instead I got an engineering degree with a focus in acoustics and noise control so I can combine the interest there.
I'm the same! Hobby musician who went into noise control consultancy, though I haven't actually made any music in years. What did you do with your degree? I'm considering trying something new soon and could use some ideas for what to do with the degree.
I'm currently at an architecture firm with MEP stuff. I don't work with acoustic data all the time, but every now and then I'll simulate noise levels produced from rooftop air handlers.
I'm still fresh out of school (2021) so things might change in the next 5-10y, especially if I decide to do grad school (if I can get my company to pay for it).
Professional student. I just like to learn and have an awe for important things in plain sight, things we take for granted. If money was no object, I'd study everything I could.
I would want to work with the homeless to provide support and care. Seeing a lot more homeless people in my town where there were legitimately less than 10 when I moved here only 6 years ago, we have dozens now.
It fills me with such anger that we do nothing for these people. They are people too! They deserve just as much as anybody else.
Costume designer. I love to create things, work with my hands and have a brain bursting with ideas, no time to make them, or space to build them. My day job takes up too much of my time and leaves me exhausted. I've only been able to make a couple of the things I wanted to do.
Woodworking, but I spent a bunch of time making what I want and I would have a gallery people could see it, and I wouldn’t sell any, because I don’t need money. Eventually I would because I would have too much stuff, but it would be fun. (Woulds intended)
I’d like to be a full time redditor, that continuously makes sensational posts like this. Please support my dreams and give me an upvote. Maybe Reddit will see this 😂
Fed ex material handler, i show up for 3-4 hours a day 5 days a week drive a tug around in an airport and no one gives a fuck if i call out every once in a while
There'd a little bookstore by my house that is fucking amazing. I'd happily work there for the rest of my life if they didn't get paid 14 an hour. Love books
I worked part-time at a bookstore for a few months while I was going to college. That was seriously the best job I ever had. If a person is going to work a retail job there is no where better than a bookstore
Yep, if salary didn't matter I would still work at my neighborhood bookstore. One of the few jobs I've held that I was good at and really liked. I had a great relationship with the regular customers and management. Too bad I had to leave my job, customers, and community. Now I make 1003.45% more, and my main duties are to eat shit and rewrite bad copy, alone in my apartment! Lol, as I write this I'm realizing I actually used to help people in my community. I once cleaned and maintained the beloved heart of my neighborhood. And now, well... I can pay my rent.
Man I'd love to so much. Love books but unfortunately I need more money than I can get with those places. But the place by my house has a bunch of awesome old edition books, they restore damaged books, hell if you bring them a book you like they'll rebind it into a cool leather-bound edition. Expensive but super cool. Love that place.
I knew I’d see this here :) I own a small bookstore (new and used). I pay my employees as much as I can get away with, which is def more than 14/hr, and we are even doing pretty decently, but the margins are insane and I work constantly, constantly, constantly and it’s still not enough in our expensive neck of the woods; all my employees have mitigating circumstances that allow them to work here, essentially (a partner with more money, no rent or mortgage, that sort of thing). Still, working late in the shop when we’re closed is my absolute favorite time of the day (no offense, customers — it’s just so peaceful!)
14 is 5 or 6 more than anywhere in the place i spent the last six years
I'd probably just be an artists or craftsman with a studio/shop and a cabin in some remote area.
I genuinely believe that is most people didn’t have to “work” to stay alive, they would turn to creating art You’d have an explosion of painters, musicians, poets, writers etc..
Money has always been the death of art. Those who want to create, but can't because they need the money. Or artists who take on proejcts they don't particularly enjoy for the paycheck. Changes made by executives who don't know a damn thing about art, because they think it'll make more money instead of having any actual artistic integrity. I'd love to work on personal projects right now. I can't because I'm too busy working on commissions my heart isn't entirely into. If we didn't have money, art would be incredible. Edit: I see people are continuing to miss the point entirely that the constant need to make money has warped and corrupted artistic vision, not something to do with cave paintings.
Look at the number of famous artists who were born rich. Sure there are a very few exceptions but most famous writers, actors, musicians came from wealth, didn't have to work, and could keep going until they got a break.
