We like to complain about work: jerk bosses, horrible coworkers, low pay. Yet statistics show that most people are quite happy with the jobs they have. In fact, a global survey has found in 2022 that eight in 10 people who work either for a company or for themselves enjoy the work they do. In the U.S., only half of workers say they're extremely or very satisfied with their job.

Based on job satisfaction and meaning, the most popular careers are in the agriculture, health, construction, and education sectors. At least that's what data shows. But what does the Internet have to say about this? One netizen wanted to find out, so they asked other Redditors: "What's the best job you've ever had?"

People shared all kinds of stories, from poorly paid but low-maintenance and stress-free jobs to some really wholesome, community-building positions in fast-food restaurants. And what about you, Pandas? What's the best job you've ever had? Let us know in the comments, and don't forget to upvote your favorite entries!

#1

I put on a wet suit, got into armpit deep freezing water, and fed penguins 3x a day at the New England Aquarium.

Image credits: Yummy_Honey204

#2

Night watchman in a huge office building during summer.


Clock in at 6 pm when the office "closes". Be on guard till 8 pm when the last guy leaves, grab my laptop, play world of warcraft will 2 am, sleep, clock out at 7 am, go home, sleep 2-3 hours. Do things. Back to work.


13 hours "paid" 1 hour worked. Nothing ever happened. Got paid 30 bucks an hour (always 200% pay, because it was night). On weekend nights 40 bucks an hour.


I worked 12 weeks, 7 days a week.


Best.


Summer.


Ever.

Image credits: LovelyPrincess201

#3

12 years old. Worked at a Hawaiian shaved ice place in a summer town. Learned to talk to people (girls), be chill, learned a lot about reggae music. Mostly wish I could do that now as a job.

Image credits: Silky__Smooth

#4

My current one. I’m a full-time science professor at a community college.

Image credits: chemical_sunset

#5

Pizza Hut 2000-2005 in high school. I got all my friends jobs there, then i became an assistant general manager at 19. the General manager had 2 stores, i pretty much ran the store, put my friends on my shifts, played whatever music i wanted, made my own schedule, got any days off i wanted, traded pizzas for movie passes, food, gym membership. it was awesome at the time, even looking back now, it was sweet.

Image credits: MagazineEmergency999

#6

I used to do bottle service at a nightclub lounge off the strip in Vegas. This was right as things were opening up after covid. The amount of pent up people with money ready to have fun was amazing. I made so much f*****g money and people were just so excited and happy to be out and having a good time, literally throwing cash around and getting hammered. Great music, great money, great vibes.

Image credits: Beginning_Way9666

#7

Beer cart at a golf course. Tips, everyone was happy to see you, nice weather. Easiest, most fun job I've ever had.
emmy_lou_harrisburg: I made $18k in 2001 in 3 months as a caddy cart girl. I... was able to pay my junior year of college tuition in cash.
"I would park under a tree, smoke a doobie, and read a magazine. Cash only and I did my own inventory. That job was the best.

Image credits: WIPackerGuy

#8

The job I have now. Get paid 110k/yr with great benefits. Only have to go in to the office 2 days a week, and the other 3 days work from home. I do about 10- 15 hours of actual work a week. Rest of the time I am just monitoring email while gaming.

Image credits: ImaRiskit

#9

Classical car restoration is the most fulfilling and satisfying job ever! You get to see a rusty old car transform into a beautiful purring machine, from start to finish. And the best part? No stress, no complications, and no strict deadlines!

Image credits: djhamilton

#10

Pasta Maker at Olive Garden. 30+ years ago, Olive Garden made all their past in house from scratch. My machine was in the lobby so customers could watch. I wore a chef coat and poofy hat. I loved working weekends and interacting with people asking how it was made and why I was hanging it on the wall (to dry it before cooking). It was loads of fun and I really enjoyed it. Then they switched to dry premade commercial pasta and it wasn’t as good. Tried other positions but restaurants suck to work at.

