Situation: Utility line work, storm restoration and the overtime that produces the headline number

Why readers chose it: The figures commenters give run from a journeyman hourly base to annual totals several times it, and every account naming a large number names the hours that built it: sixteen-hour days with eight hours between them, two hours' notice to travel, and no days off until the power is back on. The refusals in this group are not about the climbing. They are about having watched somebody die, and about injuries caused by a procedure somebody else on the ground was responsible for. Serving linemen and one of their managers say the ordinary day is manageable; what they describe as unsustainable is the callout schedule and what a career of it does to a body and a marriage.

What readers reported: I manage linemen for a living. I see at least 1 thing a week that makes me go “yea… fuck that”. The actual day to day normal work isn’t all that bad most days. But the process to become a lineman is rough af and the random uncontrollable OT is brutal. Getting told you have 2 hours to show up ready to work 16 hour days with no days off until the power is restored sounds great when people hear what they make. But it gets soul crushing real quick. It’s hard on me and all I do is take pictures and type emails for them. I can’t imagine running those hours and doing actual physical work.

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Tree trimming, excavation and other trades working beside a line somebody else controls

Why readers chose it: Five records describe people maimed by a line they were never employed to work on: a tree trimmer whose scheduled outage did not happen, a balloonist who drifted into a conductor, a man digging where the underground supply had not actually been isolated. The common factor commenters name is paperwork rather than skill — the outage, the letter of assurance, the protocol that belonged to someone else. The one compensation figure in the group arrives with a reply disputing that it was anywhere near enough.

What readers reported: I knew a tree trimmer who lost one full arm and half the other. The power company had been prescheduled to shut off the line prior to the tree trim but did not.

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Looking at the trade before committing to the apprenticeship

Why readers chose it: Four records about the decision point rather than the work. Two commenters went to look — one toured a training school, one held an apprenticeship and talked to the old hands — and both left within a day. The two records moving the other way are a commenter switching out of computer science and the reply telling him why: the money, and not spending the day at a computer. Nobody in this group reports how the training itself went, because each of them stopped before it started.

What readers reported: Back some years I had an apprenticeship for lineman with the county or VA. Talked to the old timers, left the next day

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Drilling, engineering and platform work out at sea

Why readers chose it: The nomination and its sharpest rebuttal sit in the same group. Commenters who have never been offshore describe isolation and a metal platform in the middle of nowhere; the engineers replying describe punishing hours inside a rotation that hands back whole weeks, cabins shared with several other men, and a wage one commenter sets against his country's standard rate. The danger reported here is mostly second-hand or historical, and the single windfall in the group follows a hurricane the employer did not evacuate for.

What readers reported: I work in this field and it's not that bad as long as you're not doing manual labor. I'm an engineer and I often spend weeks/months offshore, yes the hours are insane but you get a lot of time off in between rotations. Where I'm from we do 5 weeks on 5 weeks off, and personally I find that much more relaxing than working 40h a week. You get 35 days completely for yourself, you can travel wherever because you make bank and no one can bother you with work stuff. I know most people will disagree but for me the regular work week is too stressful, in the weekend I mostly end up decompressing and doing chores. Granted you'll miss out on a lot of stuff, but if you're a single guy it's worth it for a few years and then you can basically coast for the rest of your life. Not a bad deal imo

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Any rotational posting — offshore, on a rig or on a remote site

Why readers chose it: Seventeen records argue about the schedule rather than the work, and they never settle it. Commenters name the rotations they actually worked — two on four off, three on three off, six and six, and one unscheduled pattern of five weeks out for a single day home — and divide on whether a block of time off is a holiday or a debt. The costs named are concrete: relationships, pets, months of being unreachable, and one hiring process a commenter says spent most of its length warning him about exactly that.

What readers reported: I worked on-shore for a tiny bit of my career. The work itself isn't too difficult, it's the time away from home. I distinctly remember the interview process. One or two questions about technical info. Then a question or two about being comfortable away from home and family. Then a technical question. Then a question about relationships being difficult. Over 50% (feels like 80%) of the interview was bracing the new employee that maintaining a relationship would be difficult.

