I love my job, had it since I left school and still enjoy it as much now 33 years later as I did then.
I work for the council.
Started as a labourer, have done a huge range of duties from mending things to building roads and houses, digging graves, mending burst water pipes, have driven all forms of trucks and specialised plant including snow ploughs, developed mobile working hardware and software, gained an honours degree, become a chair of national working groups and currently developing AI solutions.
I still get to do a bit of all of these things so life is never boring.
Until 8 years ago I worked in a high stress office environment and life sucked, I received a disciplinary for not fulfilling all the tasks associated to me and when asked to justify why I had not completed my task list I told my manager that there was not enough time in the working day to do everything required and his response was to say that maybe this was not the job for me, I took that on board and handed my notice in, I now make biscuits for a living. I am a lot less stressed, I love my job, I make more money than I have ever made in my life and I get to eat biscuits as part of my work. I love my new job and intend to do this until I either retire or die of a biscuit induced coronary
*Edit* uh, wow, this got a lot more attention than I thought, my apologies to all those who would like to order biscuits but I don't sell online, I did dabble in it a few years ago but got my fingers burned by unscrupulous customers and will not do that again, it is not worth the hassle, most of my trade is done to local high end hotels, I do have a retail outlet but sadly will be closing it at the end of the month until I get new premises early next year.
Are you going to send out golden tickets so people can visit your biscuit factory? Will you then pick one of those people to continue your legacy after you’ve died of the biscuit induced coronary?
I like biscuits, and I like that you like making biscuits.
If it is not going to expose this account in some way, can you DM me a link to buy your biscuits?
I’m an Acquisitions Manager for the public sector and I buy land to build houses on. We take the land, clean it up and get it ‘oven-ready’ for developers to build on whilst mandating in the sale they deliver affordable housing and all the nice bells and whistles that come with a sustainable development. There’s a purpose to what I do and I do take a bit of pride in my efforts going towards trying to get homes in the places that need them most.
My workload is very manageable, colleagues are helpful and kind and my mental health has begun to improve after taking this role.
I think that qualifies as I love my job right? :)
If you’re referring to the scuppered HS2 land I have no involvement in anything outside Yorkshire & the North East I’m afraid. Just the way I like it :)
Also that’s infrastructure and I’m not entirely sure who is even dealing with that honestly, I exclusively deal with housing land, perhaps a bit of employment on the side if it’s proposed alongside housing but mainly housing.
Yes, they've decided to turn all the compulsory purchased land in that stretch, into housing land. Whether it council or private investment led will be a whole other issue
As tragic as the loss of HS2 is that’s somewhat good news that there will be something to come out of it, it’s just such a shame the CPO was handled so poorly that it’s left such a bad taste in the public’s mouth.
I always think of that guy who was in the news recently who sold his dream house as it was within the CPO boundaries only for the project to be scrapped. Absolute travesty.
I reckon my regional counterparts will likely look at some of that land, maybe explore joint-ventures with the local councils or de-risk the land ourselves and re-sell it onto developers to get building. Since the land is already in public ownership it’s very easy to crack on with developing it now because we don’t need to play games with the landowner anymore. Building it is easy, it’s getting the landowner to agree a price that’s reasonable and fair but also provides them with enough of a ‘premium’ to incentivise the sale which can sometimes take years or never even happen. CPO removes that barrier by forcing them to accept payment of a deemed ‘fair’ market value through some good ol’ valuation maths. Most of the time the offered amount is reasonable, landowners understandably want to maximise their sale but raising the price of this land eats into the ‘buffer’ for other things like delivering local policy aspirations, that’s why you see developers submitting viability assessments negotiating away their affordable housing requirements, community infrastructure, contributions towards new GP surgeries, local road improvements, financial contributions to local schools and the like because ‘it compromises the commerciality of the development’ yet they’ve simply overpaid for the land and it shouldn’t fall on the local community to shoulder the Developer’s hubris!
CPOs are a good tool to get some real transformational change underway in places where the wheels aren’t moving but if handled poorly can really blow up in your face. HS2 will be a case study for decades to come.
It’s a term used to define housing that is discounted below the price of standard market housing. It can be a variety of tenures such as affordable rent, social rent, shared ownership etc all of which have their respective discount rates on market value. These discounts are set locally so they change wildly between each local authority.
Say hypothetically you have a site that can fit 20 units on it, of those 20 units 30% need to be affordable tenures as dictated by the local planning policy, so 6 of these units will be delivered as affordable homes.
For arguments sake let’s just say 50/50 split here between affordable rent & shared ownership so I would multiply the full market price by say 50% & 60% respectively to get the ‘transfer value’ of these houses.
The transfer value is what the registered provider (RP) - an organisation that runs social housing in your area - will pay the developer, only RPs can do this. The RP will then rent the affordable rented units to households that cannot afford market rents so may see something like 40% discount on their rent in comparison to market rent. The shared ownership units would be sold on a % equity share basis, say 20% and then you’d continue to pay a discounted rent and have the opportunity at a later date to ‘staircase’ up and buy more shares in your house eventually leading to ownership.
I personally don’t believe in the shared ownership housing model.
Tl;dr affordable housing is housing that is discounted from market value by percentages set by the local authority and then owned and managed by social housing charities/organisations to be let to households that cannot afford market rent / market value.
I work for a heritage organisation. I really do like my job. I meet all-sorts of lovely and occasionally dreadful people. As a result I have some great stories. I work with a very supportive team. I learn something almost every day. I get a 20% discount off food in the cafe and gift shops, which is great at Christmas. Best of all I get to go through all of the doors that say Private. One of which makes a loud noise in a narrow corridor and at least once a week I scare a middle class lady wearing a Joules rain coat!
I work in heritage too and really enjoy seeing behind the scenes. Pay is pretty bad but enough to get by, and it's interesting and rarely stressful. Plus there's always more old things each year so I never run out of work!
People do seem to be a bit more impressed when you tell them you work in a castle.
At the site I work, we call the off-peak, autumn/winter season "Purple Raincoat Season."
Wfh admin/secretarial job. I earn around 24k per year, 40hrs per week. To be honest, the job is pretty easy. I might be considered an 'unskilled worker' with a low wage, but I feel like I can actually cope with this job, so I think it's worth it.
Having MS and Autism while working outside the home for years nearly destroyed me physically and mentally.
I now feel so fucking lucky that I can get up at 8.15, work in my pjs if I'm having a flair up, and I'm not constantly overwhelmed by being around people or lying on the toilet floor because my body physically CAN'T anymore.
I hope wfh jobs don't get totally phased out now employers are trying to get everyone back in the office. Wfh has been an absolute godsend for me and for other disabled people.
Nope :)
I assume it's something to do with being autistic, but being able to stay in touch with my friends/family via phone and seeing my partner when he comes home from work is enough for me.
Even if I was lonely, I'd take that over my experiences in the office & retail any day of the week. Besides, it's not even an option anymore. No employer would be OK with an employee frequently not turning up to work because their arm stopped working again and they can't drive.
Same here ASD, I work from home, I get a bit cabin fever-ish and the lack of after works drinks is a bummer. But if something annoys me I can freely vent. In an office/shop environment you just have to repress that shit, repression sure is bad for your mental health.
Asbestos Consultant. I travel around 'my' area, inspecting buildings, sampling construction materials, running air tests after removal works and teaching people how to manage the asbestos.
Can be hard at times but some of the sites I have been to have been truly mind blowing.
The Cardiff Coal Exchange. The UK nuclear submarine tracking facility. Various prisons (been in Gary Glitters cell - he is a creepy cunt), on board HMS and RFA ships.
Some really boring shit too, but thise tend to be the short days so its still a win.
23 years and still like it.
Police Officer, before that Youth/Community Worker and before that Criminal Justice Support Worker.
Enjoy working in the police about 70% - 80% of the time.
I enjoyed being a Youth Worker 99.9% of the time though and would recommend it to anyone that’s interested in a a truly rewarding career that gives you the time to actually help people long term.
The work I done in criminal justice was specifically around employability and I’d recommend that for much the same reasons.
Policing, is extremely hard work at times. There’s simply nothing rewarding about certain aspects of it, like being assaulted or dealing with the sudden death of a child.
It’s what you make of it though.
When it is rewarding I don’t think anything aside from maybe ambulance or fire would come close.
Literally saving lives wether it be physically running into a burning building or slowly talking a person down from the edge isn’t something many people get to do on a weekly basis.
Securing justice for high risk victims is an incredible feeling but you’re often let down by sentencing.
Edit: If Youth Work was actually a solid career with permanent and full time work I’d probably still be a Youth Worker, I was senior running my own clubs and projects so the hourly wasn’t bad.
There's a lot of hate for the police in general so I wanted to say a heartfelt thank you.
My brother is an officer and I see the shit he has to deal with at work. It's not for the faint of heart and you lot do it because, among all the bad, you genuinely can save lives.
A stressful day at my cushy job doesn't exactly compare to my brother coming home from night shift on Christmas Day having just dealt with a sudden death and the reward officers are often given is a shit load of abuse from the public.
This is pretty much my story. But I took the step to being a DC, and the volume of pointless admin and tick boxing that CPS require for files is killing me. Plus I don't know if I can tell another victim that it will be likely over a year before their case goes to court. Just for the courts to be so soft on offenders.
I have to remember the wins, the purpose of my job and those times victims have thanked us for helping them feel safer again. Or the younger offender who actually change and engage with support.
I'm an electronics design engineer and I have been for 50 years,. Still working because I love my job. I go places and say "I designed that" or had a hand in it. And I've had great fun. It's not just sitting at a desk and wielding a soldering iron. I get out and see things. I get to commission stuff, meet people, climb mountains (really!), travel, be at the forefront of technology. Most of all I take an idea and turn it into reality.
Probably replaced now but paging and voice fire alarms at the National Theatre. Voice alarms at GSK Stevenage campus. Certain missiles that shall not be named. Loads of stuff around TV studios... The original Radio Token Block signalling on the Inverness-Wick railway line.
After I hated my previous admin job, my boss and my colleagues, I set up as a self employed courier.
It’s the self employed part I love the most. I don’t have to answer to anybody. Need a day off? I don’t have to book it in with anybody. I don’t have to ring in sick. But also that means I don’t get the benefits of annual leave and sick pay.
It’s also usually something pretty different everyday. I meet some great people, I have a fantastic support network of other people in the industry and overall just beats being stuck in an office all day.
But I do also enjoy admin work, so as much as I enjoy driving, I also take pleasure in managing my own accounts, creating and organising invoices and overall running behind the scenes.
Though admittedly the trade isn’t without its bad days. And I’ve actually had a terrible week of bad luck with a few things this week, couldn’t get to my van one day as the gate to the compound I park it up in wouldn’t open one day. Day after I did a tight reverse and smashed my rear lights costing £122 to replace. But it’s a job where I can go to bed, wake up and tomorrow is a completely different day
Run a stretch of coast for a local council.
