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85 Professionals Share What The General Public Doesn’t Know About Their Jobs
Work secrets can sometimes be funny, enlightening, or just give us a peek at the reality behind the job.
The people on the inside know far more than the rest of us can imagine — only a restaurant worker can tell how your food is really handled, and only a therapist knows where they get their motivational quotes from.
But the internet is bringing these hidden truths to light, and what’s common knowledge inside the industry can sometimes surprise you.
Scroll through these secrets that some professionals recently shared, and see if you can relate to your own job, or if you had any idea this stuff was happening.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Disability insurance. We hire private investigators to videotape people and hunt around for them online all the time if they're suspected of fraud. I can't count the number of videos I've seen of people dancing at nightclubs and posting on Meetup begging for a x-country ski partner while they're claiming they're in too much pain to do their desk jobs and collecting fat disability checks.
I have no pity, either. People like that make it much harder for people with actual problems to get the benefits they require to get better, which is heartbreaking.
Peeka_Mimi 2 hours ago
As a disabled woman, this is BS. We are not allowed to have good days? I have like 1 or 2 good days a month and that means I can get out of bed/off the couch and maybe go on a little walk. I would very much like to go dancing again snf if I'm ever able to, I know that I will be bedridden for days afterwards, possibly sm entire month but it would be so worth it. People like you make me sick. Btw I'm certain social security sent a PI after me during an investigation and I probably bored them to tears because I don't step outside that often. I get everything delivered.
RELATED:
#2
Professional musician here.
Except in rare cases of absolute genius, "talent" doesn't have much to do with success in the real world - you become a great musician the same way you become a great programmer or a great writer: by putting in a lot of hours.
#3
Writer/Director here: Actors are - by far - the most over-rated (and over-paid) profession! None of them can act their way out of a paper bag. If you see dailies, they're just attrocious. If you look at the performances alone, a hundred million dollar film looks like a student film. There is only one reason why actors are so popular and command so much money: their editors! You wouldn't believe how important a good editor is to a film or television performance. FAR more important than the actor him or herself...
People are talking about their jobs more than ever online. With social media’s reach, platforms like Reddit, LinkedIn, and Glassdoor let employees expose the behind-the-scenes truths in a safe environment.
It’s easy to reach tons of people through social media and you also have the option stay anonymous if you want.
#4
Visual effect artist, Actors are as modified in movies as they are in magazines. Skin correction, akward smile correction, one eye is more closed than another one in a frame, we correct that, smaller waist, longer legs, bigger arms, six pack... there is a lot of fake involved.
#5
Environmental scientist - water from a municipal water source is just as or more sanitary than bottled water.
A 2023 survey by LinkedIn found that 60% of workers feel confident in sharing their workplace experiences on social media.
Whether it’s toxic work environments, shady practices or just some well-kept secrets that the public should know, employees are not shying away from lifting the curtain.
#6
In the Army, you will do a helluva lot of landscaping.
#7
The Frozen Yogurt where I work at is not fat free nor organic as we are made to say.
The Yogurt culture (a small cup of actual yogurt) used to make the 4 Gallons of the mixture IS organic. However, the milk, yogurt base, and flavoring used to make what is essentially 95% of the served product is not.
In a way, the Yogurt IS organic and fat free , what you're eating is not.
#8
Research is never as cool as you think it is....even when there's fire and lasers involved. Most of the equipment I use is 20+ years old and often duct-taped together.
#9
Cupcake Bakery: Contrary to popular belief, freezing cupcakes actually makes the cake more moist than the "freshly baked" cupcakes. In fact, we don't sell ANY cupcakes that were baked that day because they just aren't as moist as the ones that have been in our walk-in overnight.
There can be several reasons why these employees are revealing truths that rarely make it to those outside their profession.
When the public starts paying attention, companies are often forced to fix toxic practices if there are any, and make the workplace better — for employees as well as the customers.
If someone working in hospitality exposes unsafe kitchen practices like poor hygiene, it might scare away customers and push the company to either clean up its act or go out of business.
#10
Meteorologist (in school): The 5-day or 7-day or longer forecasts are completely useless and only made because people would get upset if we didn't. You could probably do just about as good yourself on anything more than 48 hours away just by reasonable guessing based on the time of year.