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Catering, medical, logistics and inspection roles on a rig or vessel

Why readers chose it: Eight records answer the question most readers will actually have: what if you go offshore without doing the dangerous part. Commenters describe cooks, camp bosses, medics, an inspector and a chef who ran the kitchens, and they agree on two things — the food matters enormously to everyone's morale, and these roles pay well against their equivalents ashore but not against the deck. The medics describe the most comfortable version of the life. The chef's son describes the same rig as dangerous for everybody on it, kitchen included.

What readers reported: Im an offshore Medic oil/gas (ships, not rigs, though I have the training for both). I'd say being a cook/steward is one of the harder jobs. They are cooking or doing meal prep their entire shifts, and one of the things anyone who works offshore appreciates is a good meal, with good variety. A bad cook can make a 6 week long trip torture. We have Starlink on my boat, so I can call/text/FaceTime all day (but your sharing with 50 other people so streaming, downloading games/movies is a no no) but I'm rarely out of contact with anyone ashore. I can't speak for other roles on the vessel, but I have several meetings/inspections during the day and during my 6 weeks out that are mandatory and scheduled. I also generally have my clinic open for 7a-6p, but once I get things settled in the mornings I spend most of my day listening to podcasts, gaming, watching movies, or studying/learning. There is a certain regimentation to the daily and weekly schedule, but once you get into your daily routine the time just kind of goes by.

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Getting into industrial, oil and gas work without a university degree

Why readers chose it: The only group in the corpus where commenters volunteer a route in rather than a warning off. Two technicians describe a two-year certificate or diploma, employers who will fund it for someone already hired, and work they say exists far beyond oil and gas. The qualification they attach is unusual for a trade: multiple calculus, physics and chemistry courses, which one of them rates as a heavier load than the year of computer science he did at university. The work itself is calibrating transmitters and loading controller programs, sometimes in a cabinet beside live switchgear.

What readers reported: I tell everyone who’s looking into the oil/gas field without higher education to seriously consider Instrumentation. I wish I would have. It’s usually a 2 year degree or certificate. Also if you get hired by a company as a lower technician they’ll usually pay for you to get the schooling needed. Those technicians have a job for life, not just in oil & gas.

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Operating, engineering or supplying a remote mine

Why readers chose it: Seven records, and the money arrives early in a career: an accountant reports the returns he prepared for teenagers on a gold mine, and a new graduate reports his starting package at a fly-in site. Against that, commenters name the month on site, the dust diseases specific to whatever is being cut, and — in the longest record here — a coal region where companies loaded their bad assets into a subsidiary and bankrupted it to escape wage and reclamation commitments. The engineer's own framing is the most useful line in the group: the same site pays well and carries far less risk if you are not the operator.

What readers reported: Meh, I grew up in Appalachia coal country Pay was better than fast food, but the workers were uneducated, so companies would always pay decent, but not great. Definitely not worth the damage done to the body. Plus, the companies own the local and state politicians, and always manage to scrape out of their environmental and wage commitments, when times get tough. Stick all the bad assets into one company, bankrupt it, and start a new one. Happened constantly, as soon as times got tough. Workers would go a month without getting paid, and then the case woudl go in front of the local corrupt judge, and no one ever got their money, and the state was on the hook for reclaiming the site.

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Inspection, maintenance and repair work carried out underwater

Why readers chose it: Five records in this card name underwater welding as the answer, and a working commercial diver replies that welding is a sliver of the workload, done topside wherever possible because quenching makes an underwater weld brittle, and that a high hourly rate is offset by the months between contracts. The danger he describes is almost entirely other people's carelessness — a valve knocked shut, an operator asleep, a torch through an umbilical. Other divers add the shape of the career rather than the day: a body that lasts under a decade at the deep end, port work that pays less and is filthier, and a pension one commenter says arrives after fifteen years.

