Do any of you have (or had) a job or career that was really intimidating and took a lot of time and stress to learn?
What were the hardest things about it?
Have any of you had a job where you had to work long hour days? How long? How do you get through them without going insane?
Please respond
My job is a no brainer kinda job but I deal with baby boomers all day long. I usually get 9 hour shifts and I hate it. The only way I can get through it is by zoning out and just think of personal shit like my life problems
What do you do?
I do customer service in a grocery store, it’s in a retirement area so we get a lot of older people and they just shit up the place.
yes. I went from a technical telesales job in one industry to a more technical face-to-face sales job in a different industry.
I was stressed the fuck out for a year, but I'm still around and I'm starting to get some traction with some good accounts. The biggest reason I haven't been fired is that my boss knew exactly what he was getting when he hired me and is willing to train and is a pretty cool dude. There's no way in hell I would have succeeded in the job with a shitty boss. I still haven't succeeded yet but I'm getting there.
Just keep working at it.
What are the hardest things about it? I'm being trained without exp too, which makes me want to try even harder. The long shifts are my biggest concern right now though.
MD80 F/O here.
The hardest thing about my career was by far getting licensed and rated. The requirements for an ATP seemed completely inconceivable when I first began flying. But after flying for several years, building time as a CFII at the school I graduated from, I eventually got my 160b at 1000hrs. Logged more time, was eventually hired by Allegiant to fly MD80s. Transitioning to the 320 family soon. We fly multiple legs per day, which can be stressful at times. I'd love to be a long haul guy and have plenty of stopover time, but I've got a long way to go in my career before I'll be in long haul jets.
Flying itself is rewarding. Never a shortage of things to do in the flight deck, and the view can't be beat. It can be boring at times, especially on the last leg of the day... it really drains you out. But it's what I chose, and I wouldn't choose anything else.
How nervous were you getting into it? Just lookinh at the control panels is intimidating
if you're doing retail/grocery stores, I would not worry at all about not being skilled. Unless you're doing management or oil changes at Walmart these are low/no skill jobs.
It all seems intimidating at first, but everything quickly becomes familiar. There's always uneasy feelings flying a new aircraft for the first time, but thanks to the training we receive, we're very familiar with the aircraft and the cockpit before we ever get a chance to sit in it. The instrument panel probably does look intimidating to the untrained eye, but in reality, it's not too complex at all.
I was scared shitless my first time in a jet powered aircraft. But hey, I don't even give it a passing thought anymore. SS,DD.
how many hours per week?
All depends. Typically, I log between 20 and 25 flight hours per week. We get paid by duty hours though, which includes time spent at the airport, on the ramp, etc. This number is tougher to estimate and can vary wildly, but as a careful number I'd say about 32, 33? Currently making roughly 151$ per duty hour.
that's insane, I'm jelly as fuck. to me $16hr is a lot.
Allegiant pays very nicely compared to many operators. That's the only reason I haven't taken a hike yet - no room for expansion in an airline that only operates narrowbodies.
But remember, it's all relative. I spent around 60k to even get the licencing and certs to fly airliners.
I write software for a living. Took me about a year to get the skills to be hired, and another two to have the confidence while on the job to feel like I could qualify to work at other companies.
The easiest part is spending the fat paychecks though. Don't ever let someone tell you that it's impossible to spend $7000 buying random shit every month, because it really is.
I manage a movie theater. Not my ideal job. I really want to get into something else. I'm in my late 20's and want to do something more meaningful.
Hardest part of the job is dealing with shit when stuff goes wrong/breaks. It was also pretty intimating being put in charge of everyone and everything.
I usually work 35-40 hour weeks.
Even for that pay, I wouldn't have the confidence to do your job. that's really cool to me what you do.
what was the hardest part? or parts? do you work many hours?
I'm op and in my late twenties too. just got hired to a line of work I literally know nothing about and they said it will be intimidating and a lot of learning, and I'm an anxious as fuck person in general so I'm losing my mind...but am thankful. supposedly it's a great company to work for. I've been making $11 the past 6 years and this new place is starting me at $15.75 so it's a big difference. i just hate I'll be on 10hr shifts 4 days a week, I'm used to short shifts...
Bro I would love 4 10s. I've always worked 5 8s and just found out we're switching to 12 hour shifts and I hate the idea. I don't know how I'll even have time to eat and shower, let alone sleep. They keep telling me, "it's great you get 3 or 4 days off every week" but I'm not so sure I'll like it. But I don't have a choice and the pay is too good to leave.