Image credits: dragon-rae

#11

Tesco in store bakery. 4am-12pm shift. Baking (and tasting) doughnuts and pastries, radio on full blast, not a single customer or manager to interrupt you and the smell of fresh bread.

Image credits: ExPristina

#12

GameStop around 2006.

There were way too many in the area and ours was the most inconvenient to get to meaning we were never that busy and the majority of our customers were dope regulars who'd come in and shoot the s**t.

As a broke highschool kid, being able to just borrow any used game, play it, and bring it back was nearly more in monetary value as my minimum wage paycheck.

On particularly slow nights, we'd open the displays and swap out the demo discs for regular games and just play Guitar Hero or Madden or whatever.

Easily the most fun I ever had at a job.

Image credits: Neomav

#13

The job I currently hold: Senior Gameplay Programmer at Epic Games.

Image credits: AdorablePrinces

#14

Working at the reception desk of a small childcare company. I loved getting to talk with the children and their parents and see all the different families that would come in every day.

My favorite moment was watching this very small little boy with huge glasses wait eagerly by the doorway.

A large, heavily tattooed and imposing man walked in the door, and the little guy's face absolutely lit up. The man picked up his son and twirled him around, beaming like he had just won the lottery.

I think their family dynamic and custody arrangement was a bit complicated, but that is a man who truly loves his son.

Image credits: Few_Butterscotch_969

#15

Museum aid at the Smithsonian Natural History museum. Got to see the storage center where most of the collections are housed. Amazing stuff most of the public won't ever see.

Image credits: Technicolor_Reindeer

#16

Camera operator for live sports in the USA. Stressful but fun. Nice getting paid $500 a day to be on the sidelines or courtside.

Image credits: Wenger2112

#17

The one I have now. I'm a chef. I've spent years in soul sucking restaurants ran by greedy owners who only cared about the next quarters finances. The food was an afterthought and the employees were a disposable line item in the budget.


I now work for a non profit, our job is to help re-integrate people who have recently been released from jail/prison. We are a fine dining restaurant with a focus on elevated comfort food. The food is important to the management above me and the organization I work for, as are the employees. Our entire business is dedicated to improving the lives of its employees.


I never expected, as a chef, to work for a non profit, and I couldn't be happier. The food is amazing. I have the ability to be as creative as I want. And the people we employ are some of the best employees I've ever had. They all want to learn, work hard, and make better lives for themselves.

Image credits: PearsonKnifeWorx

#18

Had a 5 year run in a high end residential construction company where our 4 person crew was basically 4 best friends. Worked together, gamed together, hit the bar or dinner after work together, went riding on off days, etc.

Honestly one of the best parts was just having a super motivated group that we never had to discuss dumb stuff like setting up in the morning or cleaning up at the end of the day. Everyone knew that is what we always did so we just talked s**t and went about our business.


Once we all went our own ways work wise it was terrible having to work with normal idiots again.

Image credits: Misterstaberinde

#19

I used to work for the US National Parks Service out in the Rocky Mountains. I worked on the trail crew, clearing, maintaining, and building new trail and assorted structures. Maintaining a system of trails that had originally been built by the Civilian Conservation Corps back in the depression.


Since I had some experience as a mason, most of my time was spent moving rocks. I was Sisyphus, but the view was spectacular.

Image credits: AdorableSunshine02x

#20

Custodial work for a textbook distributor. My one and only job was to empty waste baskets in the offices. It was an 8 hour shift, and I had gotten my routine down so well I could finish my work in 3 hours. I would sit in the CFO'S office and read, I would take naps in conference rooms, just generally f**k around for 5 hours. My supervisor resented my position, as she also supervised production, so as long as she never heard complaints, I was completely out of sight out of mind. Occasionally I would be seen sweeping a floor in a warehouse or emptying a card board bin, which made it seem like I was getting all of this extra work done. That would last maybe 30 minutes, longer if I was really bored. When I left I was told I was the best person to ever work that position. I used to get stoned on the CEO's balcony!