What readers reported: Commercial diver here. Contrary to popular belief, generally people aren’t just “underwater welders” per se; rather, welding is just one task we might end up doing during the course of a job. Welding should actually be done topside whenever possible since the instant quenching that occurs underwater creates a more brittle weld. That’s why it makes up maybe 1% of our work load, if it even happens at all. It’s true that the hourly pay can sometimes be very high, but when you balance it out with the long periods off time between jobs, most of us make under 6 figures annually. I’m currently working in Hawaii making between $6k-$9k per week (it’s a unicorn contract that I was incredibly lucky to get), but it’s a 4-6 week job doing 10-12 hours per day, every day, and it might be a few months before I find my next contract. Funny enough, it is pretty dangerous, but most of that danger comes from people being lazy or careless, not because of the job itself. I’ve seen a new guy accidentally switch somebody’s air off by screwing around and bumping into a valve handle, I’ve heard countless stories of divers being crushed because a machinery operator fell asleep or didn’t understand English, one guy was using an underwater cutting torch and cut through his umbilical by accident, etc. There are plenty of instances where companies cut corners and shirk safety precautions, but human error is the most common culprit.

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Deep offshore work run out of a pressurised chamber

Why readers chose it: Six commenters nominated it independently and one of them explained at length what the work actually is. What they describe is not diving so much as living: weeks sealed at working pressure, a bell lowered to the job and hauled back, helium in the breathing mix, and a decompression at the end measured in weeks rather than hours. The reason they give for its being unanswerable is that there is no way out in a hurry — every record offering a reason cites the same decompression accident, and one commenter says it is why he read the Titan submersible story the way he did.

What readers reported: Saturarion diving. Returning from the depths of the ocean takes more time to reacclimate the body to surface pressure than it does to return from outer space. Basically, they have pressure chambers that can connect to diving bells on a ship that are more akin to a pod that can be deployed to a certain depth. A worker gets inside the pressure chamber and must be prepared to live there for weeks at a time. They adjust the pressure inside to the depth that they'll be working so that their bodies adapt. Then they connect the diving bell to the pressure chamber, pressurize the bell, open some gates, and the workers crawl through a tube to get inside the bell. Then they drop the diving bell into the water and sink it to that depth. They work their shift and the bell is brought back up, reconnected to the pressure chamber, and the workers must sleep in there. But once the work is done they must remain in the pressure chamber for up to 2 weeks as they decompress back to the atmospheric pressure of the surface. The whole time they're also breathing air that has high helium content, so their voices sound all squeaky. Also look up the Byford Dolphin Diving Bell incident where someone accidentally opened the pressurized diving bell prematurely. Essentially the extreme pressure difference caused all the workers inside to implode their organs out of their ass. Their blood boiled to plasma as it decompressed and cooked them. The divers all died instantly. It's how I knew that Titanic submarine was going to be bad.

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Rope access work on buildings, towers and wind turbines

Why readers chose it: This is the answer the thread liked most and then took apart. People who have watched the work say the crews visibly love it; people inside it reply that window cleaning is the entry rung of rope access, and give the hourly rates they were paid to prove it. The money, two rope-access professionals say, is not in the rope at all — it is in pairing the certification with a trade such as non-destructive testing, welding or turbine repair, or in owning the company that signs the contracts. The one very large annual figure in the group comes with a per-job danger bonus attached.

What readers reported: Speaking as a rope access rescue technician all the guys you see cleaning windows are level 1s getting paid fuck all, like unless theyre a crew lead these guys are maxing out at about $24/h. The money in rope access comes from pairing it with a trade, usually NDT or welding in the the oil industry or fiberglass repair on wind turbines

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Climbing structures to change lamps, service antennas or paint steel

Why readers chose it: Four records naming height work that needs almost no formal training, two of them with a rate attached — one weekly, one daily. The commenter who was offered the tower work turned it down over the year-round travel and the winters rather than the height itself. The reply that matters most points at the labour market instead of the danger: very few jobs requiring no qualifications pay anything close, which is exactly why that figure went on to start the longest argument in the thread.

What readers reported: I was once offered $2000/wk to climb cell towers to replace light bulbs. It required extensive travel, and was year round work. The thought of climbing metal towers in the dead of winter did not appeal to me at all, not even for that much money.