I think people can adapt to just about anything, we have to at least try. I'm thinking about quitting but I doubt I'll find anything else that's nearly as good in terms of pay and benefits, so I'm going to give it a try. If it really isn't working for me after a month or two then I'll decide if I need to leave. But trying new things can be good, who knows maybe it'll be better.
Yeah I went from like $13 to $17. So it was a big jump (at least for me)
I'm pretty anxious too and was intimidated when I first started. I would have panic attacks about making sure everything was right. Now I'm just chilling. Just doing cruise control until I can find something better.
But if they told you it would be intimating and a lot to learn. Then you shouldn't worry too much. It just takes time to get used to it. And if you fuck up, just don't be too hard on yourself. Cause its all a learning experience.
what do you do?
there's no way in hell i could do 12hr shifts regularly!
I work in a microbiology lab. I went to school for it, the difficulty level was medium, could be harder, could be easier. Getting a job after school was the hard part, most labs pay shit even for people with degrees where I live. After a few years I worked my way up and eventually got a job that paid at least a decent amount. Now I'm just happy to be employed using my degree and doing something I am interested in.
The hours can be quite long, depending on what you do. For me, overtime is often required. They don't really ask, and it's theoretically not required, but you need to put in extra hours to accomplish all the work they want done. Sometimes you have to go in at weird times, work weekends, nights, etc. It all depends on the job of course. Hospitals and manufacturing places usually have 24 hour shifts and you can start out on nights and hopefully work your way back to normalcy. Some independent companies keep normal hours, but usually pay less in my experience.
I only get through it because I am doing what I truly love. I don't mind working hard because it's what I'm passionate about. Honestly that's my biggest motivator, also I don't want to get fired. I listen to music while I work, that helps me get pumped up and stay positive. It can be hard sometimes though, I get really drunk/high pretty much any time I'm not at work to cope with the stress. Most of my colleagues have anxiety or are depressed. Still looking for answers myself honestly. Good thread OP.
here
I'm hoping I get promoted before I spend a long time doing it and not have to do that shift anymore. I've already accepted I may have to do it for a few months, but I really don't want to for more than a year. By then I'll have enough experience I can hopefully go elsewhere. I don't have high hopes at the moment.
thats good you like what you do at least. i havent found anything im passionate about that would make a living. i had an interview for a job i really wanted but it not only was low-pay but there would be no raises or benefits at all. i feel bummed i cancelled the interview but taking the other job was smarter
i don't know how to destress going to work and being there as a newbie. i have anti-anx meds but they make me a little tired and zoned out, plus i will need redbull to get me through the long shifts. I will be a retarded, spaghetti spilling mess
I work in marketing and I manage millions and millions of media dollars on a daily basis. I fucking hate everything about my life, because the stress is backbreaking. I make very good money. I am not used to it.
I'd give up everything I could to go backward and make less money to be happier, but no one will let me stop, because my skillset is now too important.
no one will let you? why can't you just leave? and what is miserable about it all?
Anywhere I go, I will be asked to use the skills I have developed, unless I just lie and pretend I haven't had a job I years. In my company, I can't backslide, because they don't have the resources they need, and won't hire anyone else.
I am constantly at risk of monitoring so much money that I could be fired any moment, and completely ruin my entire career. I work for a company that nearly anyone in the world would recognize.
I frequently fantasize about getting into a car accident so I don't have to go in. I'm drunk right now.
I work in 7 hours and will get a couple hours of sleep and try to hide the booze on my breath and pretend I wish I wasn't doing something else while I go into my 9 am meeting with my team where I need to try to convince one of my direct reports that her life isn't worthless and that our jobs are truly enriching.
At lunch I will go drink and come back to ignore something like 277 emails and try to answer them over the weekend. Where they will keep stacking up. I'm also behind on at least a month's reporting on 3 different projects and have been assigned 4 more markets in the past week.
This is why they put suicide netting around Japanese buildings
I'm set to graduate in a year and I want to work in marketing but I've heard it's really hard to break into without inside help.
Do you have any recommendations on getting a job? Alternatively would you recommend steering clear in favor of something less stressful and shitty?
Did you get a degree in CS?
I'm thinking about majoring in CS because I enjoy it, my grandfather was in it for 30 years, and my social skills are ok but that being the center of my job would make me kms.
Have only had a moderate amount of experience in C and Python tho.
damn, i have felt this way from jobs but never for good reason like you...