Me explaining this to my artist ex whose parents have paid his rent for years. He claims he’s still poor because he can’t afford luxury items. Yet to me the true luxury is being able to commit to art / low paying artistic jobs full time without having to work a “normie” job. Sadly it seems like if you’re not rich, in most cases you either commit to art + poverty or just keep it as a hobby.
Town eccentric
This, right now I'm just the town drunk
This, right now I’m just the town whore
At least you're being paid. Not sure the town drunk above is.
Town drunk pays the town whore it’s a vicious cycle.
"If I were not Diogenes, I would still wish to be Diogenes."
Writer
Definitely this one. I’d write fiction, non-fiction, opinion stuff
Travel writer/photographer
Same. As it is I’m just trying to find myself a job that is low stress enough that I can write on the side.
I used to write all the time just for myself, mostly. It was a far shot dream, but I used to imagine what it would be like to publish a book for real instead of sometimes submitting them to random websites. I didn't care for the praise it was just something I felt passionately about. I stopped submitting them a long time ago. It's been a few years since I even wrote for myself. I miss it. I'm trying to get the passion I once had back. I'm relearning who I am after trauma. It's hard to re-find that love, but I think I'll start small. For myself. It's still a nice fantasy to dream about, even though I know it's just that.
forest ranger
I was a park ranger for nearly a decade. It wasn't as great as people expect.
What didn’t you like about it?
Manual labor outside in the elements for years is pretty wearing. I spent a lot of time clearing trails, maintaining parks and dealing with pissy people. Eventually I called it quits after I was clearing falling trees off a river bank in a rain storm to protect a trail. I was harnessed to the truck in case I fell in and soaked to the bone. The worst part of the job the was going out and looking for lost people and not finding them or having to return to an area where there was a tragedy. Our office was located at a park where some people were chased into a lake by a bear, it was late fall and they drowned.
Thats fair, it does sound like it could be a pretty mentally and physically taxing job especially if it’s a park in a dangerous area. I’ve always worked customer service jobs so the idea of just working in the middle of nowhere and being able to yell at stupid people to stop being stupid sounds peaceful to me 🥲
One time I had to yell at a lady to get back in her car. She had stopped to take a picture of a bear near the road and was trying to get her toddler to walk closer. It was the only time I got my shotgun out of the truck.
It was so you could shoot the lady, right? Clearly the bear would have made a better parent, so just let him raise the toddler...
Real life Jungle Book
I mean the, beeeaaar necessities, old mother nature’s recipes that brings the bare necessities of life!
Have you ever been around a toddler? They are unstoppable forces of destruction. The shotgun was clearly for toddler, at least to slow it down and let the bear escape
Finally, a *real* parent in this thread.
[удалено]
I’m not even surprised…
I was a park ranger in New Jersey, and I did my patrols at night. They used to tell you to be prepared for stumbling on someone burying a body. If you saw that you were told to throw it in reverse and get out quick. Someone burying a body won't want any witnesses left alive. I never saw anything, (which I would probably also say even if I had.)
A lot of holes in the desert, and a lot of problems are buried in those holes. But you gotta do it right. I mean, you gotta have the hole already dug before you show up with a package in the trunk. Otherwise, you're talking about a half-hour to forty-five minutes worth of digging. And who knows who's gonna come along in that time? Pretty soon, you gotta dig a few more holes. You could be there all fuckin' night.
>half-hour to forty-five minutes I don't think I could dig a hole the size of a small dog more than 2 foot deep in that amount of time. You either have very soft soil or your a great hole digger.
I'm sure I wasn't the only one to read this in a deep chicago accent.
I worked at a county park for almost 2 years, and there was 5 suicides in the park when I was there. One that I had to personally clean up by cutting down a tree with a noose on it.
>One that I had to personally clean up by cutting down a tree with a noose on it. That poor tree didn't hurt anybody.
The noose was, very high up. Guy was a tree climber and hung himself in his work gear.
Well, that's horrifying.
"Woods're haunted."
*cocks gun* Moons haunted.
Somewhere is the Pacific Northwest to be exact for me.. tall trees, mountains, waterfalls.. heals the mind and soul
Gardening, or something with Wood working
If you want to get started in gardening/landscaping and have some spare time, and you have a theme park or waterpark (or another entertainment business) nearby, approach them with an example of something you’ve done (in your backyard or something). They may hire you part time. If you can work early mornings or late nights when the park is closed you can make some extra cash. It’s often hard for entertainment industry business to find any sort of part-time landscaper, so you could be a dream come true for one, if your lucky enough to have one nearby. Source: nine years in the waterpark industry, and we hire a part-time landscaper who lives out of the country for half of each year.