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Sewer maintenance, septic pumping and commercial drain work

Why readers chose it: Ten records, and the split that matters is between people describing the job and people imagining it. Plumbers and operators say the disgust is a first-few-minutes problem and then it is simply work; the onlookers never get past the smell. Two records point at where the money actually sits — a customer being charged a full call-out for ten minutes of work, and a commenter who would rather own the truck than ride in it. The one concrete hazard named is infection: one commenter recalls a televised case of a pinhole leak in a suit that ended in intravenous antibiotics.

What readers reported: Tbf if you do it consistently you get desensitized to it, then you're just working a chill high paying cleaning gig

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Licensed operation of a municipal or industrial treatment plant

Why readers chose it: The corpus's clearest counter-example. Nominated as a job nobody wants, it is answered by operators who say the industry's problem is the reverse: retention is so high that hiring nearly stopped, and much of the workforce is now near retirement. A senior operator gives a base with standby and overtime on top; another reports his income more than doubling across eight years. Their caveats are about getting in and about who you end up working alongside — not about the sewage.

What readers reported: The wastewater industry has a super high retention rate. People love doing it because it's a stable, chill job with great pay and benefits. It's actually causing a problem right now, so few people have needed to be hired since the hiring wave from the Clean Water Act that 2/3 of the industry are nearing retirement age

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Biohazard cleanup after a death, a crime or a long-undiscovered body

Why readers chose it: Named five separate times as a top-level answer, which makes it one of the most agreed-upon nominations in the thread. Commenters consistently put the psychological cost ahead of the physical one: unpredictable hours, families still in the next room, and what several describe as a smell that stays with you. The money is asserted rather than evidenced — one record gives an annual figure, one says it is the owner of the company who makes it, and one notes that biohazard work carries a specialty premium in other industries too.

What readers reported: Crime scene / trauma cleanup. It pays well precisely because almost nobody can stomach it, the hours are unpredictable, and the psychological toll is real, you're walking into someone's worst day after they've gone. Underwater/saturation welding is the other one, great money, genuinely dangerous, and the isolation breaks a lot of people before the depth does.

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Municipal and contracted household refuse rounds

Why readers chose it: Nine records and no agreement, because they are describing different contracts. One commenter reports a central London borough paying strikingly well; another replies that UK crews are usually barely above minimum wage, and the reconciliation the thread reaches is that the exception is genuinely exceptional. The commenter who actually walked the round is the most concrete in the group: a monthly figure, a shift finishing at lunchtime, no overtime or paid leave on a government contract, and no holidays worked. He earns more in sales now.

What readers reported: Warm leads: they approach us. Also, it's enterprise sales, so not calling people so much as big companies and their decision-makers. But yeah, bins was fine, honestly. Worked 6am to 12pm each day. So the hours were super nice. No PTO or overtime bc it's a gov contract and they'd rather die than pay us a dime extra lol, so you are done when you're done, and you're never working holidays unless it's your shift. But since you're home at lunch either way, we didn't mind lol.

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Funeral directing, embalming and post-mortem work

Why readers chose it: Three records, and only one of them is really about the bodies. The funeral director's account is about running a small business: managing families at the worst moment of their lives, on-call at unpredictable hours, selling the one product nobody wants to think about. The other two are short nominations, and both name the social cost — dead colleagues, conversations that end quickly — rather than the work itself.

What readers reported: Funeral home director. Not just the embalming the whole operation. You’re running a small business, managing grieving families at the worst moments of their lives, on call at unpredictable hours, and the product you’re selling is the thing everyone least wants to think about. Pays well. Dinner party conversations get awkward fast.

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Controlling traffic at a tower, approach facility or centre

Why readers chose it: The thread's longest disagreement about whether a job is stressful, and both sides of it are inside the industry. A pilot's partner and a set of published question-and-answer sessions describe the work as routine once you are trained; a serving controller replies that this is what everyone at a quieter facility says, and lists what actually wears people down — shift work, the medical requirements, the holidays, the infrastructure and the staffing levels. The structural facts nobody disputes: an upper age limit to start, years of training before working traffic alone, mandatory retirement at fifty-six, and pay set by the facility's level rather than by the job title.