Yes
I was apprentice and now employed at a factory that makes puffed lava rocks
I have dissasembled equipment 20 yards up in the air on a snowing winter night (about -15 degrees C)
I have had to hack minivan sized lava-rocks into bits with steel rods and big hammers
I have had to learn to operate the machines from the control room where errors can cost hundreds of thousands of euros worth of damage
I have had to litterally run around the whole factory after a power shortage because the PLCs turned into error mode (the process is constant, so any standstill can cause major losses of production)
I had 40 hours of overtime last month and litterally felt like I was working constantly and it wore me down (but now I have the deposit for a summer house, so there was a carrot at the end)
It's tough and hard, but also rewarding and it pays well and me and my collegues (all men) have sick bants and jokes all the time, and because the proces is so complicated, the bosses kinda fear us who know our stuff and I can basically talk back without them even correcting me.
that sounds fucking horrible, god damn dude.
I got out of law school and started my own firm. Hardest part was years of little money while having ice and kids. Hours are pretty sweet though.
>Do any of you have (or had) a job or career that was really intimidating and took a lot of time and stress to learn?
Agriculture.
>What were the hardest things about it?
Maintaining crops, the stress of bad weather ruining a crop, learning how to avoid killing myself around farm equipment.
>How long? How do you get through them without going insane?
5-12 hours daily, depending on how many things have to be done. The physical labor and sunshine keeps me sane, but only barely.
i worked 12 hours on a digsite for many months
the temp was abot 30-38 in shade, duno under the sun, we had no shade
you basicly have to dig and if you find anything, dont ruin it
the stress is you need to advance but if you ruin anything, you get scolded or fired, its pretty heavy labour
but i dont understand why would i go insane, i like working, i was really young, like ppl here
i was a skinny, white boy without any experience but i wanted money, so started working, they gave me a chance, my very first day i got a sunstroke, so vomited the night but then i went to work again in the morning
i met some great ppl, i got jacked, i got a nice tan and also a big boobied hottie who started sleeping with me who i met there
i would do it all over again if not for the money, because this isnt something you can live on
my days consisted of getting up 5, travel to work for 2 hours, work 7 to 18, stop at the pub on the way back, drink 2-10 beers and get home around 20-23, shower, sleep, 6 days a week
bump, please guys this cheers me up
12 hrs for how many days per week? Sounds awful.
What the fuck how did you afford to get into that?
i also want to know. and when you first did training, what were the hardest things to learn or get used to?
We may have to figure this out ourselves user
>Do any of you have (or had) a job or career that was really intimidating and took a lot of time and stress to learn?
I ran a nuclear reactor on a ballistic missile submarine
>What were the hardest things about it?
The years of engineering school and exams were hard, but it was actually working for a couple of my bosses that were the hardest. One was very demanding, but fair, but another I honestly think was a sociopath.
>Have any of you had a job where you had to work long hour days? How long
Underway I typically had 4-6 hours of sleep a night, and about another 2 hrs a day for eating and working out. The rest of the time was working or studying.
>How do you get through them without going insane?
One hour at a time. Just concentrate on the next task you have to do and then do it.
are you serious? how can you live like that?
I once was a furniture delivery guy. We worked from 6am to 10pm when it's busy. 5 or 6 days a week. I could keep this up for a few months then I'd burn out.
Now. I do something that took a really long time to learn and is really difficult. Not physically demanding but mentally and emotionally so. They say only 5% roughly are successful at it. I wouldn't recommend it honestly.
100% true
I became somewhat OCD, for example I had different hardness of lead for my pencil for different tasks and I would swap them out.
>how can you live like that?
I decided that life was too short and I actually wanted to see my family. So I left the Navy and got a different job.
I am proud of what I accomplished. I did some amazing things in very difficult circumstances and never got anyone killed. Damn close once though, but the mechanic noticed there was still hydraulic pressure on the valve before he unscrewed it too far.
Anyway, I do not regret leaving it and I did not encourage any of my kids to do it for a living.
>Do any of you have (or had) a job or career that was really intimidating and took a lot of time and stress to learn?
Prison officer (UK)
>What are the hardest things about it?
Prison, prisoners, other officers and civilian staff
>Have any of you had a job where you had to work long hour days? How long? How do you get through them without going insane?
I once worked 0645 until 1045, the closest thing I had to a break was taking a piss and then drinking some water from a tap.
I would work 10 days on, 4 off
Latest I've finished was 0200 the next day.
Longest I've stayed awake was 29 hours because of shifts going from nights to days.
