911 dispatcher
Probably a solid 6-7/10 (10/10 is wealthy retiree)
Long hours, but more days off, my area is relatively safe, so we don’t get too many crazy incidents happening but there’s still always something interesting happening. I work overnights which isn’t for everyone but I dig it. The call volume where I am is manageable, you’re not constantly bouncing directly from one call to the next, usually you get a couple minutes between calls. My agency isn’t too anal about you reading or playing around on your phone, etc. between calls as long as you’re not at your desk, not bothering anyone, and ready to put it down and answer the next call when it rings (typed this comment out between answering about 3 calls.) Solid benefits (pension! How many jobs have an actual pension anymore?) ok-ish pay. I like my supervisors and agency well enough.
Definitely not for everyone, we have a lot of turnover, pay could be much better, but I can see myself sticking with it for the next 20-30 or so years until I can retire.
So I’m a technician at a research lab. 8/10
The benefits are absolutely amazing. We do a lot of government work and have one of the highest budgets, so very good job security.
The work does get pretty technical, but it’s all OJT. And they give plenty of time to get qualified. The work is a lot of setting up expirements for scientists. Lot of mechanical installations and a hefty amount of computer operations for gas operations and cryogenics.
We work 24/7 (the lab). I work 13 hour shifts 3/4 days a week. One week is 3, the next is 4,the next is 3. Rinse and repeat. So i get a 3 or 4 day weekend every week. That’s absolutely beautiful to me.
My main complaint is that we don’t have enough work to actually fill 24 hours a day. I work the night shift, so I have quite a bit of down time. I don’t like downtime personally. If I’m gonna sit and watch YouTube, I’d much rather be in the comfort of my home. But I’m hourly, so I can’t leave. For some people, that’s the fucking jackpot, but I like staying busy.
Im prior military so it’s very nice seeing how much they care about making our jobs easier. There’s schedule pressure, but management does an extremely good job about not letting that trickle down. So i never feel rushed to get stuff done. It’s lots hours but fairly stress free.
Research lab, open 24/7, lots of government contracts
I’m dying to know more about what kind of research they’re doing.
Lots of different experiments. They are all a little different. But it’s fundamental physics. How particles and waves interact in very extreme circumstances.
I don’t really want to give much more detail than that because it’ll be super easy to figure out where, and I don’t wanna dox myself lol
Sr Quality assurance engineer. Specializing in ui and api automation. Also admin over the qa/dev lab.
Devs/Jr qa. Its like herding cats mixed in with toddlers eating crayons. While telling support to do their fucking job. I’m not doing your job too while you browse youtube/play games. And no I’m not pocket IT support. File a fucking ticket you fucking pinecone.
All this while raining hellfire down on dev in the form of bug reports.
6/10 up from 5/10 because they still employee me, I got a raise and they started bringing free snacks and drinks into the break room.
edit I’m a fucking pussy compared to Fondots comment. Sorry man. I would probably headbutt a pencil over doing that.
I’m an educator for middle school and college students (different jobs), I coach speech/debate. They’re both rough for different reasons but I still love my jobs.
Middle schoolers, I don’t have to put too much work into my lesson plans which is nice. However they test boundaries and have a ton of energy but when they behave its my favorite job.
College students requires a lot more mental work but the topics we discuss are much more fulfilling. However, I’ve had much more issues with women in my classes getting creeped on… Racists causing issues with other students… Etc. It’s more political in nature.
Engineer working in product development. 9/10, would go this route again. The actual creative design & engineering part is tons of fun, though it’s only like 30% of the job. The other 70% is mostly generating documentation of one kind or another. I don’t mind, though. Seeing my work out in the world is endlessly rewarding. Plus the pay is great, and I have been fortunate to work with a lot of great people at companies that actually give a damn about their employees.
Technical artist for real-time. Mainly vr. 9/10. I think it’s the most interesting job in the world, where art and tech meet, my two favourite things. Plus I get to work from home on cool stuff, and the turnover of new projects several times a year keeps it fresh. I think the worst part of the job is that it’s a bit niche so you can’t really talk about your work with anyone out of the industry. There’s no frame of reference. My friends and family don’t really know what I do.
As a 3D character I’d expect people to easily understand what I do. Even gamers usually confuse modeling for animation. Even my parents don’t get it, and they watched me working on stuff for years.
At this point I don’t care if non-industry peoplr get it.
I’m a software developer, as a kid I always saw myself as being an architect or a director. But by chance I took on the idea of doing computer science at uni because I could actually get a job with that pretty easy. I loved it. Completely clicked with me and my puzzle solving brain. Some people long for their young school days but for me Uni was the best and that’s just because I thoroughly enjoyed what I was learning. Been in the industry for about 6ish years, maybe less, maybe more. I’m now a Lead but I still enjoy every chance I get to flex my brain muscles at cracking something with code. 9/10.
Only a 9 because there are still “those moments” that any other developer will know exactly what I mean.
I work IT doing linux administration stuff for a research company. I’d say its a 7-8/10. Some days are difficult. I know a good amount, but don’t really have anyone to guide me, which is difficult. I’m the most experienced Linux person here, and I have ~4 years experience, so…
What’s nice is it’s a really relaxed environment and pay’s not bad. Just not a great place to learn/progress in my linux administration skills
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