What readers reported: Im a controller here right now: This is a common mindset, especially at lower level facilities. Everyone loves to pretend it's super easy for them specifically, & in a sense, it can be. In winter especially it can be long periods of boredom punctuated by intense adrenaline. But add that to the shift work, the crumbling infrastructure, the strict medical requirements, the holidays, etc? Anyone who says it isnt stressful is lying, a traffic dodger, or below a level 6.

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Patrol policing in a department running short-staffed

Why readers chose it: One department's overtime total is what put policing in this thread, and most of the replies explain how a figure like that gets built: banking straight-time days as leave so every remaining shift is overtime, night differentials, off-duty work, and — in two records — outright abuse of the booking clock. Serving officers do not dispute the hours. One describes being held on a twenty-four hour shift with nobody available to relieve him and calls it unsafe. The reason they give for nobody wanting the job is the scrutiny rather than the danger, and one commenter got halfway through a hiring process before withdrawing.

What readers reported: Unfortunately it’s the reality of policing. My scheduled shifts are 10 hours, but with mandatory overtime for shitty calls I’ve done 24H shifts, where I was working while struggling to stay awake. But nobody else was available to take over, and *somebody* has to be working, so you get stuck. It’s honestly not a good situation and it isn’t safe - when you’re extremely tired, you’re more likely perform poorly and make mistakes you normally never would. But there’s no clear solution, mostly due to widespread staffing issues - you can’t just leave and go home without being relieved, and nobody is available to replace you.

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Surgical and attending posts, argued about across three health systems

Why readers chose it: Twenty-four records, most of them arguing over a number. The nomination is British — a long route in and difficult hours — and the replies immediately pivot to what the same work pays elsewhere, with figures running from a cited national median to individual salaries several times larger. What the group actually establishes is shape rather than size: debt carried out of training, a first full paycheck arriving in the commenter's mid-thirties, residency places capped since 1997, and a shortage that is rural rather than national. The most telling record is a doctor turning down a larger salary because of where it was.

What readers reported: Not surgeon specific, but the median attending physician salary is like 220k/year, and that’s without counting malpractice insurance Plus you’re getting your first proper paycheck in about your mid-30.

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Frontline clinical, mental-health and laboratory roles

Why readers chose it: Four records nominating clinical work for its conditions rather than its salary: the hours, testing rules that remove the usual ways of decompressing, and patients who assault staff. The only outcome anyone reports is a commenter's wife leaving mental-health work after three months in a city. The two remaining records point the opposite way, at technical laboratory roles that pay close to six figures and go unfilled because so few people hold the qualification.

What readers reported: Being a medical professional. Extreme hours, drug testing for the job(no weed to relieve stress), patients are demons, extreme stress, being attacked by said demonic patients, and its gross. 🤢 id rather be a police officer than a medical professional

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Contract bomb-disposal work at military facilities

Why readers chose it: One long account and the argument it started. The technician described here was never in the military: she takes weeks-long contracts, is paid a base plus per diem and a housing stipend she banks by camping, and simply stops accepting work when she wants a break. The disagreement underneath is about temperament — outsiders assume the job wants somebody anxious and meticulous, and a supervisor replies that he wants people who decide quickly, because paralysis by analysis is its own hazard.

What readers reported: My cousin is an EOD (explosive ordinance disposal) technician. She was never in the military, but most of her jobs are as a contractor at military facilities. She takes contracts all over the country that are generally weeks long. The contracts include really good base pay plus per diem and housing stipends. If she can drive there, she'll take her big truck and her dogs and her big tent, and just camp so she can bank the housing stipend. She makes enough that when she wants a break, she can just not accept any contracts for a few months and can hang out at the house with land and woods and a barn she bought from that job. She loves it. She once told me she could get me in and I briefly thought about it because most of it sounds awesome. But then I remembered that I am an anxious weirdo who overthinks everything and is convinced the worst thing will happen. I would stress myself into an early heart attack if I took a job where one small booboo equals one big boomboom 💥 and many small pieces of me as a result.

