In today’s world, our definition of success is often painted with strokes of high wages and top-tier job titles. These lucrative roles are heralded as symbols of triumph, the embodiment of a picture-perfect life. But what if the truth behind this golden façade is far from the vision it promotes?
Underwater Welder
$37,028 and $92,466, with the top 86% making $203,999.
“And for good reason, it’s super dangerous. It also takes a lot of training/certifications, is seasonal work, and generally not easy to get into.”
“The danger is really horrible. It doesn’t have so much to do with complications of diving or welding, but rather getting crushed between something floating and something not.”
Construction Workers
$52,670
“Especially ones that place you in camps or out in the country will net you a lot of money because the company usually pays for your relocation and there’s a premium for working away from home.”
“I’m a manual laborer with zero experience in southern Alberta, and I’m getting $23 an hour, and they work 12-hour days, 4 hours of which are overtime.”
Oilfield Workers
$46,336
“Oilfield, srs. Just move out to North Dakota and you’ll be swimming in $$.”
“Yeah, but then you will be living in North Dakota.”
Truck Drivers
$40,464 per year for Driver to $224,976 per year for Owner Operator Driver
“Truck driver, partly because of the high requirements needed to keep your CDL.”
“Offshore oil platforms don’t necessarily pay better than onshore. Location affects pay much more than that in the oilfield industry.”
Radiation Cleaners
$102,204
“I heard they are searching for people who help to clean up the mess in Fukushima.”
“[There are] too many workers already reached their radiation limits.”
Union Construction Worker
$100,000
“Union construction jobs. Most of the trades (plumbers, carpenters, painters, glaziers, insulators, laborers, pipe fitters, electricians) make around $40/hr (in the northeast).”
Medical Waste Disposal Workers
$67,000
“My dad runs his own medical waste business and only does it once or twice a week and makes about 15k-20k a year from it. His main clients are permanent make-up artists and tattoo shops (which don’t generate a ton of waste), but the few doctors’ offices he picks up from always have waste, so he’s always making money.”
Heavy Equipment Mechanic
$64,616
“Heavy equipment mechanic. I was literally offered a job a month ago where I was told ‘most of our guys are breaking $200k a year’ to move to Texas.”
Traveling Anything
“The traveling version of anything. If you have any skill that you are willing to drop everything and go do at a moment’s notice in some random place you can get paid quite well.”
Unionized Elevator Operators
Crime Scene Cleaner
$42,094
“Crime scene cleaning pays well.”
“Can confirm. Ran a CSC business for a few years. Pays insanely well if you can stomach the work. Most of our business came from suicides.”
Most Blue Collar Jobs
$104,260
“Most blue-collar jobs. The workforce in auto repair is nose-diving. Economic 101, a small labor force yields high wages.”
HR Consultant
$125,000
“I know a woman who works as an HR consultant. Her job is basically to go into struggling companies, work out who to fire, and then tell them they’re sacked. She drives a Ferrari. [But] I wouldn’t do her job.”
Developer
$146,770
“I was a developer for a company that did something similar. We would ‘streamline customer experience’ which normally meant building customer self-service portals so the client could lay off call center and customer support employees, basically anybody whose job was deemed a cost center. It was hell, and jerks ran the company, and I was happy to leave.”
Abattoir Vet
$100,370
“Abattoir vet pays quite well, but few who are qualified from the UK want to do it. That’s been a problem as the vets from EU countries who were working in these jobs go back to the EU and no one replaces them. You can’t legally slaughter animals without veterinary inspection, so that’s a problem for the national meat supply.”
High-Rise Window Cleaner
$48,038 a year
“I don’t know if this is true, but I heard that you can make £50k+ per year cleaning windows on high-rise buildings in London. Plus, if all fails, be a PMO or a tester on software projects. Contract £100k per year, skill level =5/100, and job satisfaction 1/100.”
High Ropes Instructor
$54,848
“I’m a high ropes instructor when I’m not at uni and once you’re working at height a lot of doors can open. One of my old managers left to do something at height for BT and he makes a fortune now.
What I do isn’t really dangerous unless you’re an idiot or the whole safety system fails, but when in the big leagues, it definitely can be.”
Sewage Worker
$58,000
“A mate of mine did some sewage work between jobs. Said it was disgusting. Other guys he worked with had lost his sense of smell and didn’t care too much.”
Animal Gender Specialist
$61,300
“If you do that the boys get sexed and then euthanized a day later. I say ‘euthanized’.”
“I saw a video of what happens to them the other day, and they were literally going along a conveyor belt, alive, and dropping right into a shredder.”
Utility Worker
$44,164
“I subcontract for a utility company working with the city’s water service, reinstating tarmac after repairs and maintenance. Wage is negotiable depending on qualifications/experience. I average around £900-£1200 a week after tax, and I am self-employed.”
“Early starts, sometimes late finishes. But health and safety are paramount and audited. The only gripe is… you can work long hours.”
STUCK IN THE 60S: 10 THINGS BABY BOOMERS REFUSE TO LET GO OF
Memories of the “good old days” keep us trapped in the past. Baby boomers love to retell tales of how it was “in my day.” At the same time, millennials will tell them to get with the times. Being stuck in a time warp from which they don’t want to snap out of, here are things that baby boomers still think are fantastic.
STUCK IN THE 60S: 10 THINGS BABY BOOMERS REFUSE TO LET GO OF
16 ANNOYING PHRASES THAT MAKE PEOPLE IMMEDIATELY HATE YOU!
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OBSOLETE MILLENNIALS: 14 SKILLS THEY LEARNED IN THE 90S THAT HAVE NO PLACE IN TODAY’S WORLD
A lot has changed since the turn of the century – just ask this nostalgic lot!
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These 12 professions that are now obsolete show how much the times have changed.
THE FALL FROM GRACE: 12 PROFESSIONS THAT WERE ONCE REVERED, NOW A TOTAL JOKE
FROM ‘OKAY BOOMER’ TO ‘UGH BOOMER’: 10 HABITS THAT IRRITATE MILLENNIALS
Each generation has its quirks. Most label it as an “old person thing” when asked why grandpa or grandma does something unusual. The defense from the other side is that “it was the way things were back in our day.”
FROM ‘OKAY BOOMER’ TO ‘UGH BOOMER’: 10 HABITS THAT IRRITATE MILLENNIALS