AH Careers Day! What's your job, and what do you love/hate about it?

Andy-Pandy · 06-12-2013 05:56PM

I'm a gardener

Love that I get to spend my days making beautiful spaces more beautiful.

Hate days of leaf blowing in Autumn and long hours all the time (I don't hate either)

Legs.Eleven · 06-12-2013 06:53PM

TEFL teacher.

Love: The great chats with lovely people; I've been very lucky in that all my students have been lovely bar one or two. The laughs and the craic and the general social aspect to it, which is guaranteed here in Spain. Also seeing hard-working students improve. Being in complete control of my classes and not having a boss breathing down your neck telling you what to do. I can also decide how many hours I want to work.

Hate: The unsociable hours, students who believe they'll learn English by simply sitting in class, the lack of recognition of a good job from the academies, the instability pay-wise and the fact that you can never have a bad day - you always have to be upbeat, "dynamic" (they love that word here) and on.

I think the good outweighs the bad generally though.

Ficheall · 06-12-2013 07:07PM

Job: Postdoctoral researcher
Things I dislike: I've been here for two months already and I haven't a ****ing clue what's going on.
Things I like: Nobody has noticed yet and they're still paying me.

UCDVet · 06-12-2013 07:19PM

Dunno if this counts but....

I'm a student.
I hate it.
I hate the overpriced tuition.
I hate the uncaring professors.
I hate the bureaucracy (oh no, you can't take THAT class! You have to take THIS class!).
I hate how much time it takes.
I hate how disconnected it is from the actual work I hope to do some day.
I really hate the tuition.

boobar · 06-12-2013 07:32PM

[*]What is your job? IT - Project Manager
[*]What do you love about it? Reasonably good pay, interesting sometimes, I'm not out in the rain breaking rocks.
[*]What do you hate about it? Sometimes unrealistic expectations from moronic people.

ian87 · 06-12-2013 07:33PM

Primary school teacher.

Love: Making the kids laugh and smile which in turn makes me smile. Explaining something to a child who doesn't get it until you see the lightbulb moment and they twig what your trying to teach. Gives me an enormous sense of satisfaction.

Hate: Paperwork. A minority of parents can just be a pain. Some people's assumptions that because I'm male and I work with small children I'm a paedo. The last person to pull that stunt wasn't threatened with a legal action and seeing a grown man's face drain of all colour was priceless. Thankfully 2 people in 5 years have said that so it's not something I have encountered much either..

Ilyana 2.0 · 06-12-2013 07:40PM

Part-time waitress

Things I like - The camaraderie with my colleagues, serving customers who we can have the craic with, not having too much responsibility, making a mean cappuccino.

Things I hate - Rude customers, incompetent management, crappy hours, crappy pay, having sore feet and a sore back after a busy shift.

larko · 06-12-2013 07:47PM

Hearing aid dispenser.

I like helping people to hear. Its rewarding. Pay is good but it took a while to get to this point. Some older people have fascinating stories and lives. It seems to be a job that recession hasnt effected much.

I hate some older people have problem dealing with a young person... like I havent a clue. It annoys me but their loss! Lots of paperwork.

lukesmom · 06-12-2013 07:49PM

Job: mother
What I like: smiling happy kids
Don't like: narky naughty kids

araic88 · 06-12-2013 07:54PM

Primary school teacher

Love: Getting to re-live my childhood, singing songs & reading stories I used to love ;-)
Receiving funny/cute notes or cards the kiddies made by themselves.
Getting to set my own timetable & coming up with ideas for art, PE etc.
Being socially accepted even when wandering around covered in glitter/paint/yoghurt.
Wearing a comfy tracksuit to work when it's PE day ;-)

Dislike: the paperwork involved that doesn't seem to benefit anyone.
A decent system seemingly being dragged to follow the British system that they've realised themselves isn't great.
Dealing with playground arguments!