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Statutory child protection casework

Why readers chose it: Four records describing the best-paid corner of social work and the reason the vacancies keep coming back. The commenter who left after four years names the recruitment pattern — newly qualified hires drawn in by a salary well above comparable jobs — and the outcome, which is that most people are gone inside two years. The qualification the group supplies itself is geographic and it matters: the six-figure end is described as a California phenomenon, with other states and rural caseloads paying far less for work the same commenters call harder.

What readers reported: There might be higher paying jobs posted here. But CPS Social Work. As far as Social Work/Mental Health related jobs it often pays the most. When I quit after 4 years I was making +$145k. They prey on newly graduated MSW hires (especially in California with Title IV-E) with higher salary than most similar jobs and the work is awful. Most people have a negative preconception of CPS based on the stigma, and you know, taking away kids from their families. I won't get into the dynamics of that. But it pays very well, has an incredibly high burnout rate, and most social workers don't last 2 years.

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: The analyst track at a major-city investment bank

Why readers chose it: One long account of an entire cohort, and four replies testing it. Every friend the commenter followed onto the track quit — most inside a year, the rest by the third — and the pattern he describes is seven days a week with some of them sleeping in the office. The replies supply arithmetic rather than atmosphere: entry pay that is remarkable for a graduate but ordinary in the cities these jobs sit in, a two-year hop to private equity as the actual plan, and an IT worker's observation that almost every staff profile at his firm was under three years old.

What readers reported: Investment banker. I went to a top 5 college with a top 3 business school. Most of my friends were on the IB track. Everyone **thinks** they want to do it because of the $. Out of all my friends, I think 10 quit within the first year. The rest quit between year 2 and year 3. All their stories were the same... they worked pretty much 7 days a week. I hung out with them and they would get to work at like 6... work til midnight. Some go home to sleep, some straight up slept in the office. There were a couple times where we got together at midnight on Saturday to go clubbing for a couple hours, then they would do a couple lines, and go right back to the office. Nobody ever made it past analyst and got their CFA save for 1. She makes 7-8 figures a year now. But she's in her 30s and easily looks like she's 50. All my other friends have turned to some eccentric jobs. One makes textile art. Another started a taekwondo studio. One guy opened a bar. I guess it just burned them out so hard they never want to be back in an office.

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Big-city litigation and funds practice

Why readers chose it: Two records making the same point in different registers: the hours are the product, and the premium over the alternative is thin. One frames sixty-hour weeks in a high-stress environment as barely worth the differential; the other, from funds work, adds that most of the job is not law at all and is boring, with the late nights arriving every night rather than at deadlines.

What readers reported: Litigation attorney, especially in large cities. For some reason, people don’t want to work 60 hours a week in a high stress environment in order to make slightly more money. Can’t imagine why…

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Running an international ERP template rollout

Why readers chose it: Two records and one figure. The nomination gives an annual number and calls the work hard and very stressful; the substantive reply locates the difficulty outside the consultant entirely. Rollouts get rushed because the transition window is expensive, so the switch is thrown with bad data and untrained users — which is both what is being paid for and what makes the job unwanted.

What readers reported: SAP has its problems but I rather use SAP than many other alternatives ERP systems that are likely worse. Doing the rollout as the poster above said is the worst part and most often the people that do the consulting are not given enough time to transition into SAP because of how costly it is. They get paid a lot of money and companies will often rush the transition window to cheap out and then they flip the switch and turn on SAP with bad data and no training.

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Outbound business-to-business and door-to-door selling

Why readers chose it: Two records, one of them detailed, and the pitch it makes is unusual for this thread. The commenter calls the work fairly easy and the pay six figures at minimum, and puts the whole barrier in temperament: being turned down the overwhelming majority of the time, and having to talk to strangers at all. It is the only job in the corpus whose stated obstacle is neither danger, hours nor disgust.

What readers reported: Specific B2B sales roles. You literally just call people and try to find people that need your product. Most people don’t want to be rejected 49/50 times in a day or talk to people at all. But a lot of these jobs pay 6 figures minimum and lead to much higher income roles. If you can deal with rejection and be a normal human it’s a fairly easy job.