Yes, I work on tools that cost as much as a Ferrari. Not only that but if the tools fuck up they cost my company or other companies potential millions of dollars. It's gas and oil related work by the way. I wouldn't say there was a hard thing about it other than just learning to pay attention to detail and really take pride in my work. Which are frankly things you should be doing in a career orientated job anyways. I started green and didn't know shit so there was a massive learning curve. On top of that I started in the most difficult department my company has to offer. I used to literally sweat doing really technical things that required a lot of patience and precision. I knew there was potential for a lot of money so I stuck at it and made sure to do my best and it's paid off. I started at 17/hour and now I'm at 30/hour. I'll probably bump up again to around 35 by the end of this year.
I'll work 12 hour days sometimes, and as long as it's a busy day it really goes by pretty quickly and you don't notice. Also knowing I'm getting a lot of over time is nice too. Most of my work hours are tied to work load. So I don't really have long days where I'm not doing anything. I do drink lots of coffee though.
I'm a lawyer, which used to be kind of a big deal. Judge Judy, Nancy Grace and 10 zillion TV advertisements for car wreck lawyers have done a lot to damage the integrity of my profession.
I've pulled a number of all-nighters. School was long. Student loan debt has been a real burden. Most days are normal length, but you take a lot home with you, like you think about your cases while you're in the shower, watching TV, having dinner with a friend. Becoming a lawyer changes how you think and I'm not always sure if a lawyer's way of thinking is a very happy way of thinking. So, I guess in my profession we all do go a little insane in the sense that we think differently than we did before. Also, I deal with the poor a lot. There are these life traps people get themselves into over and over and over. You get to where you can smell it on them - literally. I can smell a meth addict, a doper, an alcoholic, etc. Fat/pervert/liar types often have a similar smell. There are all sorts of little profiles like that you develop or yourself to understand your clients. It translates into your personal life and ruins all your relationships.
what do you do now?
I'm proud of you, I'm not even kind of cut out for that kind of work.
i would literally pass out from a 29hr shift. being an officer looks confusing just to learn radio codes and control boards and shit.
i could live easy on just $17/hr. idk if it's the similar to your work but I tried getting work as metal cutter and the interviewer basically told me to fuck off.
would you try another career someday?
>19555021 (You)
>would you try another career someday?
It would be really hard to start at the bottom and work up again. If I were financially set up, I could see myself trying something else, but only from a position of financial strength and only something I could do on my own. You can't really work alone for 20 years and then go get some job - your mind just doesn't work that way after awhile.
Yeah, I’m still in training tho, but soon to be a commercial pilot
>Do any of you have (or had) a job or career that was really intimidating and took a lot of time and stress to learn?
>What were the hardest things about it?
I became a civil engineer. The hardest part was learning all the undergrad stuff, the physics and calculus and dynamics and other stuff that I NEVER USE.
The hardest thing about the job is dealing with construction contractors. They come from a different world than college boys. But I spent some time in that world too before I became an engineer, so it was a piece of cake.
It's a good job. It's easy and you get to be outside about half the time. The money is great too.
how stressful and intimidating is the training initially?
how many hrs per week?
It’s actually not too stressful at the beginning because you have an instructor with you. But later on in training you have to do flights alone, so weather conditions can be a stressful factor. As well as all of the aircraft incidents in the news lately, it creates more stress
>There are these life traps people get themselves into over and over and over
Can you tell me about this? Not op btw
>151$ per duty hour
Is that a typo or are you indeed making 150k+ a year
elaborate please
It's nothing you haven't heard, but I see it's effects day in and day out. People make all kinds of stupid mistakes, particularly 17-23 year olds, but the mistakes follow them. Early pregnancy, marrying too young, drugs, drinking, debt, dropping out of school with no plan, parents who enable endless childhood, getting hung up on certain ideas... Life seems to work better with some balance, try to be reasonable well balanced, roll with the punches but make something of yourself, stay off drugs and alcohol, and don't get hung up on any particular type of thinking.
And the problems really happen around 17-23. People who smoke a joint at home at 25 don't seem to run into problems like the young ones do.
I worked as a chemical engineer for a startup Biotech company. They offered me a low-level position straight out of my internship, and I dropped out of college to work for them... within 4 years I had worked myself into 'Manager of Special Operations', which basically meant I lead a team in designing and testing new equipment... I was also the Safety Officer. My duties included things like "testing the boom room" (where we worked with potentially explosive reactions). I regularly wore an SCBA and worked in a room filled with H2S gas that would turn my sweat basic, and I could feel it burn as it ran down my arm-pits.. We sent someone to the emergency room because of an explosion about once every 6 months. Once it was me for sulfuric acid burns. We didn't have to report incidents because of our R&D status, and we had DoD contracts. I fucking loved/lived for this shit... I worked 80 hour weeks and slept in the lab for two weeks at a time. When the company wanted to sell, they fired me because I didn't have a college degree and they thought it looked bad... at first I was super depressed, but after 9 months or so I realized how fucked up my last several years had been... I had accomplished nothing in life outside that company, and it wasn't even paying me that great. I had no girlfriend, no official education, I lived in a shit-hole, because I was almost never there anyway, and most of my money had gone to drinking and strippers. I ended up collecting unemployment and then qualifying for a grant that's paying for me to finish my degree... but damn, I can't believe that I risked my life and put my future on hold for that. I literally have nightmares from it, and probably PTSD.... but sometimes I miss it, too...