Image credits: BoardOld8124

#21

Mine was bartender at a small country club. Easy job, decent tips. Same people over and over and they were still impressed when I remembered their drink order. Plus old women just love me. It was a chill couple of summers during Covid.

#22

Elevator technician. I started at $8.50 per hour 30 years ago today it’s $50 per hour. Overtime is 1.7 and x2. I must say way more ups than downs!

#23

Preschool teacher. I got to teach little kids skills, play with them, and be creative and plan fun lessons. If it paid more I’d still be doing it but it’s undervalued as a profession. .

#24

Worked on the production side of a TV show that is no longer on air. I was on the low end of the totem pole, but didn't realize how good I had it. Was able to go to school, pay bills, and I was very good at all of my regular duties. It was also easily accessible by public transit. In my youth, I thought all jobs would be like that. I was wrong. It would be another decade or so before I had a job I liked nearly as much.

#25

Fireman in a small town. Had free wifi, free food, pool table and dart board, only 1 fire happened in the 7 months I worked there.

#26

I had a job as the night watchman for a quiet, gated community in Los Angeles. From 9:30 pm to 11:00 pm, I had to be 'on guard', greeting residents and guests as they returned for the evening. After 11:00 pm I could do whatever I wanted as long as I was awake and paying attention."

I'd watch movies on a portable DVD player (this was from 2012 to 2015), play games on my laptop, read books, or just chill out until 5:00 am when the next guard came in. I watched the entire 30-hour version of the WW2 documentary series 'The World at War' and read so many books.

#27

I teach personal finance at a credit union. I get to help people understand money and don’t have any pressure to sell anything. It’s awesome.

#28

The one I have now. I started a business from scratch 8 years ago and now employ 10 staff. They all make above average salaries, and I am yet to have anyone leave. We are growing year on year but not too crazy. It's manageable. This time next year, I'd like to think there are 6 more on staff.
It's a lot of fun.

#29

Ice cream shop, it was pretty simple except when I had to clean up the sticky ice cream bits, or when someone would get a peanut butter ice cream and say something like “This doesn’t have peanuts in it does it?”.

#30

Current job, I’m a manager in charge of a team of 7 that plan the operations side of the business for the whole country, I’ve gotten so good at my job that I get the full weeks worth of work done inside 6 hours. So I get up on a Monday do 6 hours work, then basically chill Tuesday-Friday. Got Teams and Outlook on my phone to deal with urgent stuff otherwise my team is on it.
Also I am not some lazy manager, I give my team all the freedom they want and not shy about it, want Friday afternoon off to go see the kids sports day, go ahead. Need to start late for a dentist appointment? I’ll see you after lunch. Treat people right they reciprocate it 10x in return. I love my team, and my job, hate my company hence the f***s I give to be 0.

#31

Tour guide at a brewery. Met so many cool people. Was paid to talk about beer, and to drink on the clock.

#32

Chef at an American Legion. My wife and I ran everything in the kitchen. And all the people we met were awesome. The vet stories we heard were incredible. We were open 5 days a week and Saturday for dinner. We would often roam around the dining room or the patrons would come into kitchen which we were welcomed. A lot of time if we were real busy a vet would volunteer to clean tables and do dishes. The memory and friends we made after 12 years are still in our minds. We moved out of state and about 4 years after we left visited and first thing the commander said when he saw us was you want a job? And everyone there welcomed us. However it was time for us to retire. Anyway we both still miss the job and the members and others at the American Legion. Just want to add everything was homemade and my wife made soup daily from scratch.

#33

I’ve said this before. When I was a teenager I worked at Kings Island (just north of Cincinnati,Ohio) I worked at a ride called White Water Canyon. There’s a little shack out in the woods where it overlooks the ride and you can blast people with a water cannon. It was my favorite job, if I could do it for the rest of my life I would. I’d sit out there in a secluded booth with snacks and blasting people with water. What else could be better? I don’t know, I don’t think there is a better job. I’m in my later 30’s and I think about that job constantly.