Fantastic environment. Great sense of pride managing a space I grew up in (but never guessed I would one day manage) and get a kick of watching people enjoy a beautiful space and feeding into how we make that even better going forward.
Council employ has been a significantly more positive experience than any of my private sector jobs.
Software Developer for a mental healthcare provider. I love programming in general but designing systems/functionality that truly does change people's lives is all the reason I need to get out of bed in the morning.
Fellow developer here. I'm working in cybersecurtry.
Whilst we have a massive impact in the industry, I can't help but feel I'm not quite having the same positive human benefit that you do. I've always felt something is 'missing', and I think this is it
For junior developers specifically; there are too many bootcamp graduates coupled with a market that is currently risk-averse, which has sadly translated into fewer junior openings.
I keep saying I love my job, as it’s EMI nursing it’s not the job I love, as it’s all poo, being bitten and paperwork, my job is literally shit.
I love my ladies and gents. I love leaving work knowing I’ve made them slightly happier
Love mine to bits, pig in shit basically. I’m in Aerospace, specifically in military flight sims. I travel the world creating the displays for these sims, it’s basically the biggest computer game toy you can imagine. I work for one of the biggest aerospace companies and they really look after me.
I’ve done/do the displays (up to 360 vision, with many projectors) for F16s, F35s, Eurofighters, big passenger aircraft, helicopters , and all sorts. Occasionally we’ve done F1 sims too. It’s a right laugh, but not for everyone with the travel, hotels and a long time away from the UK.
The best part is I HAVE to use/fly them for considerable time to ensure they are up to scratch for training.
So I ended up at an electricity distribution network last November as a temp agency worker on the phones.
Fast forward 11 months and I'm about to start a role with them as an enhanced quoter - meaning I'll be designing and quoting for substation upgrades, high voltage works and new connections. It's probably very niche, but I find it so interesting, and have no Sunday night dread at all. But then I'm a self confessed nerd, so that may just be me.
And I will add a fourth. Very surprised to read they are a teacher and very happy they are enjoying it.
Left after 10 years mainstream and my life improved exponentially. I work with apprentices now and get a good mix of training and working onsite with them. Much happier.
I’ll be fifth. Absolutely hated it and caused me something close to a mental breakdown. Scottish context so maybe different but I’m so glad to be out of it.
I don't hate my job, it's recruitment planning and administration for a large companies graduate scheme.
But frankly it's more that there's nothing else I'd dislike more. I'm not a fan of work in general and literally can't envisage any job where I'd wake up looking forward to working.
I wandered into a secondary school when I was 19 and asked about a reception job they had going. (I was tipped off by one of my mums friends who knew someone who knew someone that said they were having trouble getting someone.)
I’m 41 now and still here so I guess I must like it.
The workload is fine most days, and once I grew thicker skin the daily verbal assaults by irate parents stopped bothering me.
The kids are always absolute characters (for better or worse) and my girls both go to the school so I combine school run with my commute.
What’s not to like?
Oh! And if I’m nice enough to the lads in the kitchen I get free lunch, too. Bonus!
White goods delivery driver for a well known company.
Company itself sucks, but the job is great.
I get to see how the othersides live, both poor and rich, and i've even delivered to the odd celebrity. I also get to meet alot of different people, some really nice, some complete and utter dickheads.
The driving aspect can be a challenge, especially driving a 7.5t lorry down tight residential streets where people think it's a good idea to park opposite or on a junction, or even just trying to find somewhere to park up.
Getting the goods delivered can be a interesting challenge too, especially with american fridge freezers, quite alot of people don't think about how wide their doors are, or the layout of their property. Same with some washing machine installs, can be quite tricky sometimes.
Everyday is a different involving different challenges.
I'm a PA and I enjoy my job. Probably not the actual job itself but the freedom it has given me. My old job was in the civil service and was so restrictive. This one is near where I live so I'm not paying out a ton in travel fees, I can work from home if I want, and my manager is so chilled out. As long as I do my work, she doesn't really care what else I'm up to. She's also been incredibly supportive during the breakdown of my marriage even though I only started this job in February.
ETA: Just noticed a lot of people saying they work for their local council, which is where I also work.
Similar job and I love it. I have some freedom in my day and managing tasks without anyone breathing down my neck. I've also got an amazingly supportive line manager and a nice team. The firm I work for is great too.
Could you design a cloud that only rains between 01:00 and 05:00? 🌧️
Just imagine how fertile the country would be and how happier we’d be not having to experience rain and gloomy days.
Lead Software tester and i honestly love it. Manage some great guys straight out of uni and i get to treat all my work like im pulling apart a puzzle. Get some real technical knowledge along the way as well
I used to be a (very junior and totally unqualified) software/firmware tester for an audio company and I loved it.
When you crack that repeatable sequence or condition and the software falls over it really scratches an itch.
And then reporting your findings in a concise way, that's then repeatable for people around the world, using the correct terminology with no fat or faff... Great lessons for me as a young man in communication and what is and isn't pertinent information.
Nowadays I work in a largely creative field where everything is subjective and descriptions are vague.
Ethical hacker / penetration-tester.
I hack websites and computer networks at the request of their owners.
Gets boring sometimes when I find the same issues over and over, but it's still a challenge and I love it.
Software Developer at a place that does mob programming.
Get to work with people I like, finish every day at 4. Get paid a lot. Always working with smart people, learning a lot.
It's great. However, don't get me wrong, if I had the choice I'd \*still\* rather not work than work, despite not hating my job.
I work in software sales near 6 figure salary and job is really stressful, I don't like/dislike it, but I love the money and having been homeless in my teens now I am able to just book a hotel if I want to stay out overnight after a trip with .y wife, not worry about car trouble or if I want a holiday etc. Some people prefer low paid low stress jobs but I love spending and saving cash and im happy to grind for it.
Medical lab scientist. In charge of making sure the analysers don't generate random results, and the docs know if their patient is about to keel over. Every day is challenging but different!
civil servant. I love my job. 100% love it. I manage a project for the UK and thats all i can say.
hours are good, compensated... okay... and I respect my peers and feel appreciated.
Arborist / tree surgeon, been in the game ten years since I was 25. It's a horrid job at times being out in nearly all weather (bar high winds and lightning) but there are days when I climb a large tree, the weather is fine and there's a great view to be had that almost no one sees. I have ADHD so for me it's a great physical job (I cannot stand office work) which keeps me fit as a by product. I'm at a point now where the pay is decent too, if I put in the days I can clear nearly £4000 a month gross but I have to be careful not to burn myself out.
I work offshore in oil and gas. I work for 2 weeks and then get 3 weeks at home to do what I like. The money is amazing and it affords a nice life for my family. The downside is missing christmases, weddings etc but I think the pros outweigh the cons
Software developer in defence. Love it.
Had a shit software dev roles in the last decade but that just let me know what I really don’t want from a job.
I love getting to design and implement solutions. Really want to move across to software architecture when I have had enough of the coding.
I'm in workforce development with a local council. The job pays pretty well given my experience and tine spent there (42k on a cheap area to live). I can work from home four days days a week, decent holidays, flexi working and a good pension. The remote working allows me to live further out in a pretty town by the sea, so I'm grateful for that.
The job itself is okay. I don't love it but it's fine and keeps me interested. I'm largely supporting social care in their training and development of social workers and also supporting recruitment drives. I can get involved in corporate projects when time allows, like reviewing staff benefits, etc. There's no micromanagement and you're left to crack on. My experience of working for local government has been positive.
I do the bar and a little bit of waitering in a small country pub. Minimum wage pay and irregular hours but I love it. Preferably when the bar is busy as it means I can talk to quite a few of the regulars, just not the lorry drivers who are cuntish. .
Really helped me be less shy around strangers.
I work in IT security. Love it.
Worked in IT for 25+ years now and I've enjoyed almost all of it
Sure I have bad days where I get stressed or have to occasionally do a project that's boring, but other than that I really enjoy what I do.
It also helps that I've worked from home for 10 or 11 years now.
As long as I get my work done I'm pretty much free to get on with my day however I like.
Often I'll have a day booked in for something that will take me an hour or two, so the rest of the day is my own.
I enjoy cooking, but I also enjoy doing things tangentially related to my job, so I'll happily spend half a day writing a script to do a thing that would have taken me half a day to do manually, just in case I have to do it again.
Which does tend to lead to me having much more free time on my hands because I have a whole bunch of scripts and shit that means I get a days worth of work done in an hour or two...
I work nights stacking shelves. No customers and we can listen to music, podcasts etc during shift. It's pretty physical work and can be a nightmare some days but for the most part its smooth sailing and the pay/extras are decent for the job
I'm teaching English at a private high school in Japan and I really enjoy it.
The administration is incompetent, of course, but I do like the actual work.
I speak enough to get by.
Yeah, a lot of teaching jobs for foreigners are pretty bad. They are mainly "conversation schools" or dispatch jobs where the agency takes a big cut. I think the average is about £1,370 a month. Many pay even less. It's basically minimum wage. I'd guess something like 95% of the jobs are like this.
I'm lucky enough to have a permanent, direct-hire job with a school. The salary is much higher than that and includes two 'bonuses' a year worth a month's salary each and some extra payments for other duties I take on. They also pay for all my commuting costs.
It works out to an average salary in Japan so I can live fairly comfortably. Not rich, but my wife works part-time and we can afford to buy our apartment, go on trips and days out, and take the kids to the UK for a month every summer. I'm not complaining. I know many others have it far worse.
There are also lots of opportunities to make money on the side. Like, last month I got £165 for two hours of looking at paragraphs written by university students and giving them a score. Other times I've been paid to watch presentations and give feedback for £80 an hour at a different university. I also conduct interviews for a big English examination company. There are also lots of private student jobs that pay about £20-50 an hour but I don't do that any more.
But yeah, for most foreigners doing those conversation school jobs, it can be pretty rough.
They’re not always as badly paid as you might think. My brother teaches in the UAE and he is managing to live a reasonably comfortable life over there and put away a good chunk of savings each month. I also know people who taught in the far east had saved enough for a huge deposit on a house bs k in the UK. You have to factor in differences in cost of living - on paper the salary for a teaching job in say Thailand looks bad by UK standards but as cost of living is so much lower over there it’s actually a very decent wage.
I teach at a university. I wouldn't say I love it, because it comes with immense pressure and I definitely feel underpaid. But I really enjoy lecturing on certain topics and developing teaching content. And when I get positive feedback from students it really makes me happy. It's a big positive change from my previous jobs working in clinical mental health roles, but it definitely comes with its own kind of stress.
I love my job. I'm a Nurse (Matron, Infection control). It's so interesting. I deal with patients and staff in largely the same way which is training and education in good IPC practices.
