I have a great job, I'm reaching the end of a successful career and I'm very happy with the choices I've made in my professional life.

But my job is NOT important and I'm not proud of it. I'm only proud of having the honesty to do what I'm paid to do well. Beyond that, my job is a means to an end: supporting my loved ones. They are what's important. Nobody goes to their grave reflecting on what they did for a living.

Open source developer.

I'd say it's relatively unimportant in the greater scheme of things; nobody dies and the world would keep going even if I stopped.

But I'm mostly proud to do it and I enjoy working in the non-profit sector, especially since I don't have an asshole boss or corporate interests to worry about.

On the flip side, I make less money than I would in the corporate space. But I suppose I value the freedom more than the money

No and no. I help produce luxury goods for obscenely rich people... 2 units of our product, depending on configuration, is my entire years salary...

911 dispatch, yeah, kind of important.

Wish I could do it for just fire and EMS, and not police, but that's the way the system works, and the most interesting calls I get are for police I suppose.

In a more ideal world where people don't have to work just to survive and make ends meet, I probably would still do it, just not on a full-time schedule. It's one of those things that needs to get done but that absolutely not everyone is cut out for, so I think it's important for those of us who can hack it to step up to the plate to do it.

As far as whether I'm proud of what I do, well I'm proud that I get to help people, I'm proud of the skills I have that allow me to do it well, but otherwise it's just a job, I don't brag about what I do (although I do have a ton of interesting stories from it that I like to share)

And since it is a full time gig and I have tons of things I'd rather be doing, I'm looking forward to hopefully being able to retire someday and never having to go into the office again.

Not that proud, as it's a fairly trivial IT thing with niche elements. "Anyone" could do it, but there are so many different elements, all of which are trivial separately, that there aren't a whole lot of people in the world who can do what I do because of the odd combinations.

So while my work is (mysterious and) important for the particular industry I'm in,I'm sure any IT geek with networking and linux experience could do it after a few years of training.

As for importance, kinda. The higher-ups consider it important enough to grant me every demand I stated when they tried to poach me from my previous employer. I was looking for an excuse to turn them down, but they agreed to everything. For example, my contract stipulates that any flight over four hours warrants business class.

My biggest point of actual pride is the fact that I got to where I am despite growing up on a dairy farm and never finishing hischool.

Will society collapse without me? No

Will the company collapse without me? Probably not, but they’d be a lot worse off.

But I love my job and the people I work with. Plus I know I’m basically unfireable.

No and no, I'm thinking about working for myself as an independent automotive diagnostician. That would still be somewhat unethical and hard work, but at least I'd face real challenges and be helping people on an individual level. I can't just quit my day job right off the bat due to health insurance. I'd have to start doing work on the side, but business insurance plus equipment and subscriptions would make it difficult to break even. Plus I haven't worked on cars professionally in about 12 years so I'm not up to snuff on working on newer cars.

My job isn't important at all - it basically just makes money for our CEO, but I am proud of how little work I can manage to do while still staying in the good graces of my manager, so there's that.

Yes, Buddhist academic makes me feel good. I get to study what I love, teach those interested, and pursue interesting research. It’s also right livelihood so that’s a plus.

Yep and yep and I've been incredibly lucky. I help run a spirituality (Buddhism-ish) related website. I don't have much formal training, I've just been a shut-in nerd for decades and picked up skills that turned out to be useful for the teacher (they tried to make a website that was total shite and I told them as much. Long story short, they hired me).

I'm actually on permanent neetbux due to mental health issues ('twas partly the treatment resistant depression that led me to look into spirituality) but I'm allowed to earn a certain amount without losing my benefits. I get paid that exact amount and I largely choose when I work and how much. From my perspective, I'm now getting paid to do the stuff I used to do as idle fancy. Which is awesome. I'm also mentally in a much better place thanks to my own practice and the community. I definitely couldn't handle neurotypical life but at least I can do a bit of work, kinda take care of myself and not let my home devolve into a total legbeard nest. Glad to be able to help provide service to others that was helpful to me. Plus despite not having very good people skills, I'm appreciated by my boss and the community and I'm welcome to be as I am, I don't have to mask or sell "good vibes only".

My job at the minute isnt important but im super proud of it. Im basically an ATM but a human version. I get to help the blind, deaf, super-technophobe-old, mentally enfeebled etc. Im literally no better than an ATM, but because im helping people who struggle im feeling that job satisfaction.