#34

Whale watching tours in Baja Mexico. But I could barely afford to live. The pay sucked. :(.

#35

My current one, probably. I work 3 12's and get paid pretty well for my position.

3 day work week is top tier.

Runner-up would be the lifeguard job I had in college, at an outdoor pool in a very bad neighborhood. That was fun as hell.

#36

I worked as a darkroom technician at a mid sized photolab.
I was able to do and fix everything we had but my favorite was hand printing enlargements. I had a stereo in my darkroom two enlargers and a large paper processor. I got reacquainted with Pink Floyd.

#37

Working at a care home for elderly/disabled. I could afford it because my grandfather bought me a small house, and made enough to cover the other essentials. It was far from the best income I ever had, but it was the best for me as I was very happy there. My kids were able to earn their own spending money during this time so it worked out.

#38

My current job as a senior video editor for Giphy.

Amazing company, amazing coworkers, and I get to make fun content all day. Couldn't be happier.

#39

My current dishwashing one. it's busting down a lot of dishes at 8am, but I come in already baked af and ready to work with my headphones on my head. i have a lot of freedom when i'm working in my dish pit, and honestly, i love it. i get to be in my zone, melt my brain while i scrub the dishes down, and i get free food. in fact, i'm starting to make coffee experiments that is me just turning bog standard hotel coffee, into decent not-starbucks coffee, but definitely damn good coffee. tidbit, creamy peanut butter + chocolate syrup + chocolate chips = Reese's! ?.

#40

Honestly the job I most enjoyed was a brief stint at retail in Woolworths. Great group of coworkers, loved chatting to and helping customers, varied and active workload. Miss that job but could never make a career out of it.

#41

The best job I’ve ever had was as an organizational change management trainer. I basically created a ton of PowerPoints, lesson plans, user guides, FAQs, and used an awesome program called SAP Enable Now.

My favorite part was delivering the training and making sure everyone felt comfortable with the upcoming changes.

I’m sure most of you have received terrible job training and dealt with supervisors or management who either get mad that you don’t know everything or just say, “Well, I guess you’ll have to figure it out!” Having experienced that myself, this job was a godsend. It allowed me to ensure that my trainees never had to go through the same frustrating experience.

It’s an amazing career if you’re into that sort of thing.

#42

The summer between my junior and senior year in college, I worked at a small, family-owned pharmacy in my apartment complex. I’ll I did all day was smoke cigarettes (it was the early 90s and I no longer smoke), read the Weekly World News and chat with neighborhood characters all day.

#43

The one I think about the most is when I was hourly for 30 hours in a corporate setting. No lunches because it was 6 hours a day exactly. But I don't like to eat lunch at work anyway and without lunch, instead of an 8:30-5:30 40hr job, it's 8:30am to 2:30pm. Felt like every day was a half day.

#44

Cutting grass at a cemetery. Easygoing, good vibes, physical activity...money was not for for survival though.

#45

Vending delivery, you always have lunch and get paid to stock up machines. 3 hours of work and get paid like around $600 on commissions. What a life.....

#46

I guess it depends on how we're defining best. Best paying is my current job. Most fulfilling? Working at a bowling pro shop. I had a pretty good reputation for setting up people's equipment for them and had good enough rapport that people would come from hours away for me to handle their stuff or would have it delivered to the shop and pay to have it shipped to them.

#47

Social media team at SiriusXM. The call center covered everything from sales, tech support, legal... Hell I think there was even a marine department for boats.

Social media was the cushiest gig. Every department was in a walled garden and couldn't access the internet except for social media and not only that but it was their job to post on Facebook and Twitter.

We would only get like 12 calls a shift and the same amount of chat requests and other than that we were free to use social media. I mean at the end of the day it was like any other call center job but what made it nice was having access to the Internet.