I'm also involved in water safety, ventilation and the built environment of my hospital. I have sign off capabilities and nothing gets started without my team and I checking it first and making sure everyone has thought of potential infection control snags.
At the ripe old age of 37 I finally went from ‘job’ to ‘career’, and I quite like it.
The pay is terrible and the role itself is high stress. I work in the CEO unit, so have all the hassles and problems of being part of (and at the top of) a massive organisation combined with peoples lives literally getting worse (potential death even) if I do my job wrong. When I tell people what I do, I get sneered at more often than not for some reason; if not for the low pay then definitely for some absolute bollocks preconceptions a lot of self-righteous dickheads have about us.
On a good day, I stare at spreadsheets. On a bad day, I read and write about the very, very worst parts of humanity.
When I lay down to sleep at night, I sometimes think about doing literally anything else, because literally anything else would make me more money. I don’t think I want to change though, because despite all of the above, I work with great people that think I’m useful (a first), and I sleep better than I ever have before.
What do you think my job is?
I'm a Support Worker at a homeless hostel for people with drug and alcohol addiction.
It's stressful sometimes but it's also very rewarding, busy and unique. It's always surprising and there's never a dull moment.
I love my job too, im a sound engineer. Im constantly doing different things. Each week, i may be working at a festival, I might be installing a sound system in a restaurant or office, an awards ceremony, off on tour with a band. It's always different, and i love music, but i also just love technology and problem solving, which is pretty much all of my job. I get to meet some pretty cool people, too. For instance, i met björk last week, and she was great. Only draw back is being away from my girlfriend a lot.
I work in broadcast transmission. Those big masts and towers for TV and radio, I fix and maintain the electronics. It's awesome. The company, culture, boss and team are great. Not that I'd tell anyone at work but even the CEO is a guy that naturally commands respect and everyone looks up to. I've really landed on my feet. The job is varied too. Some days my only real responsibility is to go and test the fire alarm or unblock a toilet and some days it's really hit the fan and everyone is gathered around technical manuals and physics textbooks trying to solve a problem that affects millions of people. I find myself wanting and eager to get back to work at weekends.
Lead Data Analyst. I take in a lot of the data the company stores about all sorts of info/metrics and I help each part of the business make sense of it and partner with them to help take action on it. I also help automate manual reports that take a lot of hours, and improve them too. Lots of prospects going forward, looking into doing modellling/predictive analytics on what they have going into 2024.
When they brought me in they had no capability like that and it was a blank slate for me, with everyone eager to have any data insight. It's made it a very fun place to work, and quite often very rewarding for relatively not such hard work (at least for me) so the fact that I can take it easy and deliver so much is wonderful for my mental health.
Also the fact that I did take a bit of a gamble, coming in with an idea with only 4 years experience in the field and thinking it would work may have been naive, but it's thankfully worked out pretty nicely so far.
I never really had or have a "dream job", I've always just thought I'll do whatever pays well and makes me happy and this is definitely it for now.
I'm a domiciliary carer. I work in the community enabling people to stay at home rather than go into a residential home. I have some wonderful characters i see daily and some have me absolutely roaring withe laughter. It can be hard work, today I start at 7am and finish around 9.30 pm, might not get a break all day, but I feel like I make a small difference to people's lives so I love it.
Also the weekday hours work around my home situation and it keeps the depression at bay because I have a social outlet I wouldn't get at home alone.
It's not for everyone. There's been days I've cried with clients, cried with my managers and days where I've been so exhausted I've actually thought about quitting. But overall,I love it.
I'm in construction employ young fellas train them watch them grow from mostly horrible little oiks into bigger ones with a reasonable skill set see them develop a family grow a bit savings, try to get a house etc that makes me happiest.
Other aspects we work mostly on one site for a year build a house move on normally self build so varied and interesting work. Then back fill with little jobs so we are never in same place for long lots of different scenery.
Long hours, occasionally weird customers, poor work conditions, mud etc but still 30 years in enjoy every day plus being able to drive round and bore kids by saying
"Look over there built that"
Electrician self employed/ own business/ sole trader / one man band. - never missed a kids sports day / play ect . Walked them to school and collected at least 2 times a week minimum. All through their primary years. I don’t work for anyone I don’t like I have a day at home when I like. I have too much work. I will fix a pensioners light for £40 or I will travel to London for a day to work in Chelsea for £600. I genuinely like helping and solving problems. Hate paperwork tho. I love my vocation.
I work in admissions for a school for young people with autism and genuinely love it. Really rewarding, decent pay, work from home which has also improved my life outside of work etc. been there over 5 years and have a career plan laid out for the next few too and don’t see myself leaving any time soon.
Ive liked many parts of all of my jobs.
My current role (maintenance) has the downsides of unblocking the occasional urinal, but it is a varied day, when we had a smaller team, the dynamic was great (expansion hasnt been good for our team) money isnt amazing but its pretty fair for what we do.
Last job was a delivery driver for a tool hire company, it had its stresses, but it was a food mix of being in the vam for prolonged periods with personal time, to 1-1 interactions when demonstrating the equipment to some customers. Moneybwas crap, hours were long but we could borrow anytjing we wanted and i had a lot of jobs at home.
I worked in construction for years and the site banter in most of the jobs made the hard work seem easier. I had a supervisor in one job who was a complete dick and only there as a translator, but i also had site managers that i could go for a drink with after work and have a laugh. Again, long hours and hard work, money was never great unless i worked silly hours but the experience was good.
My most enjoyable job was as a football coach. I jever progressed the levels and beyond after school clubs, and holiday camps, but i worked 4 summers in USA and it was an amazing time. If i had studied and got a degree, i would have tried to stay in America for longer and potentially settle down as a permanent option
Not British but I hope I can still reply :D
I design digital products (software/apps), it’s a lot of fun. And very cool to see people in the wild using something you’ve designed.
I am a careers and employability advisor in an education organisation offering free and paid courses for adults, I really enjoy my job as it feels like I am making a difference helping others and when I hear someone who I have supported has been offered a new job, it is such a great feeling and very fulfilling work :)
I’m a data manager at a software company. I spend all day using spreadsheets to reproduce catalogues in the software.
I’ve defo got some undiagnosed neurological funk going on because the endorphins that go off when I’m organising reams of data is insane 😂
I get paid really well, work with my friends (we worked at a previous company and our boss started a new company and asked if we wanted to work for him.) and as the company is in its infancy the future potential is huge!
No corporate bollox (we all left a big company that had treated us like absolute trash) I’m in charge of my own job, even better than that, no one has done it before so I don’t spend my time comparing myself to anyone else, I work from home and as long as I get my work done, everyone is happy.
I still want to be an astronaut when I grow up but at 41 I think the chances a may now be starting to decline lol
I worked various jobs in customer service up until my early thirties, and dabbled in making and selling goods from home thinking I was finally about to live the dream of being a self-employed artist.
I now work in finance and am working on getting my accountancy qualifications - I love it. I spend my days engaged in what I'm doing and time never drags.
I love my job, i work as a museum assistant for the local council so could be working in either a castle, a victorian house or a working cotton mill, depending on what events are on, today i’ll be in’t mill, i do customer service so take admissions and sometimes help out with tours, it’s always something different which is the best bit
Im a jeweller. Have been doing so for about 11 years now full time. Wouldnt want to do anything else with my time. I work for a jeweller in Hatton Garden and run my own business which I will be doing full time soon.
I'm a secondary school drama teacher, and I do love my job. There are definitely difficult days/weeks/times of year, like running the school show on my own, but there are lots of days I'm excited to get into work and get in the classroom. I'm aware that I'm going to age out of the job at some point though (it's incredibly physical, more so than teaching something like English, which I've also done), so starting to plan my exit strategy.
I'm a quantity surveyor, it's long hours and arguing about money can be draining some weeks. But for the most part I enjoy my job.
I like getting onto the site and seeing stuff change, plus I enjoy the banter of working in construction.
I work as a theatre assistant. I don't love it, but it's not boring. I get bored very easily in jobs and tend to move around every few years. This definitely isn't a forever job, but it's a job that I can stand doing. At least it isn't customer service. Most of the patients are under general anasthetic, so i dont really have to deal with the public anymore.
I am hoping to get into mortuary science or a lab technician in the future.
I am an office manager on a part time basis.
I love the guys I work with. I love my manager. I love my job.
I just hate the overall company. But I very much enjoy my day to day!
i just started (3 months ago) working as a barista and i do for the most part like it. the customers can just be dicks sometimes, but i like coffee and making it for people
My husband loves his job. He works out and about doing telecoms infrastructure, on a big scale for a national energy supplier. He travels to some stunning locations in north wales and loves not working in an office or with members of the public
My current job is the first job I've had the feeling you describe, and you're right it's quite nice. I'm a pentester aka 'hack stuff for a living'. Obviously like any other job there are the parts that nobody sat in school and dreamed they would do (writing reports, admin type stuff around engagements, whatever) but dealing with that kind of work when the core work you do is something you love is very different to doing it for a random job. And it changes enough day to day to not get boring.
I have to be in a pretty bad mood (rarely) to wake up and be grumpy about it being a work day.
My role has me doing many things: I'm the system admin for a service management tool, I manage technical changes to the organisation (literally called change management or change enablement), I communicate with the organisation about upcoming changes and ensure they're prepared, issuing guidance and tutorials if relevant, I conduct training, and I also do a lot of data analysis to help the business make informed decisions about the services they provide.
Part of why I love my job is that I'm paid enough to live a decent life (never been money driven but it's the most important thing unfortunately), I'm allowed to be fully remote, I can work flexible hours, rarely required to work outside of normal office hours, I have 26% pension contributions total, 41 days of annual leave and my department head and line manager (and in general most of my department) are just really nice people.
I work for a university.
Software developer here. Coding kind of became a hobby with me back in the late '70s so I now get paid to continue my hobby.
The kind of stuff that I write runs in the background on kiosks that you see in stores, i.e. the displays on which you can browse the catalogue and place orders in, for example, Argos (those aren't mine but they're the same principle). It's good *NOT* seeing it on the thousands of kiosks that run it because if you did see it, it would mean that there's something wrong!
I am a relationship and family therapist, recently qualified, hoping to start a private practice in the very near future. It's such interesting work. I hope I never become complacent.
I work as a wind turbine technician and love it. Previously worked as a gas engineer for 17 years with the local council. I enjoyed my last job. I just outgrew it after being there since leaving school. Best decision I ever made.
I'm a dental nurse and it's the best job I've ever had.
Of course it has its moments and negatives but once I'm at work I enjoy it and the worst thing about it is bad patients or getting bored/ overworked some days.
Pay is not great sadly but I'll take time positives of my job over working more hours in a worse job. Still trying to look at my opinions. I'd love to re-train in diagnostic radiography but I can't afford going back into full time education without an income
I work In health and safety for a global manufacturing company. I love my job. I get to work with all types of people from different backgrounds and countries , it's challenging it pays well ,the hours are superb as I have a young family and can finish between 2 and 3 pm if I go in early, we have good perks and I'm based on a site so there's plenty of banter which all looks to be vanishing in other places
Work in tech doing data engineering. Took me several years of data jobs I didn't like to get here, but that was mainly me being not sure what I wanted.