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Big-tech engineering roles and security operations

Why readers chose it: The nomination is round-the-clock availability, and the replies narrow it hard. Security practitioners point out that governance, engineering and identity work run on ordinary office hours, that only incident response and the security operations centre carry real out-of-hours load, and that the field currently has more candidates than roles. What survives the narrowing is the big-tech complaint: on-call rotations, an interview gauntlet several rounds deep, some employers running long six-day weeks, and the physical cost of sitting still all day.

What readers reported: Many areas of cybersecurity(The entire GRC umbrella, most of engineering and much of the IAM space) are much more 9-5. Your SOC analysts and anyone involved in IR plans get more outside of business hours but a large part of cyber is still 9-5. Even for me in SOC at a midsized company it is rare I work after hours.

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Apprenticing into a unionised trade

Why readers chose it: Six records circling one grievance — that the trades were held over people's heads as the failure option while quietly paying six figures without student debt. The union electrician who states an hourly top-out and a fifty-to-sixty-hour week blames an unwillingness to work hard. The reply from someone who priced the same move disagrees specifically: his obstacle was not the labour but the apprenticeship — a substantial multi-year pay cut from work he was already doing, and the way apprentices were treated on the sites he saw.

What readers reported: In my experience, I wasn't afraid of the hardwork. I had already been doing concrete/landscape construction for many years when I looked into the trades. My issue was the pay. I would have been taking a rather \*SUBSTANTIAL\* pay cut that would have lasted a few years while I was apprenticing. Plus, I saw how they treated their apprentices on the job site (this was many years ago, when boomers still dominated the trades) where they just used them as laborer's/gophers. They treated them like crap. They had them doing quite literally everything while they just stood at the tailgate of their trucks barking orders like its the army. I opted not to down that route, and it worked out pretty well for me in the end.

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Union elevator installation and service work

Why readers chose it: Two records that between them describe a closed door and what sits behind it. The work is night call-outs into empty buildings, shafts, confined spaces and heights. The entry is a union test held once every two years, capped at a fixed number of applicants, from which only a handful are hired. The commenter describing that process also gives the reason the queue forms: once you are through, it pays well and is very secure.

What readers reported: Super difficult to get into the union. Our three state union does testing every two years, limit 200 applicants then it closes, only top 10 or so will get hired. Pays well and very secure once you're in.

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Field service work priced per visit rather than per hour

Why readers chose it: A per-job rate on a specialised medical device, reported with its catch in the same breath: the overwhelming majority of the paid time is spent in airports rather than calibrating anything. The replies are the useful part, because they come from other frequent travellers — that this many trips a year removes sleep and social life, that work travel goes to the places nobody would visit by choice, and that the novelty is gone by the third one. Two commenters counter that the same work by car is a job they enjoy, and one asks the question the group never answers: whether the road expenses come out of the rate.

What readers reported: Met a guy on a flight that calibrates a specific medical device that the company he works for makes. Said he was paid $1000 per calibration. He calibrates about 150 machines per year and has to fly to almost every location. The guy said he spends 90% of his paid time flying or in airports and the rest calibrating the medical devices.

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Servicing automated navigation aids

Why readers chose it: Two records and a correction. The nomination is romantic — even the automated lighthouses need crews visiting twice a year for a fortnight at a time — and the reply removes the premise the thread was working from: where a coastguard aids-to-navigation team does this, it is not a separately paid specialism at all. You are paid your rank.

What readers reported: Lighthouse tender. Even the automated ones get serviced twice a year by crews that visit them for two weeks at a time.

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Answers that drew no discussion underneath them

Why readers chose it: Eleven records naming ten jobs the thread never picked up: a municipal rat-control post with a stated salary, an overseas government posting whose holder reports a large package against almost no living costs, warehouse order picking, diamond drilling, actuarial work, prompt writing, a convenience-chain general manager answerable around the clock, night shift as a whole category, dirty and dangerous work in general, and one German-language answer refusing cleaning work at any hourly rate. They are kept together for what they share: with a single exception nobody replied to any of them, so none was corroborated and none was disputed.