06-12-2013 07:56PM

TEFL teacher

Love: the buzz of teaching a nice class, meeting new people from all over the world every day, doing a job I'm genuinely interested in, most of my colleagues are sound, can wear pretty much want I want except jeans, can be myself, can do pretty much what I want in my classes as long as students are learning/happy, it's related to what I studied for my degree.

Hate: the total instability of it - on a zero hours contract so no guaranteed work from one week to the next, which affects every aspect of my life. Can't plan holidays, can't even plan week to week because I don't know when I'll be working or how much money I'll have. Constant worry about not being able to pay the rent/bills. Other than that, the only thing I hate is some of the students and their horrendous attitude/sense of entitlement. We get a lot of rich people who think teachers are beneath them.

rustedtrumpet · 06-12-2013 07:56PM

Bartender

Great craic, funny to watch people in an awful hoop at the end of it night. Chats with customers. The odd good tip. Few drinks after work.

Having to deal with people in an awful hoop at the end of a night. Poor pay. **** hours, 5 nights a week.

cantdecide · 06-12-2013 08:05PM

homemadecider wrote: »

Lastly I always come back very jumpy if I've been staying in a place where there has been gunfire. Or tarantulas. Or both.

Tarantulas with guns? Right, I'm having nightmares tonight

Specialun · 06-12-2013 11:17PM

IT Sales Territory Manager

Pay is good and i do very little

I hate the culture multinationals create.Its very cut throat and political.I also hate that the targets rise constantly and your always chasing

mikemac1 · 06-12-2013 11:20PM

Funds Industry

Mind numbingly boring. I looooove when a client rings us just to break up the day

Pro: lots of wimmins in the office

Stheno · 06-12-2013 11:24PM

IT Consultant

Like: Variety
Dislike: Travel

mark_jmc · 06-12-2013 11:43PM

HR Manager

love the variety, everyday is different & get to be involved in all aspects of the business.

don't like: unfortunately in this day & age the job increasingly involves things like redundancies, layoffs budget cutting etc. It's not nice feeling telling people that have families etc that they are losing their jobs.

Sugar Free · 07-12-2013 12:29AM

Answers below are intentionally vague, boards has a broad reader base...

What is your job? Manager of commercial operations in a pharma company

What do you love about it? Working in a very interesting industry, getting exposure to many different aspects of the business, no two days (okay no two weeks!) the same, being trusted with a significant responsibility or three. Good pay with the potential to be great.

What do you hate about it?
Nothing really.

uch · 07-12-2013 12:32AM

What is your job? Civil Servant

What do you love about it? Getting Paid for doing very little

What do you hate about it? Being a Civil Servant, Getting Paid for doing very little

131spanner · 07-12-2013 12:47AM

My Job: Working at silage during the summers.

What I Love: Can pay well if you're busy, you get to meet people and see places, always out and about when the sun is shining, free dinners and meals

What I Hate: Customers / the weather decide what hours you work, can't plan to do anything any more than a day or two in advance, wet weather means boring days off, no income for 9 months of the year.

Overall I love it though!

reap-a-rat · 07-12-2013 12:59AM

What is your job? Software Engineer
What do you love about it? Problem-solving; some really interesting stuff I get to work with; Really nice office atmosphere as it's a smallish firm; the pay is helping me to fund a Masters for myself too!
What do you hate about it? Nothing really. Well, just the sheer frustration when what should be a relatively simple task takes a few days due to ridiculous things that you tear your hair out over. But then there's relief when you find the offending bug(s), so it's good again

homemadecider · 07-12-2013 01:04AM

cantdecide wrote: »

Tarantulas with guns? Right, I'm having nightmares tonight

That hasn't happened yet, but is surely an inevitability.

I spent 2 weeks up a mountain in the Democratic Republic of Congo practically ****ting myself everytime a gun went off. Which was quite often.

I also had an awful tarantula incident in Mozambique. Still hate thinking about it. I'm severely arachnophobic so Africa is a constant challenge for me.