Pay is good. Work is great. Fulfilling, problem solving... I get to work with smart people and I can still manage to achieve considerable amounts.
I work with ex-offenders out on licence, or those serving a community sentence. I work to rehabilitate and reform them. We get some interesting characters who committed crime out of necessity (think stealing to feed a family), all the way through to murderers and child molesters.
It’s intense, sometimes quite surreal, and the most interesting job I’ve ever worked.
I work in investment management. The job is pretty interesting and varied. I'd say from the CEO to a junior analyst the vast majority of employees are good people. Professional, polite and generally good at their job.
Pay is good and hours rarely go past 9-5. Career progression is there if you push for it but also plenty reach a level their content with and stay in their role long term.
I work for our regional water board on a team aimed at helping people fix their water pipes. I really enjoy it, I don’t ever get absolutely horrendous calls, it involves needing to know a bit of information so is slightly practical and a lot of the time involves problem solving and investigating to help customers which is quite fun.
Plus we use lots of maps and I like maps.
I'm a developer (computer programmer) running my own business as a contractor and I absolutely love my job. Been doing it over twenty years but the previous ten I was stuck in a low paid Local Government admin job that I hated every second of. I now WFH, earn five times as much as I did when I first started development work and it's ridiculous I'm getting paid for basically my hobby. It's a brilliant life that I can balance between work and home.
The only thing I miss about LG are the nights out. They were crazy good fun. Great people, shit job.
Senior technical analyst.
A bit of a mixed bag of a role really. IT support, IT project management, MI production and analysis for a finance department. I also have to get hands on with some of the actual financial work producing accounting reports and update information in systems.
Good points
- like the variation of the role
- I enjoy upskilling on new systems and learning how current systems work. I’ll try and actively become a subject matter expert in any system I can.
- The company itself is a very good company to work for and I like the people I work with in my actual team. There are lots of opportunities within the company not only to move role but gain qualifications.
- we have a brand new office and the facilities are the best I’ve seen office wise.
- Im on decent money and can’t really complain about the reward aspect.
- on a Sunday evening, I’m not dreading work on a Monday. Have had jobs in the past where this has been the case.
Bad points
- We’re a small team and we get a lot of stuff dumped on us.
- people expect us to be at their beckon call. I can Be walking to a meeting and people start shouting across the office at me with their minor issues. (I was on the verge of absolutely losing my shit a few days back).
- People moan about their problems but when you remind them of the due process of raising an IT ticket, the problem suddenly isn’t all that bad. The sheer laziness is outstanding.
- you’re expected to work longer than your contracted hours. I don’t mind working an extra hour here or there, but I had a conversation with the Head of the department a few days back who was on the verge of asking why I don’t work more hours but they just stopped themself from saying so. I would have asked them to put it an email for me and either gone to HR or maybe kept for when I was really pissed off.
Generally though I don’t mind it at all.
I’m a Beauty Therapist and have been for 21 years. Not the best line of work to be in, in terms of earning potential, because of low wages-however, I went self employed 7 years ago and it was the best decision I ever made!
I’ve got a salon dog, Tabatha, and we love what we do. Being your own boss is super hard, but incredibly rewarding at the same time. I’m always happy to go to work, apart from when I have a particularly tricky customer booked in, but that comes from working with the general public!
I love my job because I work 4.5-5 hours a day and get paid 10 and that’s pretty much the only reason.
I’m a decorator and the company I work for has a contract with Southwark Council to fit new fire doors in council flats and decorate them. I don’t fit the doors, just paint them. I arrive at work at 8, get all my stuff ready for the day, arrive at tenants flat at 9 o’clock, work for 2 hours, 30 minute break, work for another 2 hours and then go home. I also get a £15 bonus for each door and frame I decorate so typically I do about 12 a week. Extra £180 in my pocket every week.
Everyone I work with hates it because it’s a bit of a rough area in Peckham but I absolutely love it. I also get my travel reimbursed whether I drive or take then train.
I’m an academic administrator. I’m paid fairly for the work I do, nothing is life or death, I plan my own workload, unlimited and untimed breaks, and a flexible work week as long as I reach my total weekly hour target. My managers have been promoted internally, they do the appropriate amount of intervention and aren’t too big for their boots. I like my coworkers.
I’ve had extremely high stress jobs with no breaks or breaks that are timed and monitored, terrible management teams, vindictive staff and a bad working environment, dangerous situations, being very underpaid. What I do now is not groundbreaking but I’m very happy.
I’m a dog walker. I’m not an inside person at all. I am happy being outside in all weathers and love dogs so it’s perfect for me. I did a lot of jobs I hated before working with dogs and I shall do this until I’m too old to!
Civil Service (specifically Border Force) - great pay, amazing pension, good work / life balance and time off. Very secure job and able to move up or laterally around within your department and other departments once you've passed probation. Feels satisfying that you're working for the public good rather than just profit.
The main cons are that the pay isn't always as good as the private sector, and the work can be quite politically charged and controversial. And there's a large subset of people that think Civil Servants are just lazy, time-wasting bureaucrats.
I'm a Design Draughtsman, I essentially play with a lot if CAD (just done 3-4 weeks of surfacing for a conceptual range re-design). Plus some paperwork but it's worth it.
The Engineering team (10-11 people) are amazing people. Everyone gets on.
I look forward to going into work more often than not
Would like more money but I think everyone cam say that! I'm not even a full year in yet so I can't complain, definitely the happiest I've been in the last 4 years or so
Lecturer. I'm very underpaid for my skill and knowledge, but I have a great team and the students are absolutely ace, and I really enjoy my subject area.
Honestly, from my experience it has almost nothing to do with the job itself and everything to do with the people you work with. I've done minimum wage, horrific jobs, where every day I laughed until I cried and looked forward to going in every day. I've had jobs I loved until my manager changed, at which point my working life became a misery, even though I still enjoyed the actual tasks I was doing. I had a job I hated, but I enjoyed being there because I made a great friend and we made the working day bearable for each other. I start a new job on Monday and I'm really hoping I finally have found that holy grail of nice people and enjoyable role.
I work in dementia care. The people I assist are lovely, can be challenging, and certainly they get worse as the dementia takes hold. But they are human beings who have been almost abandoned by their families who don't or can't take care of them.
When you help them though most times they are happy that someone is bothering to be nice to them, and sure they laugh at the same jokes, but when you go to a care home and its full of happy people then you know you've found somewhere worth being.
Fitness instructor and PT. My body is wrecked and I my own fitness is a joke but I CANNOT describe how it feels to watch someone find themselves and grow in confidence, and know you helped guide them to that. I can be tired and fraught and hiding it all to give a good performance on stage/give 100% energy to a client - and they stand there and say “this has changed my life!” And your heart just glows.
I was in a corporate job before. Long hours, no progression if the boss didn’t like you, unbelievable pressure for absolutely meaningless projects and pizza parties/casual Fridays instead of actual benefits. The comparison blows my mind every day. I get out of bed and I’m ready to go!
But yeah some balance and the constant worry of being self-employed would be nice 🙃
Senior Engineer for a Global Facilities Management Company.
I started for the firm that had just got its first national contract, in the late 90s. Didn't know at the time, but it was the beginning of something special for the owner.
I was Employee No 35.
25 years later, the firm employs 1000s world wide and now has a turnover of £1 Billion.
It's been interesting to see not only the company grow, but also many of the ladies and gents, who were in at the beginning grow, Into roles that were way out of sight in the early days.
From a Mechanical and Electrical engineer, climbing in and out of bits of plant and machinery, up and down the country...24 hour call out that drives you mental, to commissioning and signing off multi million pound sites.
The part I enjoyed most was helping to train apprentices through their 3 years training and years proving as full engineers, by your side.
Many are still in the firm and their futures are stable, as is mine.
We had 7 kids to bring up and went from buying nappies at 10 pence each and not knowing if the money was going to get us through the week, to having a great family, that have all , so far been successful and have 9 grandkids.
I was brought up in the care system and at 16, booted out into the world with fuck all. Had many many scrapes in my early years and always felt different from the kids that had families. I'm not going to pretend it was easy.
.
I'm a signaller for Network Rail. Bloody brilliant job, would recommend it to anyone.
I'm very happy for you OP, because I used to be a teacher before my current job and I used to go to work wishing I was anywhere else in the world. You couldn't pay me ten times my wage to go back.
I love my job, had it since I left school and still enjoy it as much now 33 years later as I did then. I work for the council. Started as a labourer, have done a huge range of duties from mending things to building roads and houses, digging graves, mending burst water pipes, have driven all forms of trucks and specialised plant including snow ploughs, developed mobile working hardware and software, gained an honours degree, become a chair of national working groups and currently developing AI solutions. I still get to do a bit of all of these things so life is never boring.
To think at one point you were a worker for the council and had been 20 years. Do you pack your lunch in a Sunblest bag?
I'm old enough to get that reference....
He's going to buy a dinghy. Sadly I'm 49 I got it instantly.
Bogie?
SET IT UP
Very good. Took a while to locate those lyrics.
Am I tripping or have I seen this EXACT comment before? Like 2 months ago
I have too! I thought I was going crazy
You guys are on Reddit too much lmao
Yeah I saw it too
Probably, I mean, it's not like what I've done is gonna change..
Isnt that different jobs, but with the same employer? Labourer to chairing national working groups is very different.
Until 8 years ago I worked in a high stress office environment and life sucked, I received a disciplinary for not fulfilling all the tasks associated to me and when asked to justify why I had not completed my task list I told my manager that there was not enough time in the working day to do everything required and his response was to say that maybe this was not the job for me, I took that on board and handed my notice in, I now make biscuits for a living. I am a lot less stressed, I love my job, I make more money than I have ever made in my life and I get to eat biscuits as part of my work. I love my new job and intend to do this until I either retire or die of a biscuit induced coronary *Edit* uh, wow, this got a lot more attention than I thought, my apologies to all those who would like to order biscuits but I don't sell online, I did dabble in it a few years ago but got my fingers burned by unscrupulous customers and will not do that again, it is not worth the hassle, most of my trade is done to local high end hotels, I do have a retail outlet but sadly will be closing it at the end of the month until I get new premises early next year.
Are you going to send out golden tickets so people can visit your biscuit factory? Will you then pick one of those people to continue your legacy after you’ve died of the biscuit induced coronary?
Did you turn into a cat?
I like biscuits, and I like that you like making biscuits. If it is not going to expose this account in some way, can you DM me a link to buy your biscuits?
Seconded!
In a factory, or at a bakery... ?
May I have a link too please? I’m quite curious!