What readers reported: Work in a 3rd world country for the US govt. I make about 350k comp and spend about $300 a month working an 8-4. I have a very niche skill set though

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Performing and platform-based adult work

Why readers chose it: Seven records carrying two separate disagreements. On the ethics, commenters divide between describing the work as legitimate for someone who genuinely wants it and describing an industry they say runs on exploitation, substance abuse and the people who enable both. On the money, the group produces one of the thread's sharpest corrections to its own premise: a commenter argues that only a tiny fraction of performers earn a living from it, and quotes a platform's average monthly earnings after fees to make the point.

What readers reported: Yes there is. Abuse, exploitation, and manipulation are rampant. Dirtbags top to bottom. It’s a scummy industry all around. People need to stop glorifying it. It can be dangerous. It's littered with substance abuse and an endless line of enablers and connections to shady shit. Theres a tremendous amount of shame to be had working in porn.

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: The moment a commenter priced the risk out loud and declined

Why readers chose it: Thirteen records where somebody does the calculation in public and says no, and the trigger is almost always something witnessed rather than something read. What is being refused is rarely death: it is the permanent version of an injury, a body that will not last the career, or a mistake made by somebody else that costs you your arms. The most quoted line in the group is advice given to a nineteen-year-old by a tradesman leaving the trade for nursing, and it is the one record in this article that argues against every other card in it.

What readers reported: I was in the Air Force with an electrician specialty. My plan was to initially get out and become a lineman. The guys that work on the electrical lines on poles and stuff or the big time high voltage wires on those huge metal towers. That all changed when I asked a former Navy Seabee why he was leaving the lineman trade for nursing. All he said was, “Imagine getting out the military in one piece, just to die because someone didn’t ground properly. There’s more to life than money.” That was eye opening for me at 19. What did I do post military? I’m a videographer and editor for a local municipality and a freelance drone pilot. Not lineman money by any means, I wish lol. But I’m pretty satisfied with the work I do. That feels priceless.

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Judging whether a stated figure is actually a high wage

Why readers chose it: Nineteen records set off by a single annual conversion, and the argument never resolves because the people having it are standing in different places. One side does the deflation arithmetic and the rent arithmetic and concludes the figure is comfortable rather than high; the other names the people in the same cities living on a fraction of it. The version that serves this question best is the one holding both at once: high against the education and experience the job asks for, low against the risk of losing a limb doing it.

What readers reported: It's certainly a lot better than most jobs relative to the education and experience level involved, but also pretty low for a job with significant risk of loss of life and limb.

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Checking a job's reputation for high pay against what people were actually paid

Why readers chose it: Seven records that answer the article's own premise with a flat contradiction. Each takes a job named elsewhere in this thread as well paid — window cleaning, sewer work, social work, adult performing — and reports what the person actually received. The mechanism they identify between them is time and ownership: the high figure is real, but it sits fifteen years up a seniority ladder, or it belongs to whoever owns the trucks rather than to the crew driving them.

What readers reported: Worst part is you hardly ever start at the higher end, so it takes 15+ years to get to the point where you're making that "high paying" salary. I've noticed a lot of times you're treading water for the whole rest of the time until that point. The guys that own their own septic/pumping companies make bank and pay their normal dudes about $20-25/hr. It always seems like this is why no one does it and why people leave quickly.

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.

Situation: Testing whether these jobs are actually unwanted

Why readers chose it: Eighteen records disputing the question instead of answering it, and the strongest of them count. Utility workers report thousands of applications for a handful of entry-level posts, and hundreds for a single apprenticeship; others report line work and offshore work being competitive in Canada, Australia and their own countries. The explanation the group offers is churn rather than absent demand — people apply, and then energised work, storms and travel sort them out. One commenter reading the oil-rig answers notices the thread has already argued itself round.

What readers reported: That's not true. I work for a utility. 25 spots and 2400 people applied the last posting for entry level positions. I'm not even in a competitive region, there's way more applicants in places like Washington State and California.

Limit: Every figure in this card is one commenter's own words about what they, or somebody they know, were paid — in a country and a year they may not have stated. Nothing is verified, and several figures are contradicted elsewhere in the same thread.