The world is your oyster and you can be whoever you want to be.
That all looks good enough on motivational bumper stickers, but IRL, what you want to be is vastly determined by your world view.
Let’s face it: Your choice of profession when you were still being potty-trained rarely looks anything like the career you’re actually pursuing, now that you’re wearing your grown-up pants.
We wish we could all be stylish con artists or sociopathic detectives solving crimes (No shit, Sherlock!), but who are we kidding here? We’ll probably end up being cashiers at the local bank or grossly underpaid police officers with a paunch.
Let’s share in our misery then, on this drab weekday, and daydream about how these fictional versions of real-life professions misled us big time!
Writers
Often portrayed as the brooding, mysterious type, their creative genius either misunderstood or widely appreciated, creative professions such as writers or artists have always had a certain lure.
Of course, you wanted to be mystery novelist Richard Castle who also happens to be an expert crime fighter. Or a comic-writer-turned-author who’ll manage to convince the estranged love of his life to return to him, Â Ã la Saif Ali Khan in Hum Tum. And don’t even get us started on Carrie Bradshaw with her sky-high Manolo Blahniks and her perfect New York life.
But when reality strikes, you’ll probably struggle with joblessness, get paid peanuts, succumb to client/editor expectations or end up writing tech manuals.
All this, while you’re almost working on the idea for the book that will change your life.
Lawyers
If Harvey Specter’s life is any indication, the legal profession is all about wearing Tom Ford suits, sprouting killer arguments in the courtroom, crushing your enemies and driving off in a vintage Mustang to meet your girlfriend at EOD.
But what shows like Boston Legal and Suits don’t tell you, is that the legal profession for starters can actually be highly underpaying and overwhelming. It’ll take you years and years of struggle to reach a point where you can demand a hefty fee.
Moreover, you can never pull stunts like surprise witnesses or loud monologues like Sunny paji because that would be contempt of court and you could even end up in jail.
Doctors
We all know medical interns and doctors have it quite tough. Talk about 36-hour shifts, all the constant studying, keeping your cool during emergencies and lots of blood and odours!
So when shows like Dil Mil Gayye or Grey’s Anatomy have doctors who juggle ER responsibilities and complicated love lives like pros, you wish things were that simple in real life too.
Advertising Professionals
Aspiration Level: Don Draper
AMC’s Mad Men may be have exaggerated a few finer details, but the fact of the matter is, advertising is perceived as quite the glamourous profession. Flexible hours, numerous perks, swimming in a pool of “viral ideas” and downing alcohol like it’s water.
And most of this is even true to a certain extent. But while Don Draper may have managed to leave his office on time every other day, advertising professionals will tell you that’s a myth. Overnights at the office, a dearth of good original ideas, unreasonable client expectations and tiffs over creative differences are just some of the many “perks” of the advertising way of life.
And the alcohol? Just a means to dull the pain!
Teachers
If you dream of inspiring “Oh Captain, My Captain!”-level dedication in your students, let us tell you: This is going to be a tad bit difficult.
Teaching is the noblest of professions and yet it is becoming increasingly difficult to find good teachers who will inspire their students to achieve their full potential. Mostly because the job is underpaid, classrooms are over-populated, and students are inattentive.
So unless you’ve got teaching techniques that rival your students’ smartphones, you’ll resign to doing the bare minimum.
Secret Agents/Law Enforcement/Detectives
The world of crime fighting as shown on the celluloid tugs at every imaginative mind in some way. Agent 007’s stylish gun-trotting adventures, Chulbul Pandey’s comic badassery or Sherlock and Watson’s crime-solving bromance: admit it, you wanted it all!
But while you want to be the Daya who kicks down doors and slaps the bad guy into confessing, crime fighting IRL is a lot more dangerous and extremely difficult. You might go days without sleep and food, personal hygiene be damned, and most days, the bad guys will win.
And mind you, there’s paperwork too. Warrants, red tape, chain of command, corruption and low wages will be your constant companions. Not cool gadgets and Bond Babes.
Okay that’s it. Enough regrets. Now back to your 9 to 5 job that pays the rent!
Did you have any such expectations from a profession that went kaput? Share with us in the comments below!