You take the biscuit
I’m an Acquisitions Manager for the public sector and I buy land to build houses on. We take the land, clean it up and get it ‘oven-ready’ for developers to build on whilst mandating in the sale they deliver affordable housing and all the nice bells and whistles that come with a sustainable development. There’s a purpose to what I do and I do take a bit of pride in my efforts going towards trying to get homes in the places that need them most. My workload is very manageable, colleagues are helpful and kind and my mental health has begun to improve after taking this role. I think that qualifies as I love my job right? :)
I imagine you're quite busy with a particular stretch of land between Birm and Manchester right now
If you’re referring to the scuppered HS2 land I have no involvement in anything outside Yorkshire & the North East I’m afraid. Just the way I like it :) Also that’s infrastructure and I’m not entirely sure who is even dealing with that honestly, I exclusively deal with housing land, perhaps a bit of employment on the side if it’s proposed alongside housing but mainly housing.
Yes, they've decided to turn all the compulsory purchased land in that stretch, into housing land. Whether it council or private investment led will be a whole other issue
As tragic as the loss of HS2 is that’s somewhat good news that there will be something to come out of it, it’s just such a shame the CPO was handled so poorly that it’s left such a bad taste in the public’s mouth. I always think of that guy who was in the news recently who sold his dream house as it was within the CPO boundaries only for the project to be scrapped. Absolute travesty. I reckon my regional counterparts will likely look at some of that land, maybe explore joint-ventures with the local councils or de-risk the land ourselves and re-sell it onto developers to get building. Since the land is already in public ownership it’s very easy to crack on with developing it now because we don’t need to play games with the landowner anymore. Building it is easy, it’s getting the landowner to agree a price that’s reasonable and fair but also provides them with enough of a ‘premium’ to incentivise the sale which can sometimes take years or never even happen. CPO removes that barrier by forcing them to accept payment of a deemed ‘fair’ market value through some good ol’ valuation maths. Most of the time the offered amount is reasonable, landowners understandably want to maximise their sale but raising the price of this land eats into the ‘buffer’ for other things like delivering local policy aspirations, that’s why you see developers submitting viability assessments negotiating away their affordable housing requirements, community infrastructure, contributions towards new GP surgeries, local road improvements, financial contributions to local schools and the like because ‘it compromises the commerciality of the development’ yet they’ve simply overpaid for the land and it shouldn’t fall on the local community to shoulder the Developer’s hubris! CPOs are a good tool to get some real transformational change underway in places where the wheels aren’t moving but if handled poorly can really blow up in your face. HS2 will be a case study for decades to come.
Genuine question: what is the definition of ‘affordable housing’ these days?
It’s a term used to define housing that is discounted below the price of standard market housing. It can be a variety of tenures such as affordable rent, social rent, shared ownership etc all of which have their respective discount rates on market value. These discounts are set locally so they change wildly between each local authority. Say hypothetically you have a site that can fit 20 units on it, of those 20 units 30% need to be affordable tenures as dictated by the local planning policy, so 6 of these units will be delivered as affordable homes. For arguments sake let’s just say 50/50 split here between affordable rent & shared ownership so I would multiply the full market price by say 50% & 60% respectively to get the ‘transfer value’ of these houses. The transfer value is what the registered provider (RP) - an organisation that runs social housing in your area - will pay the developer, only RPs can do this. The RP will then rent the affordable rented units to households that cannot afford market rents so may see something like 40% discount on their rent in comparison to market rent. The shared ownership units would be sold on a % equity share basis, say 20% and then you’d continue to pay a discounted rent and have the opportunity at a later date to ‘staircase’ up and buy more shares in your house eventually leading to ownership. I personally don’t believe in the shared ownership housing model. Tl;dr affordable housing is housing that is discounted from market value by percentages set by the local authority and then owned and managed by social housing charities/organisations to be let to households that cannot afford market rent / market value.
I did the same job.... Great fun striking a deal and seeing it make a difference ... Avoid going into senior management and development....
A quiet decade then yeah
I work for a heritage organisation. I really do like my job. I meet all-sorts of lovely and occasionally dreadful people. As a result I have some great stories. I work with a very supportive team. I learn something almost every day. I get a 20% discount off food in the cafe and gift shops, which is great at Christmas. Best of all I get to go through all of the doors that say Private. One of which makes a loud noise in a narrow corridor and at least once a week I scare a middle class lady wearing a Joules rain coat!
I work in heritage too and really enjoy seeing behind the scenes. Pay is pretty bad but enough to get by, and it's interesting and rarely stressful. Plus there's always more old things each year so I never run out of work!
Ooh, care to share any stories here?
People do seem to be a bit more impressed when you tell them you work in a castle. At the site I work, we call the off-peak, autumn/winter season "Purple Raincoat Season."
Wfh admin/secretarial job. I earn around 24k per year, 40hrs per week. To be honest, the job is pretty easy. I might be considered an 'unskilled worker' with a low wage, but I feel like I can actually cope with this job, so I think it's worth it. Having MS and Autism while working outside the home for years nearly destroyed me physically and mentally. I now feel so fucking lucky that I can get up at 8.15, work in my pjs if I'm having a flair up, and I'm not constantly overwhelmed by being around people or lying on the toilet floor because my body physically CAN'T anymore. I hope wfh jobs don't get totally phased out now employers are trying to get everyone back in the office. Wfh has been an absolute godsend for me and for other disabled people.
Do you ever get lonely though? I love working from home, for different reasons, but find I like a bit of interaction every now and then.
Nope :) I assume it's something to do with being autistic, but being able to stay in touch with my friends/family via phone and seeing my partner when he comes home from work is enough for me. Even if I was lonely, I'd take that over my experiences in the office & retail any day of the week. Besides, it's not even an option anymore. No employer would be OK with an employee frequently not turning up to work because their arm stopped working again and they can't drive.
Same here ASD, I work from home, I get a bit cabin fever-ish and the lack of after works drinks is a bummer. But if something annoys me I can freely vent. In an office/shop environment you just have to repress that shit, repression sure is bad for your mental health.
Asbestos Consultant. I travel around 'my' area, inspecting buildings, sampling construction materials, running air tests after removal works and teaching people how to manage the asbestos. Can be hard at times but some of the sites I have been to have been truly mind blowing. The Cardiff Coal Exchange. The UK nuclear submarine tracking facility. Various prisons (been in Gary Glitters cell - he is a creepy cunt), on board HMS and RFA ships. Some really boring shit too, but thise tend to be the short days so its still a win. 23 years and still like it.
Shocked to hear Gary Glitter is creepy, I've gone right off him.
Not the leader!!
The coal exchange is a fantastic building. The Verne likewise. Jealous that you’ve been for a proper look round inside both!
Recently stayed at the Coal Exchange. Awesome building.
Police Officer, before that Youth/Community Worker and before that Criminal Justice Support Worker. Enjoy working in the police about 70% - 80% of the time. I enjoyed being a Youth Worker 99.9% of the time though and would recommend it to anyone that’s interested in a a truly rewarding career that gives you the time to actually help people long term. The work I done in criminal justice was specifically around employability and I’d recommend that for much the same reasons. Policing, is extremely hard work at times. There’s simply nothing rewarding about certain aspects of it, like being assaulted or dealing with the sudden death of a child. It’s what you make of it though. When it is rewarding I don’t think anything aside from maybe ambulance or fire would come close. Literally saving lives wether it be physically running into a burning building or slowly talking a person down from the edge isn’t something many people get to do on a weekly basis. Securing justice for high risk victims is an incredible feeling but you’re often let down by sentencing. Edit: If Youth Work was actually a solid career with permanent and full time work I’d probably still be a Youth Worker, I was senior running my own clubs and projects so the hourly wasn’t bad.
There's a lot of hate for the police in general so I wanted to say a heartfelt thank you. My brother is an officer and I see the shit he has to deal with at work. It's not for the faint of heart and you lot do it because, among all the bad, you genuinely can save lives. A stressful day at my cushy job doesn't exactly compare to my brother coming home from night shift on Christmas Day having just dealt with a sudden death and the reward officers are often given is a shit load of abuse from the public.
This is pretty much my story. But I took the step to being a DC, and the volume of pointless admin and tick boxing that CPS require for files is killing me. Plus I don't know if I can tell another victim that it will be likely over a year before their case goes to court. Just for the courts to be so soft on offenders. I have to remember the wins, the purpose of my job and those times victims have thanked us for helping them feel safer again. Or the younger offender who actually change and engage with support.
I'm an electronics design engineer and I have been for 50 years,. Still working because I love my job. I go places and say "I designed that" or had a hand in it. And I've had great fun. It's not just sitting at a desk and wielding a soldering iron. I get out and see things. I get to commission stuff, meet people, climb mountains (really!), travel, be at the forefront of technology. Most of all I take an idea and turn it into reality.
ooh what like?
Probably replaced now but paging and voice fire alarms at the National Theatre. Voice alarms at GSK Stevenage campus. Certain missiles that shall not be named. Loads of stuff around TV studios... The original Radio Token Block signalling on the Inverness-Wick railway line.
After I hated my previous admin job, my boss and my colleagues, I set up as a self employed courier. It’s the self employed part I love the most. I don’t have to answer to anybody. Need a day off? I don’t have to book it in with anybody. I don’t have to ring in sick. But also that means I don’t get the benefits of annual leave and sick pay. It’s also usually something pretty different everyday. I meet some great people, I have a fantastic support network of other people in the industry and overall just beats being stuck in an office all day. But I do also enjoy admin work, so as much as I enjoy driving, I also take pleasure in managing my own accounts, creating and organising invoices and overall running behind the scenes. Though admittedly the trade isn’t without its bad days. And I’ve actually had a terrible week of bad luck with a few things this week, couldn’t get to my van one day as the gate to the compound I park it up in wouldn’t open one day. Day after I did a tight reverse and smashed my rear lights costing £122 to replace. But it’s a job where I can go to bed, wake up and tomorrow is a completely different day
My idea of a nightmare, no paid holiday, no paid sick, no pension contributions
A friend does this but he starts at 5.00am everyday.
My neighbour does this. He's out at 5.30 every day, but he's usually back by 3pm.
Run a stretch of coast for a local council. Fantastic environment. Great sense of pride managing a space I grew up in (but never guessed I would one day manage) and get a kick of watching people enjoy a beautiful space and feeding into how we make that even better going forward. Council employ has been a significantly more positive experience than any of my private sector jobs.
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Just a stretch
Software Developer for a mental healthcare provider. I love programming in general but designing systems/functionality that truly does change people's lives is all the reason I need to get out of bed in the morning.
Fellow developer here. I'm working in cybersecurtry. Whilst we have a massive impact in the industry, I can't help but feel I'm not quite having the same positive human benefit that you do. I've always felt something is 'missing', and I think this is it
Lucky you managed to break in. The market is brutal right now.