#11
I'm a Professor at a large university
Most days I don't feel like an expert at all.
Employees also want to show people what their jobs are really like day to day, and that some professions are much more than stereotypes.
It’s also a way to challenge common misconceptions — who knew Army personnel spent a lot of time doing landscaping, or that some therapists got into the field because of their own personal struggles?
These stories also help us see the human side of the jobs, rather than just the clichés or scandals.
#13
Lawyer
Juries have a right (a subsequent comment argues this is a power, not a right) to render a non-guilty verdict even in the face of overwhelming evidence of guilt. This is called Jury Nullification.
Nowadays, this is supposed to be a huge secret (although as noted in comments below, it is a frequent topic on law related tv shows). Defense attorneys are not even allowed to inform a jury that this possibility exists. Many jury instructions will hide this fact, suggesting that juries are required to vote guilty if the prosecutor's burden has been met. I originally posted this here because I find it strange that the legal system goes to such lengths to hide this option from juries.
If you are a jury member for an individual that has been charged with a victimless crime (or any crime I guess), such as non-violent illegal substance possession, you can simply refuse to vote guilty despite all evidence of guilt if you feel it would be unjust to apply the law. If you plan on doing this, don't mention it during jury selection or the DA will strike you from the jury.
EDIT: I should clarify that this is for the United States.
EDIT: For the sake of my professional ethics, I want to state that I'm not giving legal advice about the repercussions of attempting to nullify a jury on your life. I imagine it depends on jurisdiction and local court rules. I also should be working and there are better sources of information out there about jury nullification than me, so I don't think I'll respond to too many questions.
#14
Karate Teacher
I'll never teach you the 5 point palm exploding heart technique because I don't know it.
#16
**Sysadmin;** You think we don't do anything and fire us. Your entire infrastructure falls to pieces. *(Not a threat.)*.
farbenzirkel 30 minutes ago
It’s the classic Admin Paradox: When everything runs smoothly, people think you're unnecessary. When things break, people think you're incompetent. There is no winning.
With these stories, people who are planning a career in a particular field can get a reality check and know what to expect before starting a job.
These little anecdotes show that no job is as glamorous, or as scary, as it’s often made out to be — a musician pointing out that practice is more important than talent reveals what skills really matter, not just what a job looks like from the outside.
#17
I have worked lots of jobs:
Investment Banker: We know exactly what we are doing. (Yes we knew the real estate bubble was gonna blow, but everyone was playing chicken trying to be the last one that leaves before the collapse.) And those "complicated, convoluted" derivatives that nobody understands, are actually very simple and easy to understand when they are explained correctly.
Tobacco industry: Its so profitable you would be stunned. Ever wondered how they paid the fines the US slapped them with without so much as a hiccup? Oh and all the smuggled "fakes"....the original brand holder gets paid for that.
#18
Vet tech. If it seems like your pet has spent an unusually long amount of time in "the back", it might be because we think it's extra cute, and are petting it/playing with it/taking it around for all the employees to fawn over.
Edit for any skeptics: obviously, there are many reasons why we've had your pet a little longer than usual. But this is definitely one of them, and it's my favorite.
#19
Cancer research: Basic biology/chemistry will do more for all scientific fields than cancer/ALS/parkinsons/etc. research ever could. However, people would rather donate money to save/cure than develop/grow.
Secondly, most people wouldn't think twice about the disease if they aren't affected directly (friends or family).
As consumers, we often only care about the end result. But it’s important to know if the food you’re eating is fresh and clean, or if the lawyer you are hiring is working hard enough or not.
It can even help us make decisions on how to approach a certain professional, whether to show more empathy or a little healthy suspicion.
Behind every product we buy or a service we get, there’s a whole wide world most of us never see, and these stories leave us with a bit more understanding of what really goes on at a workplace.
#20
Computer programmer
We were never actually trained on how to make your printer work.
Lost Panda 2 hours ago
Been in IT for about 15 years. Was not trained on most of what I do. Most has been training myself and trial by fire
#21
Comedy writer.
It takes a team of people to make your favorite people look brilliant.
EDIT: I posted this in one place, but I'll move it up here - I'd rather not list where I've written / who I've written for. I'm okay with talking about what it's like being a comedy writer for TV & video games & Internet, but I don't want this to become me defending my current & former bosses, some of which are my friends and some of which are people I don't like personally but need professionally so I can pay rent.