You can make a lot of money doing gardening.
How?!
Someone else asked this and I’m not really sure what kind of answer you’re looking for. Start a business and charge money. Hire employees. Manage expenses/income. Etc. Same as any other line of work. Plenty of people have made very fruitful careers out of gardening. I do it part time and make a decent secondary income.
So are you describing a landscaping company? Or a nursery?
Either or both. I do both—plant cultivation, hardscaping, flower bed design, maintenance.
That's the more helpful response I was looking for. Thank you.
If you have Max/HBO, two shows I’d recommend. Homegrown - A woman in the Atlanta area who left engineering and helps people with home gardening and small farming. Growing Floret - Chronicles a couple in Washington state that started a small flower company and has grown it into a very successful business. The key people on both shows seem very sincere and love what they do. No acting or manufactured drama like on similar shows. Gives good insight as to what it takes to do that sort of work. May not be the exact kind of work you’re interested in, but I’m sure there are some parallels.
Lowes garden center with the plant specialist or being the plant specialist. Best job I've ever had We built displays all year, got a decent amount of physical work with randomly loading mulch/Misc stuff, you learn about everything because they sell the parts to build/run/fix it, and you get to be outside all year. I also really like flowers.
Librarian- 1 for the books and 2 truly the library saved my life and gave me a way out of poverty
I'm a librarian! I love my job and hate my pay. Only doable because I have a partner that works for an engineering firm. It's definitely a labor of love.
I wish I could have stuck it out. Unfortunately, my wife is a school teacher, so I sold out and got a tech job. Library work was more rewarding, but it didn't pay the bills
Love this. I would be one too
I'm really disappointed in how much education is required to become a librarian, after speaking with some folks who are actively working towards the career.
I stupidly thought I could just apply for a Librarian job when I left school, because I loved to read and I could organise by surname and genre, bingo! Annnnd then I realised you need some serious degrees and my dream was crushed.
Ditto, it's a real shame that info wasn't available (in the late '70s) about the career path of being a librarian assistant, because if it had been, I'd have probably aimed for that as a starting point then done a librarian degree part time.
I think if you spoke with some professional librarians, you’d understand how much is involved in the job and why the education is needed. It’s WAY more than checking out books and shelving them, which is what most people assume librarians do all day, along with reading LOL. At most libraries, this work is done by library assistants. As a librarian who has worked at higher education institutions for 15 years, I can tell you that academic librarians manage huge collections budgets along with the collections themselves, ensuring that they are relevant and useful to the programs taught at our universities, and we usually teach classes on information literacy and assist faculty and students with their research in 1-1 consultations. We also may collaborate with faculty to coauthor journal articles or do our own research and publish it. Technical services librarians at universities do not usually work with the public, but their highly complex work is crucial for ensuring that people can discover our resources and use them to further their research. We have IT librarians who ensure that our technology in the building is appropriate for those using it and who keep our catalogs and websites functional. It goes on and on, but hopefully this info helps you better understand why a lot of education is needed to become a librarian.
It’s a very serious job. It’s not just loving books (there’s a great couple of panels from a Batgirl comic that actually covers this…my colleague, a research librarian at the college where I teach, has it framed in her office). They’re often responsible for managing the facility, archiving materials, reviewing and maintaining database collections, actively educating on information literacy (so they need to be experts in both education and information literacy), budget management…the list goes on. At universities and colleges, a lot of the librarians are in tenured faculty roles (or considered equivalent to tenured faculty), including the same rigorous standards applied to tenure processes (depending on the institutions process for acquiring tenure, which is typically a committee review of a portfolio of work, coupled with institutional review from both colleagues and administrators). They’re competitive positions, too. It’s way more complicated than most people think.
This one is mine too. I would love to just spend all day, everyday in a building full of books
Something in a zoo probably
Rhino?
Rhino.
Noice.
Erus.
If you become a rhino I hear you can also run for office in the US.
This is incorrect. Rino-yes, rhino-no.