That sounds like a really exciting job, minus dat overtime. shit bro.
Graphic Design and Production Management for a promotional product company. I mostly deal with the shirts and artwork ,one spelling mistake and it's my fault.
have you made any mistakes?
Dude plenty ,spelling mistakes,wrong colors ,customers making changes after the product is already put the door.Yes the stress sucks and yes I've pulled 6am to 4am nights but when your 21 making salary at about 50k a year and you've been there for 2 years you tend to take the bad ,the shitty and the worse.
>shitty student worker job
>manager's superior changes small rules without telling anyone and fires workers for not following them
>more work than professionals who do the same type of work, but for shit pay
>have to learn how the entire college's technology and enrollment system works on an intermediate level
I swear if the location wasn't so fucking good i would be out of there in an instant
Web application Developer. Really tough as you encounter many errors with your work. The best thing I did was ask for help when I needed it no matter how petty it was.
I'm a mathematician. In terms of hours it's really easy and laid-back but it's difficult and you end up spending almost all of your day each day on it. I can take breaks whenever I want, etc. though so it's not really stressful in a time-sensitive way. I did 4 years of undergrad then 6 years of grad school and 2 years of post-doc so far. Totally worth it though.
> going insane
I'm already insane, have little care for personal life and get all my entertainment from my work. If I had to work a job in industry which bored me I'd probably commit suicide.
It gets a bit crazy sometimes, but we also have plenty of shifts where the most drastic thing happening is that two of us want to microwave our food at the same time and the outdoor work can be done in 1 hour, and then you dick around 7 hours.
When it's tough things are really hard and gruelling physically, yeah and also dangerous (can get crushed, burned or killed if I don't use my head constantly)
But somehow it turns me on that my work is like that, like there's always something on the line. Keeps things sharp and focused.
Also, the pay is middle-class tier, and I have all the money I could ever spend + benefits and a good pension plan. And the inevitable hard work only makes me stronger and fit. An office job would kill me since I basically live on the internet in my freetime
Warehouse operator here.
40 hours a week. Very stressful.
Majority of managers of under-educated or simply don't care about workplace law, constructive dismissal is fairly common because many working class folk cannot afford to take them to tribunal (hell, I'm only in the job still because I whistleblown and made it clear I would take them to court and drag as many of their previous victims into that courtroom with me). Seriously, to those working in law firms on here, post up huge ass billboards advertising your services near every industrial park ever. It will be worth it.
Unions a shitter, often working in cahoots with these people and too afraid to actually go to court. Everyone gets the same advise from other colleagues when they start; keep records of everything, even the little things.
We do our jobs, but we also stop doing our jobs frequently to write down how much downtime we need (because management cannot be trusted to represent our downtime accurately).
Our targets are high and often unreasonably set to the point that no one can actually hit them. Then, they will bring another company in the time us, and set more realistic targets.
Things will be good for a while. We can do our jobs just fine.
Then we become victims of the butterfinger effect.
Somewhere, somehow, a fat middleclass boomer in an office somewhere flaps his fingers, and our jobs become a million times harder, making the targets set unreasonable again.
This hurts productivity, so what happens?
Well, whoever made the decision needs to justify it and make it look like a success, So the whip gets cracked.
I don't necessarily want to leave the job, but I really like my co-workers, but I'm getting exhausted mentally and physically, gathering the feeling that it is my only option.
It's worth noting that I'm the highest performing member of my team, and I'm feeling like this - so as you can imagine, my other co-workers are probably at their limits too.
what makes the location that good?
what company?
bump
Get a boyfriend
Red alert for occupational burnout. I’ve been there. Either you will quit, and recover or go on until your body will force you to quit and recover longer. Our brains will adapt to a point, but they will overload eventually. At the time, i was so entrenched in work, that i simply could not perceive what i was doing to my body and brain.
I'm trying but it's hard.
Then try harder.
I'm trying my best...