#22
Sushi chef: Ahi Tuna is actually just Yellow fin tuna,its the lowest quality sushi grade tuna you can get. People come in all the time and ask if we have Ahi,then scoff when I say that we carry Big Eye and Blue fin which is the highest grade you can get.
#23
Casino Security
If you're ever in a casino, and see a chair tipped over against a wall, or covered in a garbage bag, don't sit in it. Odds are some has either releaved themselves on it or thrown up on themselves. Why didn't they get up? The next slot spin is going to be a winner!
#25
I'm a lifeguard, I've seen a lot of kids get certified who would probably fall apart if a real emergency occurred while they were on duty.
Mojavedog 2 hours ago
I was an ICU nurse at one point in my career and was flabbergasted at how an older, more experienced RN reacted to a code blue. She was a chaotic mess and I just stood there watching her run around in a panic. I felt like grabbing her from the collar and throwing her out of the room. Fortunately, there were plenty of very capable people there that actually helped the patient.
#26
Orchestral musician: we fake a LOT up there on stage.
emorinelli49 1 hour ago
I was in a chorus once and the director told us if we couldn’t reach a note (I was an alto) just go down one octave and sing the note. This isn’t actually incompetence, but it does change the tenor of the music.
#27
Currently unemployed teacher (working as other stuff right now):
I cannot magically fix your children. My students learn to respect the rules and procedures in class,but if they go home and there are no rules? Yeah, good luck with that. Believe it or not, you actually have some role in your child's education and upbringing.
TL;DR: I'm not a wizard, despite what the American public may think.
#28
Most of the work you're paying your attorney to do is being done by a paralegal.
#29
Make up Industry: Most make up actually ages women.
Daisydaisy 51 minutes ago
This!!! I don't think women realise how terrifying they look out in the sunlight with their pancake make up and eyeshadow and lipstick and all. Ageing drag queens. Less is more, people!
#30
Audio engineer.
Recording; just how produced stuff is. Like 30 guitar tracks produced. How many bands rely on session musicians. How many "ghost" members of bands they are. How few people write their own songs (hint, the more popular, the less likely they wrote their own stuff). Autotune. Autotune everywhere.
Live; How much precorded material there is. Backing tacks, backup vocals, etc.
edit: To add, almost every working musician comes from a priviledged background. Classical musicians tend to wear it on their sleeve and behave with quite an elitist bent. Pop musicians do a lot to downplay it, but are no less priviledged. The idea of coming from poverty and putting a garage band with a few buddies is just pr. Usually they grow up taking private lessons, have a stable environment to develop virtuosity, go to a good music school and buy a bunch of gear with an inheritance. I do know one neumetal type band that was popular for a minute a while back that found a way around it. They stole and embezzled from their jobs. 10's of thousands of dollars worth.
#31
Service clerk
If something isn't on the shelf then we most likely don't have it and asking me to "check the back" for it really just gives me a chance to check my phone for text messages.
#32
Dry cleaning involves liquid.
#33
Journalist: Ultimately it's about the reader's entertainment, not so much the relevance of the story.
Zig Zag Wanderer 1 minute ago
Of course. Some people imagine that journalists have a 'duty' to be accurate and unbiased. BS. They only have a duty to prevent all the advertising running together.
#34
You know those fancy defense lawyers or public defenders you hire? Yeah, the DA knows them better than you do. When you aren't in the room, they tell jokes, about you.
#36
I work at a fireworks store. I answer your questions by reading the package and guessing what it does.
#37
Doctor here.
We do not always have a way of figuring out what's wrong with you. There is no magic test that will prove beyond any doubt exactly what you have. Furthermore, diagnosis of disease is not reached by following an algorithm. This isn't math, your body didn't read my textbook, and more often than not, there's not something I'm "missing". In fact, every doctor I know orders WAY TOO MANY tests, just to be sure they don't miss anything. Dumb doctors are few and far between. Jerks are not, but don't confuse the two.
It took over 100 years of medical science to establish certain diseases as distinct entities, and many are rare or have convoluted criteria that only a few patients actually fill.