I remember the only website tech support had outside the walled garden was wikipedia and it made tech support so much more bearable considering how monotonous the work was.

#48

Store support work, mostly restructuring. My work hours were totally random, I rarely worked in the same store for more than a few days at a time, occasionally got to travel to cool places and thrived in the chaos of it all. It was also really satisfying work because you could see the effect you had on things in real time.

The only problem was that it was a zero hour contract with absolutely no guarantees, so it wasn't very sustainable long-term.

#49

Was a line cook at a Japanese restaurant that specialized in matcha, so the actual kitchen was kind of an afterthought. The baristas and bakers had the hardest job by FAR.

As for me, I was deep frying chicken katsu and getting high on my breaks. Every now and then they would have a mistake ice cream parfait that I would scarf down without getting in any trouble. I was fed very well. Saved a lot of money on food. Hard work still especially the lunch rushes but it was all s**t I was used to, and very good at.

Had some cool buddies- I liked practically all my coworkers. Some boss switch ups made it harder in the end but there was no hard feelings when I left, they knew it was coming, my boss actually supported me in my dream career. Was there for barely 9 months, it was tough balancing that job with my other pursuits but I couldn’t have asked for a better life transition. (Thanks Jasmine and Lindsay!!!!) Current career is kind of kicking my a*s right now but having that line cook job really saved me during a hard time.

#50

Commercial Diver, everyday is different, average 35- 40 min dive, a few water stops, decompress in chamber on deck, 13 hrs later, do it again...loved it.
Old school, back in the 80s.

#51

"county park manager"

It was a smallish park with like 20 camp sites. Other than collecting envelopes with cash for the campsites and selling firewood twice a day, all I did was hike beautiful trails, shoot the s**t with chill campers, and get stoned at night and sleep in the cabin.

Only downside is the hot august nights. I can't take heat at all and obviously no ac in the little ranger cabin. A few sleepless sweaty nights, but not the fun kind.

If the job paid any decent money I would have dropped out of college and done that forever.

#52

Overnight shelf stocking at Target. Just got to put my head down, do some work, and not deal with any sort of BS.

#53

My second job I'm at. Worked miserably at an animal hospital. Super toxic environment. But moved to IT and have a wonderful boss and manager. It's insane the atmosphere and the difference. I'm learning IT, they aren't hard on me and I'm enjoying my time.

#54

I had full time gig as a night watchman for quite a few years. I would work every other week and have every other week off. Would basically sit in a reception and make a couple of rounds during the night. Basically read books or watched TV-series or movies all night long. The pay was great too. I quit when I realised it was holding me back. Comfort is the death of any type of growth.

#55

I currently work as a bartender during the weekends and barista during the week. love what i do but i wish the pay was a bit better.

#56

Philosophy Instructor at a University. I absolutely loved it but left due to no full time position and not paying the bills.

#57

This is kind of a job. Got paid for it. A friend was in charge of making ads for a home improvement store. Those fliers you'd get in the mail. He needed a house to use to take photos of grills, Christmas decorations and so on for the ads. We told him he can use our house any time and he did use it a lot. We got about $1,000 per month and they left a lot of the stuff for us. Free gas grill, a pergola type of thing, tools, Christmas decorations. They always apologized profusely for the intrusion and I always said you can use our house ANY time. It ended after about a year when the guy got another job. I cried.

#58

Anesthesia Technician in a Operating Room. I got to help helpless patients, advocate for them when they went under anesthesia, watch all kinds of surgeries, and got to bounce questions off people a hell of a lot smarter than me. It was a great stepping stone into the medical field when I was young and figuring out what I wanted to do. God I miss that job!

#59

Definitely Roller Coaster operator at Cedar Point. Grinding cars full of humans to a halt on a dime became an art form. I found so much weed and stash on that ride during walkdowns it funded my entire drunken youth.

#60

Work from home. Accounting. I no longer have to deal with office culture or transit. I can blast music, watch TV, listen to podcasts.