My previous job in a meat processing factory was relatively important, if I fucked up lots of food never made the shop shelves or made a lot of people poorly. My job satisfaction was in the negative though I hated it so much.

No and no. I make way too much money for the value that my job adds to society, which is nearly none, and I want to totally blow up my career and do something that helps people. It’s harder when I have folks relying on me but I am moving in that direction

My job is important within the company, but that's about it.
I'm not proud to do it though, just mostly amazed I got this far at all. Impostor syndrome runs strong with me and even after all these years there's still a nagging worry that they'll find out that I've been faking my competence.

No. It is just an easy job that pays the bills and I can completely forget about it the moment I'm out the door.

I work for a company that makes lab and medical testing equipment, if you've had a medical emergency that required blood tests then odds are good our equipment was used. It feels good knowing that I work somewhere that has a positive impact on many people's lives.

But, I've met our company president and he's a complete piece of shit. I almost quit because the idea of making him even richer makes my stomach turn. Unfortunately I've been unable to find someplace else that will pay me what I need to continue to support my family... so I look at the positive things that we do and try to forget the psycho.

I'm a self-employed home improvement contractor. I fix and install stuff in people's homes. Yeah, I'm proud of what I do and think it's important - and most of my customers seem genuinely grateful for my work too.

The work I do is fun, and there have been quite a few times I was proud of who I was able to help out.

But a lot of what I do is supporting organizations I vehemently disagree with, even if I like the people I’m helping. And that mostly outweighs the good I feel I’ve done.

If I had to use Windows or wear pants it wouldn’t be worth it.

Yes and yes. I'm a health inspector.

Would absolutely not do it for free. There's a lot more that I do than just inspecting restaurants and beauty premises:

• inspection accommodations (hotels, motels, rooming houses, student forms, hostels, camps)

• respond to environmental complaints (dumping, pollution of storm water, failing septics, installation of septics)

• residential complaints (the worst!! People don't want to talk to each other and problem solve like adults so they threaten each other by dragging me in to sort their shit out for them. If they don't get the result they want, it's my fault 🙄)

• emergency response (we suddenly had importance when covid came around, but the nation still wouldn't acknowledge us as important because we're not in the "response" side like nurses and doctors. We're prevention, and nobody cares about us; bushfires, floods, air quality)

• mosquito detection (for diseases they carry and treat the areas that we find have carrier mozzies for diseases like Japanese encephalitis, Ross River, etc.)

• pest control, hoarding, land use, subdivisions, swimming pools, drinking water quality, disposal of dead carcasses, cemeteries, exhumation, outbreaks like gastro, too many things to list. We're pretty much involved in everything that affects human health.

But we're underpaid, underappreciated, perpetually short staffed and quickly burning out, and mostly unknown to those who don't run businesses that require council registration by law.

Important? No. I write open source software for a living, but have been partly railroaded into a corporate project that sucks the joy out of work.

Proud? Fuck no!

I make safety glass. It's a job. A few of our machines are kinda neat, I guess. How necessary we are is debatable.

My job is not important and would not say I'm proud in the slightest. It's a joke of a job. Anyone with an IT degree can do what I do and ultimately, it makes me sad/mad that I can't think of what else to try.

I do maintenance at a telescope and occasionally fill in as telescope operator. It doesn't pay great but the work has been fulfilling. A telescope operator recently quit and they implemented a temp salary (removing my overtime) without discussing the numbers first and ended up putting me at the bottom of a lower pay scale. I thought I was stuck but eventually complained and got reverted back to hourly, but they screwed me out of 200+ hours of overtime because "I didn't complain soon enough and therefore that is the same as me accepting that salary". I'm going to quit soon because I don't work for free.

I haven't had a job that should exist since I was a tutor in college. Every position since then was either a fake busywork job, or tech support for people in fake busywork jobs. =/

I work as a cleaner. Just regular apartment building hallways and the like. Yes, I think it's important - they had me work through Covid. I also know what it looks like when there's nobody to clean for a few days. Pay is poor but I can listen to podcasts and audiobooks in peace so it's chill enough. I am proud of the work though. I hadn't thought about the impact of custodian work before I started doing it myself and realized how big of a difference it makes. I get by with my pay because I don't have kids but my workmates definitely struggle. It should pay more.