So be patient, realize that I'm human and cannot retain the entirety of medical knowledge within my brain, and know that I'm working hard to help you get better. And you will be the last thing I think about before I go to sleep.
Daisydaisy 48 minutes ago
I have a lot of respect for doctors who admit they don't always know. Good care must include honesty!
#38
I work as a gas station attendant. I'm just a monkey in a suit. I don't have any actual control over the gas prices.
*Nobody seems to realize this.*.
#39
Meat processor:
Many of the people who work in the industry are convicted felons who don't care about food safety processes. One USDA agent can not monitor the actions of 250 people. We deal with listeria on a daily basis and sometimes it gets so out of hand that we have to shut down lines. The meat done that day is still sent out.
#40
Money talks.
Casino security.
You play $20/hand, maybe $1000 between gambling and food and everything and get in a fight in the hotel, you're probably going to jail. At the very least you're being removed from the hotel.
On the other hand, if you spend hours at our high-stakes table, all other circumstances being equal, we will come to the room, tell you you're disturbing your neighbors, and please don't do that again.
Same with basically anything that happens in a casino. We hate the people with money, because they can get away with being the biggest jerks on the planet. But since their one weekend keeps the lights on in our casino for 6 months ,we have to let them do as they wish, basically.
#42
Therapist: most people get into the field as a result of their own personal struggles or messed up families. As a field, we are probably the most "messed up".
Lost Panda 2 hours ago
We had a saying in the AF Hospital. "The only thing different between the 4Cs and their patients is their badge."
#43
Nuclear Nonproliferation Analyst
Radiation Monitors at ports of entry are better at detecting kitty litter and toilet seats than weaponized uranium.
#44
IT tech support:
Printers are the bane of our existence.
If we look like we aren't busy its because we either have what we're working on automated, or we're waiting on something to finish loading. We're not being lazy.
**edit**: Just to clarify I'm saying we're not lazy from an outsider's take on our downtime. Yes we sit around a lot, but as GeneralKang, Hammer2000 and a few others pointed out below, it's because we were proactive against problems, not because we're avoiding work.
#45
Advertising Copywriter.
There's very little manipulation or psychology involved. 99% of the time its just dudes in a room yakking about funny things and then writing them down. Then the account people retroactively justify to the client why it makes sense with a bunch of fancy science, but believe me, there is very little "THIS will trick them!!!" going on.
emorinelli49 1 hour ago
I will often see an ad I really like and think to myself. I wonder what they were all talking about in that room?
#46
Sales - The more expensive something is, the less logic people use to decide if they are going to buy it. People will buy a 50k car because it's red, and scrutinize the calories in a $1.50 snack.
...Oh, and for all you tech guys, this is especially true when your boss is deciding what equipment/network options you are going to have. Chances are he bought what he did because someone gave him tickets to some sporting event, not because it's what you actually needed/requested.
#47
Marketing & PR: most of the magazine articles you read are influenced by the advertising dollars spent or the schmoozing by the PR pros...
#48
I worked at an amusement park, the ride operators that you trust so dearly with your lives in checking your restraints are mostly kids who do nothing and their main job is to count how many people are on the ride. I had a chest restraint actually come unlocked when I checked it once and my co-worker tried to convince me to run the ride still.
#50
Federal Economist
If you call any of my agency's data help lines you will be connected with an actual economist to answer your question. I have found that most statistical agencies are the same way.
#51
Dock worker: (Building skids, handling airline baggage, handling your shipments)
Your "Fragile" stickers are useless. Your "Do Not Stack" stickers are useless. Your "This End Up" stickers, your "High Value Item" stickers, your "do not tilt" stickers, and that lock on your suitcase are all useless. They are there to give you peace of mind.
Oh and we JUST started screening all of the things that go into passenger aircraft starting last year. And THAT screening process? Yep, you guessed it - useless.
#52
Worked at a extremely high class tourist trap last summer, and occasionally we would open up a "fresh squeezed lemonade" cart on the hottest days. Customers went crazy for it when they asked if it was really fresh squeezed and I had to reply that yes, it was.
It was mixed up in a huge bucket with country time powdered lemonade, and we transfered it to a fancy clear dispenser, dropped some lemons in to float on the top, no one knew the difference.
TL;DR don't trust what people tell you that you are eating or drinking.