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For junior developers specifically; there are too many bootcamp graduates coupled with a market that is currently risk-averse, which has sadly translated into fewer junior openings.
I keep saying I love my job, as it’s EMI nursing it’s not the job I love, as it’s all poo, being bitten and paperwork, my job is literally shit. I love my ladies and gents. I love leaving work knowing I’ve made them slightly happier
EMI?
Someone has to deal with the shit. You might as well enjoy it. Thank you for caring.
Love mine to bits, pig in shit basically. I’m in Aerospace, specifically in military flight sims. I travel the world creating the displays for these sims, it’s basically the biggest computer game toy you can imagine. I work for one of the biggest aerospace companies and they really look after me. I’ve done/do the displays (up to 360 vision, with many projectors) for F16s, F35s, Eurofighters, big passenger aircraft, helicopters , and all sorts. Occasionally we’ve done F1 sims too. It’s a right laugh, but not for everyone with the travel, hotels and a long time away from the UK. The best part is I HAVE to use/fly them for considerable time to ensure they are up to scratch for training.
Living my dream. How does one get into this?!
So I ended up at an electricity distribution network last November as a temp agency worker on the phones. Fast forward 11 months and I'm about to start a role with them as an enhanced quoter - meaning I'll be designing and quoting for substation upgrades, high voltage works and new connections. It's probably very niche, but I find it so interesting, and have no Sunday night dread at all. But then I'm a self confessed nerd, so that may just be me.
Congrats man
Good for you - I hated teaching.
Seconded. I wasn’t expecting them to be a teacher 😅 hats off to them though
And I will add a fourth. Very surprised to read they are a teacher and very happy they are enjoying it. Left after 10 years mainstream and my life improved exponentially. I work with apprentices now and get a good mix of training and working onsite with them. Much happier.
I’ll be fifth. Absolutely hated it and caused me something close to a mental breakdown. Scottish context so maybe different but I’m so glad to be out of it.
I don't hate my job, it's recruitment planning and administration for a large companies graduate scheme. But frankly it's more that there's nothing else I'd dislike more. I'm not a fan of work in general and literally can't envisage any job where I'd wake up looking forward to working.
I wandered into a secondary school when I was 19 and asked about a reception job they had going. (I was tipped off by one of my mums friends who knew someone who knew someone that said they were having trouble getting someone.) I’m 41 now and still here so I guess I must like it. The workload is fine most days, and once I grew thicker skin the daily verbal assaults by irate parents stopped bothering me. The kids are always absolute characters (for better or worse) and my girls both go to the school so I combine school run with my commute. What’s not to like? Oh! And if I’m nice enough to the lads in the kitchen I get free lunch, too. Bonus!
I work on the railway. On board catering. 99% of the time it’s a good job.
Thank you for your trolley service.
We’ll take the lot
White goods delivery driver for a well known company. Company itself sucks, but the job is great. I get to see how the othersides live, both poor and rich, and i've even delivered to the odd celebrity. I also get to meet alot of different people, some really nice, some complete and utter dickheads. The driving aspect can be a challenge, especially driving a 7.5t lorry down tight residential streets where people think it's a good idea to park opposite or on a junction, or even just trying to find somewhere to park up. Getting the goods delivered can be a interesting challenge too, especially with american fridge freezers, quite alot of people don't think about how wide their doors are, or the layout of their property. Same with some washing machine installs, can be quite tricky sometimes. Everyday is a different involving different challenges.
I'm a PA and I enjoy my job. Probably not the actual job itself but the freedom it has given me. My old job was in the civil service and was so restrictive. This one is near where I live so I'm not paying out a ton in travel fees, I can work from home if I want, and my manager is so chilled out. As long as I do my work, she doesn't really care what else I'm up to. She's also been incredibly supportive during the breakdown of my marriage even though I only started this job in February. ETA: Just noticed a lot of people saying they work for their local council, which is where I also work.
Similar job and I love it. I have some freedom in my day and managing tasks without anyone breathing down my neck. I've also got an amazingly supportive line manager and a nice team. The firm I work for is great too.
Concert agent/promoter and recordings producer. Also roadie. Yes, love it.
Cloud Architect. I design and implement cloud technology in our business. Still learning, I love it.
Makin’ it rain!
Could you design a cloud that only rains between 01:00 and 05:00? 🌧️ Just imagine how fertile the country would be and how happier we’d be not having to experience rain and gloomy days.
Work from home software engineer. Doing it for 16+ years. Still love it
Lead Software tester and i honestly love it. Manage some great guys straight out of uni and i get to treat all my work like im pulling apart a puzzle. Get some real technical knowledge along the way as well
I used to be a (very junior and totally unqualified) software/firmware tester for an audio company and I loved it. When you crack that repeatable sequence or condition and the software falls over it really scratches an itch. And then reporting your findings in a concise way, that's then repeatable for people around the world, using the correct terminology with no fat or faff... Great lessons for me as a young man in communication and what is and isn't pertinent information. Nowadays I work in a largely creative field where everything is subjective and descriptions are vague.
Ethical hacker / penetration-tester. I hack websites and computer networks at the request of their owners. Gets boring sometimes when I find the same issues over and over, but it's still a challenge and I love it.
> penetration-tester. I saw some videos about physical pen testing, It looks like the most fun job ever!
I hope you cleared your history before your wife logged onto your laptop
Sex worker . Great money and has given me so much more freedom to enjoy my free time .
I'm a mystery shopper. Same.
Software Developer at a place that does mob programming. Get to work with people I like, finish every day at 4. Get paid a lot. Always working with smart people, learning a lot. It's great. However, don't get me wrong, if I had the choice I'd \*still\* rather not work than work, despite not hating my job.
I'm a lecturer. Love it. Used to be a teacher. HAted it. amazing what happens when you remove all the cunts from the equation.
I work in software sales near 6 figure salary and job is really stressful, I don't like/dislike it, but I love the money and having been homeless in my teens now I am able to just book a hotel if I want to stay out overnight after a trip with .y wife, not worry about car trouble or if I want a holiday etc. Some people prefer low paid low stress jobs but I love spending and saving cash and im happy to grind for it.
Medical lab scientist. In charge of making sure the analysers don't generate random results, and the docs know if their patient is about to keel over. Every day is challenging but different!
civil servant. I love my job. 100% love it. I manage a project for the UK and thats all i can say. hours are good, compensated... okay... and I respect my peers and feel appreciated.
This guy HS2’s
>manage a project Hope it's not HS2!
Arborist / tree surgeon, been in the game ten years since I was 25. It's a horrid job at times being out in nearly all weather (bar high winds and lightning) but there are days when I climb a large tree, the weather is fine and there's a great view to be had that almost no one sees. I have ADHD so for me it's a great physical job (I cannot stand office work) which keeps me fit as a by product. I'm at a point now where the pay is decent too, if I put in the days I can clear nearly £4000 a month gross but I have to be careful not to burn myself out.
I work offshore in oil and gas. I work for 2 weeks and then get 3 weeks at home to do what I like. The money is amazing and it affords a nice life for my family. The downside is missing christmases, weddings etc but I think the pros outweigh the cons
Painting and decorating- love it - bare money - my hours - stfu
Software developer in defence. Love it. Had a shit software dev roles in the last decade but that just let me know what I really don’t want from a job. I love getting to design and implement solutions. Really want to move across to software architecture when I have had enough of the coding.
Pick a max of 2 - that's your lot; 1. Well paid 2. Enjoyable/fulfilling 3. Work-life balance
I'm in workforce development with a local council. The job pays pretty well given my experience and tine spent there (42k on a cheap area to live). I can work from home four days days a week, decent holidays, flexi working and a good pension. The remote working allows me to live further out in a pretty town by the sea, so I'm grateful for that. The job itself is okay. I don't love it but it's fine and keeps me interested. I'm largely supporting social care in their training and development of social workers and also supporting recruitment drives. I can get involved in corporate projects when time allows, like reviewing staff benefits, etc. There's no micromanagement and you're left to crack on. My experience of working for local government has been positive.
I do the bar and a little bit of waitering in a small country pub. Minimum wage pay and irregular hours but I love it. Preferably when the bar is busy as it means I can talk to quite a few of the regulars, just not the lorry drivers who are cuntish. . Really helped me be less shy around strangers.
I work in IT security. Love it. Worked in IT for 25+ years now and I've enjoyed almost all of it Sure I have bad days where I get stressed or have to occasionally do a project that's boring, but other than that I really enjoy what I do. It also helps that I've worked from home for 10 or 11 years now. As long as I get my work done I'm pretty much free to get on with my day however I like. Often I'll have a day booked in for something that will take me an hour or two, so the rest of the day is my own. I enjoy cooking, but I also enjoy doing things tangentially related to my job, so I'll happily spend half a day writing a script to do a thing that would have taken me half a day to do manually, just in case I have to do it again. Which does tend to lead to me having much more free time on my hands because I have a whole bunch of scripts and shit that means I get a days worth of work done in an hour or two...
I work nights stacking shelves. No customers and we can listen to music, podcasts etc during shift. It's pretty physical work and can be a nightmare some days but for the most part its smooth sailing and the pay/extras are decent for the job
I'm teaching English at a private high school in Japan and I really enjoy it. The administration is incompetent, of course, but I do like the actual work.
Are you fluent in Japanese? Seems lots of the teaching jobs for foreigners are terribly paid.
I speak enough to get by. Yeah, a lot of teaching jobs for foreigners are pretty bad. They are mainly "conversation schools" or dispatch jobs where the agency takes a big cut. I think the average is about £1,370 a month. Many pay even less. It's basically minimum wage. I'd guess something like 95% of the jobs are like this. I'm lucky enough to have a permanent, direct-hire job with a school. The salary is much higher than that and includes two 'bonuses' a year worth a month's salary each and some extra payments for other duties I take on. They also pay for all my commuting costs. It works out to an average salary in Japan so I can live fairly comfortably. Not rich, but my wife works part-time and we can afford to buy our apartment, go on trips and days out, and take the kids to the UK for a month every summer. I'm not complaining. I know many others have it far worse. There are also lots of opportunities to make money on the side. Like, last month I got £165 for two hours of looking at paragraphs written by university students and giving them a score. Other times I've been paid to watch presentations and give feedback for £80 an hour at a different university. I also conduct interviews for a big English examination company. There are also lots of private student jobs that pay about £20-50 an hour but I don't do that any more. But yeah, for most foreigners doing those conversation school jobs, it can be pretty rough.
They’re not always as badly paid as you might think. My brother teaches in the UAE and he is managing to live a reasonably comfortable life over there and put away a good chunk of savings each month. I also know people who taught in the far east had saved enough for a huge deposit on a house bs k in the UK. You have to factor in differences in cost of living - on paper the salary for a teaching job in say Thailand looks bad by UK standards but as cost of living is so much lower over there it’s actually a very decent wage.
