All 43 careers covered in What I Don't Want To Be When I Grow Up — each one with a taste of what people in that job actually complain about.
Below is one downside per job. In the book, every career gets the full treatment: a list of the less-than-great parts, a demands and rewards chart covering training, stress, income, standing, shift work and job stability, and a quote from someone who loves the job anyway.
Med school, then years more training — and everyone still bugs you about their health problems.
Constantly short-staffed but never short-patiented. And still asked, "when will the real doctor be in?"
Endless standing and little break time — plus customers who think you're just a "fancy cashier".
Bending over open mouths means neck and back pain for life. Nobody enjoys seeing you.
Putting down beloved pets almost daily, and high student debt for relatively modest pay.
Repeating the same exercises 50 times a day. People ignore your advice, then blame you.
A heavy emotional load — everyone's anxieties, sadness and fears — plus burnout and compassion fatigue.
Nights and weekends spent planning and grading, and parents who think everything is your fault.
Shift work plus trauma exposure. Few car chases — many, many drunk idiots.
Real risk of injury or death, long stretches away from family, and you leave your personality at home.
Clients lie. A lot. Arguments all day, every day — and you're always "on", even on holiday.
You can never tell people what you actually do. Even family. Less Bond, more boredom.
Constant criticism and media scrutiny, and pressure to please everyone while inevitably failing.
Spend three years on a project that just fails. Not every scientist finds a cure.
Projects take years and often look nothing like your initial grand plans.
Debugging one tiny error for eight hours straight, often just fixing someone else's mess.
Crunch time means 100-hour weeks before launch — and projects cancelled after years of work.
Less Indiana Jones, more mountains of paperwork and tiny piles of treasure.
Years of training for possibly one mission. Or none. Plus space toilets — think about it.
Crawling through ceilings and basements, plus surprise zaps from "definitely switched off" wires.
Grease, grime and busted knuckles — and customers always shocked at the price.
Hot in the summer, freezing in the winter, physically demanding and injury-prone.
Cleaning up other people's messes all day. Nobody notices your work until you miss something.
You work whether it rains or shines, and one bad season equals financial disaster.
Crazy traffic, weird hours, a small percentage of the fee — and self-driving cars on the horizon.
Endless revisions for people who don't know what they want, and "can you make the logo bigger?" on repeat.
Everyone wants free photos "for exposure", and nobody sees the hours of editing afterwards.
Irregular income, if you get any — and it's too late to be famous after death.
Writer's block is real and cruel. Poor pay unless you happen to have a bestseller.
Tons of unpaid gigs before you get paid, and explaining to your parents that it is "a real job".
Rejection, sometimes even when you're good. And fame equals zero privacy.
Unrealistic beauty standards, hours of makeup, and low pay unless you're famous.
Urgency and stress, or boring slow news days. Low pay in the early years.
Years of study and unpaid internships — then clients who want a castle on a garden shed budget.
Meetings that could've been emails, and climbing a ladder where the top is... another meeting.
No guarantees, no safety net, no regular income. The buck always stops with you.
Low pay, feet hurting from standing, cheeks hurting from fake smiling.
Commission-based feast or famine, and your reputation is one bad review away from ruin.
Long hours in hot, loud, stressful kitchens. Weekends and holidays? Gone.
Jet lag, rarely sleeping at home, and layovers in cities you don't even get to see.
Constant jet lag and aeroplane food, with sightseeing only from the air.
Intense physical toll and a short career. Hello, coaching snotty kids later in life.
Irregular hours, early mornings and late sessions — and clients who blame you, not the pizza.
That's one complaint each. The book has the rest.
Every career also comes with a demands and rewards chart, so you can compare training, stress, income, shift work and job stability side by side — plus bonus pages on which jobs are most at risk from AI and automation, and which are a safer bet.