#53
Experimental Social Psychologist -
75% of the research studies conducted to gain insight on "general" human social interaction rely on data from subjects who are overwhelmingly (1) Caucasian, (2) liberal, (3) intelligent, (4) and between the ages of 18 and 22.
#54
The sworn enemy of physical therapy is chiropractors. The do not fix you as a whole organic kinetic structure. They manually manipulate your skeleton with out processing the musculature too. Its like adjusting the girders on a building without then adjusting the rest of the external components. The girders would be pulled out of place again eventually! And sadly you have to pay a chiropractor to maintain a pain free stability, when physical therapists adjust bones, strengthen and stretch muscles properly, use pain ridding modalities, and give you therapeutic exercise to fix what ails ya. And everything they do for you they teach you to do at home. Both holistic; PTs not a rip off. O:-).
#55
Not mine, but I was talking to a scientist who mainly researches collagen and when I asked "tell me the most interesting thing about collagen" she replied. "It can't be supplemented. Skin cream, collogen drinks, pills, none of it."
All that money you're wives are spending on those expensive anti-aging cosmetics won't save them from becoming leather face. Sorry :(.
#56
I have my degree in aerospace engineering, and have done considerable work as an uneducated construction worker. The plans that the workers get are often times impossible to construct. Pipes run through ducts, or are accidently planned to end in the ground doing nothing. Fire alarm pull stations are located inside walls or on ceilings.
"Field fixes" wouldn't be quite so necessary if plans were polished a little more.
David Paterson 29 minutes ago
I discovered as a young engineer that "polishing plans" for a one-off project is a horrible waste of time. Field fixes do the job better, and very much faster.
#57
I work at a college dining hall. The 4-cheese calzones really contain only 3 types of cheeses. A pinch of mozzarella gets sprinkled on the top and that counts as the fourth cheese.
Lost Panda 2 hours ago
I mean technically that would be four cheeses, so yes it would count, but some how still feel robbed.
#58
My company has a piece of software (hosted by us) in which the usernames and passwords are meaningless, it uses a long unencrypted number. When the customers call and ask us to change their username or password we tell them to hold on, clack the keyboard a bit, then tell them they're all set.
#59
Personal Trainer
6-pack abs are the result of proper nutrition, not 45 minutes of ab work.
If you put most personal trainers in an empty studio with just some dumbbells and asked them to develop 5 days worth of programming, they'd be done for. PT's live on machines these days.
Everyone is capable of having an awesome body; you just have to want it badly enough.
#61
Subway...the lite mayo and the normal mayo are the SAME mayo...dunndunnduhhhh.
#62
Industrial Engineer
Your company's processes are always going to have room for improvement, because we need the work.
#63
Music Education
There is an large amount of worthless teachers in this profession. There are college students that can play and teach better than a lot of the high school band directors out there. However, the directors that are good, are some of the best educators in the country. The best ones are able to make their 13-18 year old students play and sound like they are adults. Pretty incredible if you ask me.
#64
A human body cannot be completely consumed in a fire.
I am referring to most fires, thermite reactions and lava pits might do the trick.
#66
Shaolin Kung fu practitioner with an actual Shaolin Monk as trainer, and soon to be ordained warrior monk.
Most of these aren't secret but people don't get to know it either.
- A real kung fu master has a complete knowledge of combat mechanics and behavior and there's basically nothing you can do to impress them. When you become a master you can basically improvise anything in combat and it **will be awesome**. Also it's not enough to know the serie, you have to know what each single move means. That's why people can't fight with it.
- People with 1 year of Dengfeng training (not for lawais/foreigners), not necessarily in Shaolin, can break bones and do far better than the usual people you see giving seminars that cost 2k for 2 days of training. In two weeks you can be jumping double mortals in the air and doing all short of amazing stuff. The training is living hell altho.
- **EDIT:** You can train in dengfeng for around 3k USD a year (wrote 30K before the edit), incluiding food and shelter but not your plane ticket.
- The orange suit is the standard suit training, it doesn't mean anything. All other keisha colors are normal suits also, except maroon suits which are only for fashi (knowers of the law or dharma). Altho you can have a suit and it doesn't even mean you are a monk. You can buy them for around 4 dollars.