#61

My current work. I work as many hours I want as a landscaper in Norway. I make 60k a year (8 months of work) plus benefits and I have 4 months off in the winter where I spend my time in the Philippines.

#62

Redfin

I used to open doors and say "This is the living room" "This is the kitchen" and I was paid well. My best month was 13k and I was paid per showing they scheduled.

#63

Honestly, being in the army. Yeah it’s toxic, but it’s also really supportive once you are accepted. All you really have to do be accepted is pull your weight. Especially as a young soldier, it’s you and everyone else versus the higher ranking NCOs and officers. You all get nice and trauma bonded and they become your family. I’ve never worked anywhere else where I could just be myself. Even now I’m in another profession that professes brotherhood this and brotherhood that, but it’s all about participating in the hive mind to be accepted. It’s b******t. I learned I could be myself and fly my freak flag in the army and as a result I’ve never been able to fit in anywhere since. I’ve been out 13 years and I’m still close friends with many of those guys. I honestly wish I had stayed in. I also totally get why guys who’ve done time think to themselves, “f**k it, I’ll go back to prison”.

#64

Golf course cart attendant. I got bags from the parking lot, cleaned clubs after round, made decent tips and played for free every day at an incredible course. I worked from 6-2, then played from 230-dark. No worries or stress, good times! I hope to have the same job in my retirement.

#65

Postman. At royal mail. Did part time for a month. Stress free early to work but you are done at 1pm.

#66

Manager of communications for regional airline. Flew to every airport we had service to install or upgrade computers. Maintained reservations center. Got to fly damn near free, first class whenever I traveled.

One day after lunch, we were bankrupt. AT&T hired me since I had been their customer. One door closes, another opens.

#67

Confined space rescue standby team at a power plant. 12 hour shifts, 21 days straight $55/hr. Did absolutely no work for 21 days. But lots of training to earn that job lol.

#68

Strictly a side hustle — spent 8 years as a clarinetist in a local church orchestra. I wasn’t a member but they were quite wealthy and had a very good music ministry. The ministers were all very nice, extremely organized and never pressured me to join. The music was not difficult but still satisfying to play, thanks to the quality of musicians in the group. Got paid for Wednesday rehearsals and Sunday services. Had to give it up in 2016 when rehearsals begins interfering with picking up kiddos from school. Fortunately I never felt a MAGA surge building. And I’ve been invited back a few times for one-off gigs since and still didn’t sense they were getting crazy. I hope that’s the case. I have nothing but fond memories and felt blessed being paid for something I am usually willing to do for free.

#69

Worked at an animal shelter. Looked after cats. Cleaned the cages. Their litters. Changed out what needed to be changed out. I loved it. Sometimes messy but I was happy.

#70

Aircraft commander on a C-141(heavy cargo jet, USAF), at age 26. I thought I died and went to heaven. This was around 1971.

#71

I was a SalesForce Solutions Architect, hired to be there to support one whale client... but the client almost never needed help, and when they did, it was not particularly hard. I worked on a few smaller clients like Jimmy Buffet, but for the most part I got paid almost 10k a month to be a dad. Like a total moron, I quit to be the lead digital manager at a huge agency with some friends. 3 years later I was layed of.

#72

Volunteer cat socializer at my local humane society. I go in, sing some very off-key Lionel Richie to some frightened strays for 2-3 hours, and help them realize that humans don't want to hurt them.

#73

Worked at an arcade on the beach during summers in SE US when I was a teenager. Met so many girls. Expert in all arcade games especially foosball.

#74

Loved working at blockbuster (RIP). My boss set aside a Skyrim copy and gave me off for a couple of days to play it, knowing I was a huge fan of ES.

10 free rentals a week. I watched so many gems during that year. All I did was clean, talk about movies and games, stock, and try to sell their pass.

When we were closing, I would stash the things I wanted in my dedicated bin. Probably bought around 500 movies for maybe $100 bucks. They were anywhere from .10 to .25.