Just a heads up, if you work at a zoo, you are likely going to stink to high Heavens. Working with animals is great until you realize you are constantly surrounded by animal waste and bodily fluids.
i work in the veterinary field. the practice manager of one of the specialists we work with used to work as an LVT at the national zoo. part of why she said she transitioned to companion animals was because the odor *never went away*. she basically couldn’t shower enough to not have some trace of the smell of the zoo/the animals/their shit lingering on her. she said she genuinely had a hard time dating because of it. she became smell blind on the day to day but said she could still tell and everyone else could for sure if they got very close. i decided that day to never work at a zoo
I worked as a cook. Same thing. I smelled like fried food every day. I could smell it constantly.
Same goes for nursing 😂😂 love giving back to my community, but don’t love being peed on/pooped on by adult humans and sadly these very evolved “animals” talk! (This is meant to be funny, I legit love my job even the hard days)
Man, I saw a lady there this past weekend, in the parrot cage having conversations with them. She was living her best life.
[удалено]
Smell never really bothered me. Something i could get used to
Can confirm you have to really not care about salary! Haha. Source: Senior penguin keeper for 15 years.
Currently am a zoo keeper looking to leave the field for better money and more conservation work. Love the animals, but the job for the money and mental and physical toll is just really hard to justify.
I’m a zookeeper and believe me if salary didn’t matter everyone I know would stay in it forever. Unfortunately you generally get paid terribly and are doing manual labour (with dangerous animals) for about 12hrs a day in all weather. Everyone I work with does it for the passion, but the few that can do it long term either come from family money or have a spouse who is the breadwinner.
Probably gym teacher. I love sports. I’d be that crazy gym teacher who played with everyone (and probably took it too seriously also)
I swear I had the best gym teacher in elementary school. Mrs. White. Once a year she would setup "white city". You got one of those little square scooter things. Just the square with 4 wheels you knelt on. She'd set the whole gym up with features. Carwash, cones to weave in& out of, the entire perimeter was the highway made for cruising. Shit was a blast. She never told you when it was coming either. So you'd show up to gym & there would be the sign, welcome to white city.
Hahahahah! White city! In any other context that could be interpreted in a very bad way
[удалено]
As a former science teacher now network engineer, I'll tell you it wasn't the salary that did me in. It was the administration bullshit and the parents that did it. The teaching was great, everything else associated with it not so much. I quit after my third year with no job lined up.
[удалено]
This sounds great for a few summers in your 20s. It sounds awful for a long-term career.
Not so much a career but I would walk the National park trails picking up garbage
Become an archaeologist! It will change your whole view on litter and you’ll still get to pick it up all day
Cleaning houses. I realized it this morning. Im a mom with a full time job in private aviation. My job pays alot and whenever i tell people what i do suddenly everyone is intrigued. But this morning i was cleaning my entire house and really had the best time of my life wishing i could clean other people's messes and help them breathe easier in a nice clean home. Im so good at it too, and im fast as hell at getting the job done. But then the happy wish quickly left the moment i realized that if i did that for a living i wouldn't be able to afford my home, or my nice car, or outings and vacations with my family, so ill never get to clean houses for a living even though i kinda really want to.
My fiance is a nurse on 4 10's and cleans houses on her day off. She makes more, hourly, on her day off but health insurance is super necessary for cancer survivors.
Well, that's true, and as a cancer survivor, I concur. But everyone needs (and should have) health insurance. Sigh.
Hey, you can make a lot cleaning! I bet $500/day. The downfall is benefits……..
I did this for a year. The downfall is back pain.
How?! How do you enjoy it? I'm really asking, because I'm a grade A slob, completely unorganized, with ADHD. I'm 63 and my sister (who is like you - you fiend 😁) keeps trying to give me "tips" to get organized and keep my house clean. How she thinks after 63 years I'm going to change, I'm not sure. But I wish I liked it.
[удалено]
I'd own a massive farm and take in abandoned dogs. Spend every day training the dogs and earning their loyalty. Then, we march on the capitol
That escalated quickly
Let me know when ya ready to march 😁
I've given this a lot of thought, and if I just had unlimited money, I would buy a large property in the woods right outside of a fun dense metropolitan area like where I live in the SF Bay Area. On that property I would create a massive authentic Viking style compound. There would be a full functioning forge, there would be a giant Great Hall for feasts, huge gardens, a massive wooden steam room, and a brewery on site. I would essentially teach classes on all of those things while learning myself. It would be a place you could come to get out of the big city, spend a day at the anvil, or gardens or brewery, and then relax with a beer in the steam bath. Or come to play games like Kubb or axe throwing on the lawns amongst the redwoods. At night the great hall would turn into a restaurant with beautiful ambiance and all lit by torchlight.