- Chi kung is traditional chinese medicine + yoga bases + kung fu. It won't make you float, and it won't eradicate all diseases. What it makes is that it makes your body stronger and eliminates the damage you are doing to yourself (stress, bad positions, etc.); this alone can cure many things.
- Real monks never carry, or almost never carry rosaries. Rosaries are for sutra repetitions and you only need *one* at most. It's like bringing a hammer everywhere if you are a a construction worker.
- Goku's first Dragon Ball training with Roshi are actually a very good representation of kung fu training in almost all senses.
- Shaolin monks that practice kung fu is only 1/3 of the monks that live there. Most of them only practice Chan.
- Monks are like regular people. They have computers, cellphones and have affairs outside the monastery. Warrior monks only have to make three vows: teach buddhism everywhere they go, have at least 1 disciple in their life, behave according to Shaolin's laws anywhere they go.
- There are not belts or physical grades in Shaolin because -according to Buddhism- what you are is not defined by what you physically have with you.
- If you never give up and stop trying even tho you have failed and have a good hearth, you are already practicing kung fu and you can train in Shaolin and any master will be glad to teach you.
- 99% Shaolin schools of the world, including China, aren't Shaolin at all.
#67
Aerospace Engineer
Every aircraft you've even flown in has hundreds of cracks, dents, and just plain broken parts even if it is brand new.
On the plus side we do design for that. A crack can grow to 3 feet on a 737 between inspections before it becomes a serious problem. For a good example of aerospace fail-safe design, see the recent Southwest 737 incident. It's a perfect example of how we design crack propagation to stop before it endangers the aircraft.
#68
The stuff people complain about tends to be very different from the stuff that actually causes harm.
[Patient Safety/Risk].
#69
Advertising.
While the best of us know how to brand your company 10x better than you do, the profession is being replaced by waves of talentless hacks pushed out from under-qualified art schools.
#70
High School English teacher:
I wish we could skip a lot of the required texts, too, but I hope my annoying enthusiasm will get us all through alive.
ETA: I also answer more questions about grammar from other (English) teachers than from my students. I think the only reason they ask me is because they know I'm a freelancer on the side so I write more often than they do.
#71
I can build a complete, functioning website that will satisfy 99% of clients in less than three hours. Or rather, I'm able to do that, but clients waste so much time that what could be a one week turnaround stretches into months.
Web designers are rarely the reason it takes a month or more to launch a site.
#72
Surgical resident here: Many of the country's most illustrious hospitals are teaching hospitals. At these institutions, the interns are usually the first responders to an emergency (well the first physician). As an intern, you have NO idea how many times i looked up a condition/treatment in a book/online while a patient is having an acute episode of something i should be taking care of right away. Beyond that, residents are still challenged with things they have NO IDEA how to handle but the patient is decompensating fast so they do their best while a nurse or someone calls the attending physician to bail him/her out.
#73
Bartender here. I don't know if this qualifies as interesting, but I figured I'd mention it anyway. You know the fruit we garnish your drinks with? It is filthy. Our hands get sticky from making drinks all night and we're constantly touching those warm, unrefrigerated fruit bins. The fruit is probably a few days old, too.
#74
Biochemistry graduate student
Most of the worlds research is conducted by 20 somethings who barely understand what they are researching and often have to ad-hoc methods to get results. Scientists who actually know what they are doing rarely work at the bench and instead manage the research, if they are lucky to get a job at all.
#75
Computer Consulting: You pay us $250/hour to do stuff you should be able to do yourself.
Daisydaisy 44 minutes ago
But maybe any expert would say that? Plumbers, mechanics, builders? What seems easy and straightforward to you might not be to everyone
#76
Jewelry Salesperson: Not really a secret, but yeah, there's something to the over/false valuation of diamonds. That being said, because of online retailers, my profit margins on loose diamonds aren't nearly as high as the other stuff I sell. Gold, for example. While my cost is climbing without mercy, I still operate with close to 60-80% margin, and that includes diamond rings. That three carat in my case, however, may retail for $28k, but my cost is probably closer to $22k or $24k. As a free-standing store, I pay almost $1 mil/year in utilities and lot rent alone; That doesn't include payroll and an average of 2% commissions. My store carries an extremely trendy line of charm bracelets. While most of the charms are silver and run ~$35, my cost is roughly 1/3rd that price, and the cost to manufacture the charm is closer to $3 or $4. When someone offers to buy your used or broken gold jewelry, the price being offered is off of scrapping the piece. You will NEVER sell a piece of jewelry for what you paid for it, if you paid retail. I'd do an AMA if anyone was interested, but I'm pretty sure no one cares enough. I know I sure wouldn't.