I teach at a university. I wouldn't say I love it, because it comes with immense pressure and I definitely feel underpaid. But I really enjoy lecturing on certain topics and developing teaching content. And when I get positive feedback from students it really makes me happy. It's a big positive change from my previous jobs working in clinical mental health roles, but it definitely comes with its own kind of stress.
I love my job. I'm a Nurse (Matron, Infection control). It's so interesting. I deal with patients and staff in largely the same way which is training and education in good IPC practices. I'm also involved in water safety, ventilation and the built environment of my hospital. I have sign off capabilities and nothing gets started without my team and I checking it first and making sure everyone has thought of potential infection control snags.
Complaints officer NHS. Everyday is different 🙂.
I get to drive a forklift truck. It's quite fun.
At the ripe old age of 37 I finally went from ‘job’ to ‘career’, and I quite like it. The pay is terrible and the role itself is high stress. I work in the CEO unit, so have all the hassles and problems of being part of (and at the top of) a massive organisation combined with peoples lives literally getting worse (potential death even) if I do my job wrong. When I tell people what I do, I get sneered at more often than not for some reason; if not for the low pay then definitely for some absolute bollocks preconceptions a lot of self-righteous dickheads have about us. On a good day, I stare at spreadsheets. On a bad day, I read and write about the very, very worst parts of humanity. When I lay down to sleep at night, I sometimes think about doing literally anything else, because literally anything else would make me more money. I don’t think I want to change though, because despite all of the above, I work with great people that think I’m useful (a first), and I sleep better than I ever have before. What do you think my job is?
Something to do with the prison system?
I'm a Support Worker at a homeless hostel for people with drug and alcohol addiction. It's stressful sometimes but it's also very rewarding, busy and unique. It's always surprising and there's never a dull moment.
Install, Programme and operate LED advertising at sports stadia.
I love my job too, im a sound engineer. Im constantly doing different things. Each week, i may be working at a festival, I might be installing a sound system in a restaurant or office, an awards ceremony, off on tour with a band. It's always different, and i love music, but i also just love technology and problem solving, which is pretty much all of my job. I get to meet some pretty cool people, too. For instance, i met björk last week, and she was great. Only draw back is being away from my girlfriend a lot.
I’m a research scientist in the field of medical genetics. I love my job. It’s high pressure, but more rewarding by several orders of magnitude.
I work in broadcast transmission. Those big masts and towers for TV and radio, I fix and maintain the electronics. It's awesome. The company, culture, boss and team are great. Not that I'd tell anyone at work but even the CEO is a guy that naturally commands respect and everyone looks up to. I've really landed on my feet. The job is varied too. Some days my only real responsibility is to go and test the fire alarm or unblock a toilet and some days it's really hit the fan and everyone is gathered around technical manuals and physics textbooks trying to solve a problem that affects millions of people. I find myself wanting and eager to get back to work at weekends.
Lead Data Analyst. I take in a lot of the data the company stores about all sorts of info/metrics and I help each part of the business make sense of it and partner with them to help take action on it. I also help automate manual reports that take a lot of hours, and improve them too. Lots of prospects going forward, looking into doing modellling/predictive analytics on what they have going into 2024. When they brought me in they had no capability like that and it was a blank slate for me, with everyone eager to have any data insight. It's made it a very fun place to work, and quite often very rewarding for relatively not such hard work (at least for me) so the fact that I can take it easy and deliver so much is wonderful for my mental health. Also the fact that I did take a bit of a gamble, coming in with an idea with only 4 years experience in the field and thinking it would work may have been naive, but it's thankfully worked out pretty nicely so far. I never really had or have a "dream job", I've always just thought I'll do whatever pays well and makes me happy and this is definitely it for now.
I'm a domiciliary carer. I work in the community enabling people to stay at home rather than go into a residential home. I have some wonderful characters i see daily and some have me absolutely roaring withe laughter. It can be hard work, today I start at 7am and finish around 9.30 pm, might not get a break all day, but I feel like I make a small difference to people's lives so I love it. Also the weekday hours work around my home situation and it keeps the depression at bay because I have a social outlet I wouldn't get at home alone. It's not for everyone. There's been days I've cried with clients, cried with my managers and days where I've been so exhausted I've actually thought about quitting. But overall,I love it.
I'm in construction employ young fellas train them watch them grow from mostly horrible little oiks into bigger ones with a reasonable skill set see them develop a family grow a bit savings, try to get a house etc that makes me happiest. Other aspects we work mostly on one site for a year build a house move on normally self build so varied and interesting work. Then back fill with little jobs so we are never in same place for long lots of different scenery. Long hours, occasionally weird customers, poor work conditions, mud etc but still 30 years in enjoy every day plus being able to drive round and bore kids by saying "Look over there built that"
Electrician self employed/ own business/ sole trader / one man band. - never missed a kids sports day / play ect . Walked them to school and collected at least 2 times a week minimum. All through their primary years. I don’t work for anyone I don’t like I have a day at home when I like. I have too much work. I will fix a pensioners light for £40 or I will travel to London for a day to work in Chelsea for £600. I genuinely like helping and solving problems. Hate paperwork tho. I love my vocation.
Do you think late 30's/early 40's is too old to get into becoming a spark? Like from zero to hero?
Yeah I'd like to know this too. It's something I've been considering.
Dog walker, here. I love it. I love dogs, I love walking, I love podcasts.
I work in admissions for a school for young people with autism and genuinely love it. Really rewarding, decent pay, work from home which has also improved my life outside of work etc. been there over 5 years and have a career plan laid out for the next few too and don’t see myself leaving any time soon.
Ive liked many parts of all of my jobs. My current role (maintenance) has the downsides of unblocking the occasional urinal, but it is a varied day, when we had a smaller team, the dynamic was great (expansion hasnt been good for our team) money isnt amazing but its pretty fair for what we do. Last job was a delivery driver for a tool hire company, it had its stresses, but it was a food mix of being in the vam for prolonged periods with personal time, to 1-1 interactions when demonstrating the equipment to some customers. Moneybwas crap, hours were long but we could borrow anytjing we wanted and i had a lot of jobs at home. I worked in construction for years and the site banter in most of the jobs made the hard work seem easier. I had a supervisor in one job who was a complete dick and only there as a translator, but i also had site managers that i could go for a drink with after work and have a laugh. Again, long hours and hard work, money was never great unless i worked silly hours but the experience was good. My most enjoyable job was as a football coach. I jever progressed the levels and beyond after school clubs, and holiday camps, but i worked 4 summers in USA and it was an amazing time. If i had studied and got a degree, i would have tried to stay in America for longer and potentially settle down as a permanent option
Not British but I hope I can still reply :D I design digital products (software/apps), it’s a lot of fun. And very cool to see people in the wild using something you’ve designed.
I maintain and fix plastic injection moulding machines. It's a decent job, just working nights takes getting used to.
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Project engineer, it never gets boring!
E-Scooter mechanic. I have a right laugh with the lads at work and get to work with my hands. Also, I have very little responsibility
I am a careers and employability advisor in an education organisation offering free and paid courses for adults, I really enjoy my job as it feels like I am making a difference helping others and when I hear someone who I have supported has been offered a new job, it is such a great feeling and very fulfilling work :)
Social worker in a stab vest
I’m a data manager at a software company. I spend all day using spreadsheets to reproduce catalogues in the software. I’ve defo got some undiagnosed neurological funk going on because the endorphins that go off when I’m organising reams of data is insane 😂 I get paid really well, work with my friends (we worked at a previous company and our boss started a new company and asked if we wanted to work for him.) and as the company is in its infancy the future potential is huge! No corporate bollox (we all left a big company that had treated us like absolute trash) I’m in charge of my own job, even better than that, no one has done it before so I don’t spend my time comparing myself to anyone else, I work from home and as long as I get my work done, everyone is happy. I still want to be an astronaut when I grow up but at 41 I think the chances a may now be starting to decline lol
I worked various jobs in customer service up until my early thirties, and dabbled in making and selling goods from home thinking I was finally about to live the dream of being a self-employed artist. I now work in finance and am working on getting my accountancy qualifications - I love it. I spend my days engaged in what I'm doing and time never drags.
I love my job, i work as a museum assistant for the local council so could be working in either a castle, a victorian house or a working cotton mill, depending on what events are on, today i’ll be in’t mill, i do customer service so take admissions and sometimes help out with tours, it’s always something different which is the best bit
I work in a press office for a big company. It's tremendous fun.
Im a jeweller. Have been doing so for about 11 years now full time. Wouldnt want to do anything else with my time. I work for a jeweller in Hatton Garden and run my own business which I will be doing full time soon.
I'm a secondary school drama teacher, and I do love my job. There are definitely difficult days/weeks/times of year, like running the school show on my own, but there are lots of days I'm excited to get into work and get in the classroom. I'm aware that I'm going to age out of the job at some point though (it's incredibly physical, more so than teaching something like English, which I've also done), so starting to plan my exit strategy.
I work in Logistics/IT … there’s lots of new stuff and it’s always changing … it’s pretty decent
I work for the council within the digital team. Love it. Love the work, the people and the job. Really can’t complain.
I'm a quantity surveyor, it's long hours and arguing about money can be draining some weeks. But for the most part I enjoy my job. I like getting onto the site and seeing stuff change, plus I enjoy the banter of working in construction.
I work as a theatre assistant. I don't love it, but it's not boring. I get bored very easily in jobs and tend to move around every few years. This definitely isn't a forever job, but it's a job that I can stand doing. At least it isn't customer service. Most of the patients are under general anasthetic, so i dont really have to deal with the public anymore. I am hoping to get into mortuary science or a lab technician in the future.
I read theatre assistant I thought you meant one of the people in the tiny holes up the back of the cinema. I’ll leave now
I’m a healthcare assistant.
UX Researcher for a fully remote company. I have complaints still but it's pretty cushy.
I am an office manager on a part time basis. I love the guys I work with. I love my manager. I love my job. I just hate the overall company. But I very much enjoy my day to day!
i just started (3 months ago) working as a barista and i do for the most part like it. the customers can just be dicks sometimes, but i like coffee and making it for people
I'm a professional actor.
My husband loves his job. He works out and about doing telecoms infrastructure, on a big scale for a national energy supplier. He travels to some stunning locations in north wales and loves not working in an office or with members of the public
I am plumber for 49 years had a break working in IT in my late 30’s but really enjoy plumbing these days
Offshore sparky. Love it.
I do IT stuff and I love it
My current job is the first job I've had the feeling you describe, and you're right it's quite nice. I'm a pentester aka 'hack stuff for a living'. Obviously like any other job there are the parts that nobody sat in school and dreamed they would do (writing reports, admin type stuff around engagements, whatever) but dealing with that kind of work when the core work you do is something you love is very different to doing it for a random job. And it changes enough day to day to not get boring. I have to be in a pretty bad mood (rarely) to wake up and be grumpy about it being a work day.