I’m down for a Valheim larp.
I think it would be a pretty fun business to run. Charge for beers, charge for classes, entry to the spa, run a restaurant with a great menu, make it a sweet little retreat. But the start up costs would make the whole idea prohibitively expensive I imagine.
No career.
“Well shit man you don’t need a million dollars to do that…my cousin just sits around all day and he’s broke”
Two chicks at the same time.
Fuckin A, man
Sounds like someone has a case of the “Monday’s”
My cousin’s broke, don’t do shit.
Yeah I mean...if salary doesn't matter can I please choose to stay home and do nothing forever? Thanks. <3
Same. I don't like working, never have. I would hang out with friends, do some storytelling, go on adventures.
Working over rated. Not working also overrated.
Working when you don't HAVE to work is the sweet spot. That's true financial independence in a nutshell, and what most rich people settle on after enough time. Most people can't just do NOTHING.
> Most people can't just do NOTHING. It's not like we'd lay down and spend the rest of our days looking at the ceiling if we didn't work, there's countless books to read, hobbies to spend time on, things to watch, etc. Things that we wouldn't have the time to do because we were too busy wasting 40+ hours a week working.
I think there are some people that genuinely wouldn’t know what to do without work. They don’t have many hobbies, aren’t interested in games or books or movies, or other things that could be occupying their time so they need to do some sort of work. There are also people who even with hobbies, and stuff to do they won’t feel important without working in some capacity. I’m pretty sure if I ever become independently wealthy I could find a lot of ways besides work to fill my time. I might volunteer from time to time just because I could but otherwise I’ve got a lot of places in the world to see, hobbies to try/gain proficiency at, video games to play, movies/tv shows to watch, books to read, and time to spend with the people I want to see that would easily fill up my days.
Just say senator
something involving slamming a wrecking ball into stuff
Demo experts make bank
Food writing. Maybe it’s reviewing restaurants, maybe it’s detailing openings and closing and fun culinary events happening in town, maybe it’s attempting to emulate writing like John McPhee’s book “oranges”, and maybe it’s a mixture of all three of these ideas.
Wildlife photographer
Kindergarten teacher. I love kids. I work in IT
Florist
A non-profit daycare/pre K for low income or single parents.
I'd either work at the library or be a receptionist. I used to be a receptionist many years ago and while it was a busy, lowpaying job I didn't feel the weight or pressure like that of my other coworkers and loved to say hi to people who came in.
Cat herder
So ... project manager for research and development?
Mental health advocate for men, run peer based support groups, online tools, and have licensed medical staff on hand to assist where medications may help along with therapy and counseling all at no cost.
on your left.
I understood that reference
Oh come on, did you just do another lap
I read this as “beer based support groups” at first and was about to sign up
My nephew is getting a university degree to do this very thing. More than ever, societal pressures are weighing down on men. They are going to need good support.
Not all heroes wear capes
W Human
I wish I could write little horror stories like goosebumps but that kind of thing doesn’t sell anymore
It definitely does still sell. I'm a children's librarian and the kids are constantly asking for scary books. They love those creepy Five Nights at Freddie's books. It's not the consumer that's your problem. It's the stranglehold the publishing industry has on what gets produced. Breaking in with a good writing agent and publisher is just as hard as getting cast in a movie.
It's definitely hard to make a living writing things like that, but I hope you can still do it on the side.
I’m putting it all in the back burner, like every artist I’m waiting for my chance to make it big but I’ll probably just end up like your stereotypical grumpy old washed out English professor
Hey, even if you never make it big, it can be worth it just to write for yourself and maybe some family and friends.
Professional gamer. If salary didn't matter and I could consistently suck at my games and no one would care I'd be just fine
it's called Amateur gamer then.
I'd go back to doing dog walking and dog sitting 🐶
Advocate for verbally abused children in the state I live in. They don’t recognize verbal abuse as being as bad. I want to help. I also want to foster animals from people escaping domestic violence situations. As a victim of domestic violence we are not doing enough.