#77
Well here's between me and 2 of my other friends.
Busboy/Waiter at a Restaurant:
Cleaning your plates has zero effect on how fast and effective I can clean your table. Also, it works out to be somewhat racist. You can tell 99.5% of the time by their race what they want and how they want to be served. They will smile and like you more if you automatically "know".
Security Guard at a Theme Park:
The guard himself/herself has a tremendous amount of say on whether or not your conduct warrants kicking you out of the park or to simply leave you with a warning. Don't be stupid in dealing with them. You can also work as a security guard despite a lack of education/experience or even certification and be paid to walk or stand around.
Retailer at a Paint Store:
Workers all dread the same word, "Brush-out". It's where you grab a board, paint it with whatever stock color the customer wants, dry it out, paint it again for a second coat, let it dry, and hand it to the customer for free. Brush-outs are painfully time consuming and add up in costs to the store. Some customers demand brush-outs in every single color, in every shade of brightness on a weekly basis despite there being cards already painted with stock colors. They are essentially DDOS-ing a store in real life.
#78
Private school teacher/tutor:
I was not trained to teach anyone. I just started doing it - "fake it 'til you make it." I don't imagine this is much of a secret.
#79
Locksmith
We are unregulated in most states. Yes, that means you can get out of prison one day and be a locksmith the next :/.
#80
IT Consulting firms like Accenture and Deloitte hire people who have absolutely no idea what they're doing and throw them from task to task as if they're all interchangeable. The dude managing your $5 million data migration probably doesn't know how a database works, and the Indian programmers he's managing may have never seen your DBMS before. You pay $150 an hour for the manager and $50 an hour for the programmers. They make a fraction of that and deserve less. You could hire freelancers who would do the work quicker, cheaper and better, but you don't because then you wouldn't get to have a smiling sales executive take you out to dinner twice a week with your own money.
**edit**: Wow, Reddit, this is the highest-voted comment I've ever had on this site. Most of you are agreeing with me, but some are disagreeing. The people who are disagreeing have simply been consuming too much company Kool-Aid for too many years, and now actually believe the nonsense they've been telling clients for so long. Pity them.
Fact: People are placed randomly based on project need, not the consultant's skill set. I was once thrown onto a project at a pharmaceutical company where I had to deal with incredibly complex chemical formulas in order to even begin to understand my work. I had no background in chemistry, but was hired because I was the first available resource they could find who knew anything about databases. Even with that, this was my first time ever working with Oracle. That project started over 18 months ago and was slated to be a three-month project. It is still going on.
Fact: I worked on an internal custom development project to create some new accounting software. Nothing fancy, basically a grid for people to enter numbers into, save those numbers into the database, and then allow people to run some simple reports. It came in millions of dollars over budget and never met a single deadline.
Fact: I worked on a project where my company was hired to recommend a CRM package for a huge insurance company. We reviewed every CRM package on the market and far and away Siebel was the best fit for the client's requirements--draft one of every document we produced said so. We then selected the CEO's son-in-law's company's product instead, because that's what we were hired to do.
Fact: I worked with offshore developers who billed hours and hours and hours to clients and never checked in a line of code. Why? They could not speak the English language, and we were never able to communicate requirements to them. Somebody probably paid over $100k each for their time, though.
I could go on, but I don't need to.
#82
Manufacturing engineer. Probably around 70% of improvements in industrial processes are common sense. The rest are trial and error.
#84
If you buy a cheap HP printer, call the helpdesk and claim it's not working properly, like printing double/ghosting, they'll send you a new one and you don't have to send back yours. It's considered scrap. Now you got two printers.
#85
My big secret?
That I have to put together nearly impossible (at times) plans that engineers come up with. They have no actual experience with construction and have never been in the field, spending all their time on a computer instead of actual job experience with the actual methods, tools and materials needed to do a proper job.
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