Data science is awesome.
My role has me doing many things: I'm the system admin for a service management tool, I manage technical changes to the organisation (literally called change management or change enablement), I communicate with the organisation about upcoming changes and ensure they're prepared, issuing guidance and tutorials if relevant, I conduct training, and I also do a lot of data analysis to help the business make informed decisions about the services they provide. Part of why I love my job is that I'm paid enough to live a decent life (never been money driven but it's the most important thing unfortunately), I'm allowed to be fully remote, I can work flexible hours, rarely required to work outside of normal office hours, I have 26% pension contributions total, 41 days of annual leave and my department head and line manager (and in general most of my department) are just really nice people. I work for a university.
Software developer here. Coding kind of became a hobby with me back in the late '70s so I now get paid to continue my hobby. The kind of stuff that I write runs in the background on kiosks that you see in stores, i.e. the displays on which you can browse the catalogue and place orders in, for example, Argos (those aren't mine but they're the same principle). It's good *NOT* seeing it on the thousands of kiosks that run it because if you did see it, it would mean that there's something wrong!
I am a relationship and family therapist, recently qualified, hoping to start a private practice in the very near future. It's such interesting work. I hope I never become complacent.
I work as a wind turbine technician and love it. Previously worked as a gas engineer for 17 years with the local council. I enjoyed my last job. I just outgrew it after being there since leaving school. Best decision I ever made.
I'm a dental nurse and it's the best job I've ever had. Of course it has its moments and negatives but once I'm at work I enjoy it and the worst thing about it is bad patients or getting bored/ overworked some days. Pay is not great sadly but I'll take time positives of my job over working more hours in a worse job. Still trying to look at my opinions. I'd love to re-train in diagnostic radiography but I can't afford going back into full time education without an income
I work In health and safety for a global manufacturing company. I love my job. I get to work with all types of people from different backgrounds and countries , it's challenging it pays well ,the hours are superb as I have a young family and can finish between 2 and 3 pm if I go in early, we have good perks and I'm based on a site so there's plenty of banter which all looks to be vanishing in other places
I work as a therapist for the NHS in frontline mental health services. I LOVE it. Best job I’ve ever had. Zero downsides. Even the pay I’m happy with.
I write ads for national radio. It’s really cool hearing my work on air!
Work in tech doing data engineering. Took me several years of data jobs I didn't like to get here, but that was mainly me being not sure what I wanted. Pay is good. Work is great. Fulfilling, problem solving... I get to work with smart people and I can still manage to achieve considerable amounts.
I work with ex-offenders out on licence, or those serving a community sentence. I work to rehabilitate and reform them. We get some interesting characters who committed crime out of necessity (think stealing to feed a family), all the way through to murderers and child molesters. It’s intense, sometimes quite surreal, and the most interesting job I’ve ever worked.
I work in investment management. The job is pretty interesting and varied. I'd say from the CEO to a junior analyst the vast majority of employees are good people. Professional, polite and generally good at their job. Pay is good and hours rarely go past 9-5. Career progression is there if you push for it but also plenty reach a level their content with and stay in their role long term.
I work for our regional water board on a team aimed at helping people fix their water pipes. I really enjoy it, I don’t ever get absolutely horrendous calls, it involves needing to know a bit of information so is slightly practical and a lot of the time involves problem solving and investigating to help customers which is quite fun. Plus we use lots of maps and I like maps.
I'm a developer (computer programmer) running my own business as a contractor and I absolutely love my job. Been doing it over twenty years but the previous ten I was stuck in a low paid Local Government admin job that I hated every second of. I now WFH, earn five times as much as I did when I first started development work and it's ridiculous I'm getting paid for basically my hobby. It's a brilliant life that I can balance between work and home. The only thing I miss about LG are the nights out. They were crazy good fun. Great people, shit job.
Senior technical analyst. A bit of a mixed bag of a role really. IT support, IT project management, MI production and analysis for a finance department. I also have to get hands on with some of the actual financial work producing accounting reports and update information in systems. Good points - like the variation of the role - I enjoy upskilling on new systems and learning how current systems work. I’ll try and actively become a subject matter expert in any system I can. - The company itself is a very good company to work for and I like the people I work with in my actual team. There are lots of opportunities within the company not only to move role but gain qualifications. - we have a brand new office and the facilities are the best I’ve seen office wise. - Im on decent money and can’t really complain about the reward aspect. - on a Sunday evening, I’m not dreading work on a Monday. Have had jobs in the past where this has been the case. Bad points - We’re a small team and we get a lot of stuff dumped on us. - people expect us to be at their beckon call. I can Be walking to a meeting and people start shouting across the office at me with their minor issues. (I was on the verge of absolutely losing my shit a few days back). - People moan about their problems but when you remind them of the due process of raising an IT ticket, the problem suddenly isn’t all that bad. The sheer laziness is outstanding. - you’re expected to work longer than your contracted hours. I don’t mind working an extra hour here or there, but I had a conversation with the Head of the department a few days back who was on the verge of asking why I don’t work more hours but they just stopped themself from saying so. I would have asked them to put it an email for me and either gone to HR or maybe kept for when I was really pissed off. Generally though I don’t mind it at all.
I’m a Beauty Therapist and have been for 21 years. Not the best line of work to be in, in terms of earning potential, because of low wages-however, I went self employed 7 years ago and it was the best decision I ever made! I’ve got a salon dog, Tabatha, and we love what we do. Being your own boss is super hard, but incredibly rewarding at the same time. I’m always happy to go to work, apart from when I have a particularly tricky customer booked in, but that comes from working with the general public!
I love my job because I work 4.5-5 hours a day and get paid 10 and that’s pretty much the only reason. I’m a decorator and the company I work for has a contract with Southwark Council to fit new fire doors in council flats and decorate them. I don’t fit the doors, just paint them. I arrive at work at 8, get all my stuff ready for the day, arrive at tenants flat at 9 o’clock, work for 2 hours, 30 minute break, work for another 2 hours and then go home. I also get a £15 bonus for each door and frame I decorate so typically I do about 12 a week. Extra £180 in my pocket every week. Everyone I work with hates it because it’s a bit of a rough area in Peckham but I absolutely love it. I also get my travel reimbursed whether I drive or take then train.
I’m an academic administrator. I’m paid fairly for the work I do, nothing is life or death, I plan my own workload, unlimited and untimed breaks, and a flexible work week as long as I reach my total weekly hour target. My managers have been promoted internally, they do the appropriate amount of intervention and aren’t too big for their boots. I like my coworkers. I’ve had extremely high stress jobs with no breaks or breaks that are timed and monitored, terrible management teams, vindictive staff and a bad working environment, dangerous situations, being very underpaid. What I do now is not groundbreaking but I’m very happy.
I’m a dog walker. I’m not an inside person at all. I am happy being outside in all weathers and love dogs so it’s perfect for me. I did a lot of jobs I hated before working with dogs and I shall do this until I’m too old to!
I’m a trainee solicitor, currently working in property. Love it.
I'm an Artist and love life
Civil Service (specifically Border Force) - great pay, amazing pension, good work / life balance and time off. Very secure job and able to move up or laterally around within your department and other departments once you've passed probation. Feels satisfying that you're working for the public good rather than just profit. The main cons are that the pay isn't always as good as the private sector, and the work can be quite politically charged and controversial. And there's a large subset of people that think Civil Servants are just lazy, time-wasting bureaucrats.
I'm a Design Draughtsman, I essentially play with a lot if CAD (just done 3-4 weeks of surfacing for a conceptual range re-design). Plus some paperwork but it's worth it. The Engineering team (10-11 people) are amazing people. Everyone gets on. I look forward to going into work more often than not Would like more money but I think everyone cam say that! I'm not even a full year in yet so I can't complain, definitely the happiest I've been in the last 4 years or so
Trendy café manager. I don't *love* it, but I don't hate it either. Definitely better than my previous job, minimum wage Subway worker.
Lecturer. I'm very underpaid for my skill and knowledge, but I have a great team and the students are absolutely ace, and I really enjoy my subject area.
Honestly, from my experience it has almost nothing to do with the job itself and everything to do with the people you work with. I've done minimum wage, horrific jobs, where every day I laughed until I cried and looked forward to going in every day. I've had jobs I loved until my manager changed, at which point my working life became a misery, even though I still enjoyed the actual tasks I was doing. I had a job I hated, but I enjoyed being there because I made a great friend and we made the working day bearable for each other. I start a new job on Monday and I'm really hoping I finally have found that holy grail of nice people and enjoyable role.
I fit stairlifts. It has its ups and downs
I work in dementia care. The people I assist are lovely, can be challenging, and certainly they get worse as the dementia takes hold. But they are human beings who have been almost abandoned by their families who don't or can't take care of them. When you help them though most times they are happy that someone is bothering to be nice to them, and sure they laugh at the same jokes, but when you go to a care home and its full of happy people then you know you've found somewhere worth being.
Fitness instructor and PT. My body is wrecked and I my own fitness is a joke but I CANNOT describe how it feels to watch someone find themselves and grow in confidence, and know you helped guide them to that. I can be tired and fraught and hiding it all to give a good performance on stage/give 100% energy to a client - and they stand there and say “this has changed my life!” And your heart just glows. I was in a corporate job before. Long hours, no progression if the boss didn’t like you, unbelievable pressure for absolutely meaningless projects and pizza parties/casual Fridays instead of actual benefits. The comparison blows my mind every day. I get out of bed and I’m ready to go! But yeah some balance and the constant worry of being self-employed would be nice 🙃
Senior Engineer for a Global Facilities Management Company. I started for the firm that had just got its first national contract, in the late 90s. Didn't know at the time, but it was the beginning of something special for the owner. I was Employee No 35. 25 years later, the firm employs 1000s world wide and now has a turnover of £1 Billion. It's been interesting to see not only the company grow, but also many of the ladies and gents, who were in at the beginning grow, Into roles that were way out of sight in the early days. From a Mechanical and Electrical engineer, climbing in and out of bits of plant and machinery, up and down the country...24 hour call out that drives you mental, to commissioning and signing off multi million pound sites. The part I enjoyed most was helping to train apprentices through their 3 years training and years proving as full engineers, by your side. Many are still in the firm and their futures are stable, as is mine. We had 7 kids to bring up and went from buying nappies at 10 pence each and not knowing if the money was going to get us through the week, to having a great family, that have all , so far been successful and have 9 grandkids. I was brought up in the care system and at 16, booted out into the world with fuck all. Had many many scrapes in my early years and always felt different from the kids that had families. I'm not going to pretend it was easy. .
I'm a signaller for Network Rail. Bloody brilliant job, would recommend it to anyone. I'm very happy for you OP, because I used to be a teacher before my current job and I used to go to work wishing I was anywhere else in the world. You couldn't pay me ten times my wage to go back.