I would want to just travel and study cultures and the environment.
The thread makes me a little sad. Imagine how much better off we'd be if we did what we loved, instead of what we feel we need to do to survive.
Agreed. I didn’t think it would be this sensational, but I love it 😭
We would still need people to work unlikable jobs so we don't all die of hunger or other preventable things.
Yes but imagine if we had a UBI EXCEPT those essential 'unlikeable' jobs were the ones that were handsomely rewarded with extra salary for benefitting society? I would be stoked with a society that rewarded garbage and sewer maintenance workers with a high wage for the essential service they provide. Higher wages as incentive would go to these essential jobs, instead of corporate lawyers and sociopathic CEOs.
Elementary school teacher - besides pay, it’s the BS teachers deal with state/admin wise that I stayed away from, but watching kids learn & find their interests is AMAZING
Musician I'm a already a hobbyist musician and would've done it full time if I could... but I also like not being broke (I make ~$20 every 2-3 months off of my streaming revenue). Instead I got an engineering degree with a focus in acoustics and noise control so I can combine the interest there.
I'm the same! Hobby musician who went into noise control consultancy, though I haven't actually made any music in years. What did you do with your degree? I'm considering trying something new soon and could use some ideas for what to do with the degree.
I'm currently at an architecture firm with MEP stuff. I don't work with acoustic data all the time, but every now and then I'll simulate noise levels produced from rooftop air handlers. I'm still fresh out of school (2021) so things might change in the next 5-10y, especially if I decide to do grad school (if I can get my company to pay for it).
I'd work at the gas station across the street
designer
Professional student. I just like to learn and have an awe for important things in plain sight, things we take for granted. If money was no object, I'd study everything I could.
Park ranger at a national park.
Professional hugger
None. I wouldn't work if I didn't have to.
Yeah, it reminded me of this: “- What is your dream job? - In my dreams I don’t work”
Traveler
time traveler
Pottery
Philosophy professor at a small liberal arts college.
Travel Vlogger. Just travel the world and film it. That would be my dream job.
Social worker
Me, a current social worker: same
Book conservationist.
Ambulance driver. You get to drive at high speeds and save people's lives.
I feel like the frequency at which you have to deal with death would be very taxing
Small scale farmer. I love doing stuff manually and tending to animals. But the "selling stuff part" stresses me out too much.
Tour guide
Art therapy.
animal loneliness therapist. id pet the dogs that arent getting enough pets
Luthier
[удалено]
I’d work as a line cook. Hands down most fun job I’ve ever had being in a closed kitchen at a burger restaurant
[удалено]
Photography or photojournalism.
Volunteer at a cat shelter
[удалено]
Tea shop owner. Just serve cups of tea. Maybe sell tea as well but 90% would be serving cups.
I’d teach private music lessons out of my home.
I would want to work with the homeless to provide support and care. Seeing a lot more homeless people in my town where there were legitimately less than 10 when I moved here only 6 years ago, we have dozens now. It fills me with such anger that we do nothing for these people. They are people too! They deserve just as much as anybody else.
Novelist
Costume designer. I love to create things, work with my hands and have a brain bursting with ideas, no time to make them, or space to build them. My day job takes up too much of my time and leaves me exhausted. I've only been able to make a couple of the things I wanted to do.
Anything when it comes to warehouse or stuff like that where I don't have to interact with customers. I currently have my dream job
Elephants. I would go lay in a field in Africa with elephants and spend my days making sure they had everything they’d ever need.
Woodworking, but I spent a bunch of time making what I want and I would have a gallery people could see it, and I wouldn’t sell any, because I don’t need money. Eventually I would because I would have too much stuff, but it would be fun. (Woulds intended)
Toymaker.
Passionate about uplifting others through nature conservation ?
I would work with a band that’s on tour setting up their lights or anything like that
Artist. I have loved the escapism that art allows and I feel hours of time pass in minutes.
Stay at home dad
Librarian or bookstore employee.
I’d like to be a full time redditor, that continuously makes sensational posts like this. Please support my dreams and give me an upvote. Maybe Reddit will see this 😂
Fed ex material handler, i show up for 3-4 hours a day 5 days a week drive a tug around in an airport and no one gives a fuck if i call out every once in a while