Czarcasm · 07-12-2013 01:09AM

Stheno wrote: »

IT Consultant

Like: Variety
Dislike: Travel

Same as myself, almost, well, I don't mind travel around Ireland, unless you meant abroad, not that I hate flying or anything like that (though the one time I did fly, the feckers wouldn't give me a blanket and I sat in my seat like a frozen popsicle with burst eardrums! :mad:), it's just I'm not able to handle it well being so far out of my comfort zone!

I love the variety of working in different companies and showing them how IT can improve their productivity and efficiency. I also offer my services voluntarily to charities and organisations that often have all the passion and want to help people, but are lacking the business savvy to run operations, so sometimes I find myself tying in with the finance department, marketing and PR, HR, getting really stuck in

The one thing I dislike is when I come across people resistant to change, who prefer things done "the way they were always done" or in a couple of cases people who had completely the wrong attitude needed to make the business or the charity a success, and trying to motivate these people to get them on board and enthusiastic about new procedures and policies.

It's kinda coincidental reading this thread here as just tonight now I'm a bit old school in ways myself, so when I got an e-mail earlier there from one of my old bosses sending me a link to his new Twitter profile, I just thought "Oh hell no!" :pac:

I absolutely detest social media, but I understand at the same time that it can be an invaluable business tool... just not for me though, wrecks my brain...

WorkingLady · 07-12-2013 01:11AM

I'm a self employed accountant.

I love working with business owners and being the one that sometimes they turn to and rely on for advice. Being self employed always gives me the opportunity to be more flexible for my family of needed.

What I hate is how administrative and regulatory the job has become. Endless paperwork for audits. It should be more about doing the job rather than how it's done.

Czarcasm · 07-12-2013 01:21AM

WorkingLady wrote: »

I'm a self employed accountant.

I love working with business owners and being the one that sometimes they turn to and rely on for advice. Being self employed always gives me the opportunity to be more flexible for my family of needed.

What I hate is how administrative and regulatory the job has become. Endless paperwork for audits. It should be more about doing the job rather than how it's done.

This is one of the things that kills me actually, but moreso with charities where their funders require a set of audited accounts on paper, or actually one freight company I worked with where all their shipping documents had to be on paper. I'm a big believer in "the paperless office", not even so much for recycling purposes but more for just efficiency, but trying to roll that out in an organisation can sometimes lead to pure head melt!

Musefan · 07-12-2013 01:23AM

Psychologist

What I like: seeing people change the way they speak about themselves. Giving them some bits of simple practical advice that makes a wee bit of an improvement. I like the research bit too.

What I don't like: encountering a particularly tragic case or situation. Tend to take it home with me and it plays on my mind.

Galwayguy35 · 07-12-2013 03:41AM

131spanner wrote: »

My Job: Working at silage during the summers.

What I Love: Can pay well if you're busy, you get to meet people and see places, always out and about when the sun is shining, free dinners and meals

What I Hate: Customers / the weather decide what hours you work, can't plan to do anything any more than a day or two in advance, wet weather means boring days off, no income for 9 months of the year.

Overall I love it though!

The brother did that for a few summers as well, wrapping the bales, long hours and very little sleep over the 3 months.

MadsL · 07-12-2013 04:32AM

WorkingLady wrote: »

I'm a self employed accountant.

Username implies different

Canis Lupus · 07-12-2013 05:25AM

What I do: Anti card fraud.

Pro: I work 4 days on 4 days off. 2 shifts involve no management and are at odd hours so plenty of relaxed time to watch tv and kick around in casual clothes. 4 days off means lots of time to myself. Job is interesting enough.

Cons: 12 hour shifts can be a touch hard at times and the overall boss is a small bit of a powerfreak but really only minor blemishes on a job I currently love.

bodice ripper · 07-12-2013 01:02PM

Job: Tattooist
Pros: I never have to be up before 11.30am. I will never have to deal with a HR manager. Sometimes I make people so happy they cry.
Cons: Long hours, no job security, no pay increases, no pension, no healthcare, no paid holidays, no paid sick leave, increased risk of contracting hepatitis tb etc.

AH Careers Day! What's your job, and what do you love/hate about it?

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