My job isn't important, but I make good money and my work-life balance is excellent. I get to spend time with my wife, my kids, and my cats. So I'm good with it.

I've never been able to picture myself at an important job. I don't know what that would be.

I do work that I love and find rewarding, I continue to create systems I am very proud of, and I work for a company I have high respect for that makes products I believe in.

I can't think of any work I'd do for free, those are called hobbies.

I work somewhere that makes measuring/inspection/imaging sort of equipment that has a rather wide variety of uses, so I get somewhat mixed feelings when it comes to pride. Sometimes it'll get announced that NASA is buying our stuff to inspect their space probe for defects and I'll be proud of it, and other times it'll be like a coal mine ordering it and I'll feel disappointment. On the whole I think its generally a net positive, but it's not something truly crucial for society and more a thing that makes a whole lot of different stuff slightly easier or more efficient.

Researcher. Important? Kind-of, I work in a supposedly very important biomedical research area but my position itself is not that important due to a variety of reasons...

Am I proud? Hell no. I'm only staying because I get paid enough (especially since I lived on near-poverty income for 5 years and below-average for another...). I'd disappear the moment I have a better opportunity, or if my paycheck is gone. This is position-specific though, I don't mind working the same job as long as a few small things change

No. I just try to work places that don't actively work to harm the world.

I'm unemployed!

It's important that someone is unemployed. Who else will politicians have to point at as an example of a failure?

I'm proud to be unemployed and alive. It sure does suck when you get judged as being a useless piece of shit by virtually everyone, even though the number of bullshit jobs grows.

Im not working but when I have I did believe it was important and Im not sure proud is the right word but I did manage to not work anywhere were its like eeewwww about what my company does.

My dad is a long retired school superintendent. He was able to convince a small community to greatly upgrade their education system.

After he retired he worked (for almost nothing) to help school boards from poorer counties do the same.

He helped lot of people.

In the greater scheme of things? No, my work probably isn't that important. Within the company, though, I'm helping make our manufacturing processes more efficient and/or safer. It's very gratifying to make other people's jobs easier so that they can go home at the end of the day without being so exhausted or in pain from manual labor.

No, but yes.

Is it important? Important enough for me to be considered vital and not get to work from home during the pandemic.

Am I proud to do it? No. I'm tired. I'm tired of doing it in a nation that can't provide me with all the perks that citizens of other first world countries get for contributing their time and energy to their societies.

I work with data collection and reporting on students and teachers and the job is both important and I am proud to do it. The data are used for funding, makes continuing services when moving between schools and districts smoother, shows progress or a lack of progress on some educational goals, and my part in the process is ensuring it is collected and is reported in a way that matches the intended collection. I have worked in the same agency for almost two decades but have hoped around the various areas and amd the go to person if someone doesn't know who to ask.

I also get pulled into the more difficult projects, such as our rework of the agency website so we can meet accessibility requirements and the information is kept up to date and cleaned out when it is no longer relevant. Keeping projects from being derailed is something I am apparently really good at. My current position is a project manager, the good kind that keeps things moving so everyone else can do their job and spreads the credit around.

Im a teacher so yes. Do I still eagerly await retirement? Yes.

Its not important at all. My job brings no value to the betterment of humanity. But in private i hope i can develope some free software to better ppls lives ^^

My job is super important. I am proud. I work in security for medical records.

However, most people shit all over me for it. It sucks. It's 'not a real job'. I regularly get lectured by people about my job when I meet them. A lot of my first dates end pretty quickly after my job comes up.

I will never understand why. I make a great salary and great benefits too. But people seem to assume I must be some dumbass loser weirdo.

No

I work in the auto industry but my product is a luxury device that not many people care or know about

I used to work on human interface devices likeinstrument panels and radios and displays and it was more satisfying to see me products in the wild

Yup. Psychiatric nurse. I think the field needs a lot of advancements and a lot of the tools I have are barbaric but I'm doing the best I can with what I have and trying to contribute to my field by teaching and pushing for advancements.

Yes, and yes.

Yes and yes, for probably quite small and insignificant values of yes.

Not important but I help make the world a slightly better place and I'm proud of how good I am at it. Moreover, I enjoy it, it pays well, and it's on the schedule I prefer.

I think my job is unimportant in the grand scheme of things, but sort important to the company and at least at the end of the day I got something done.

I do enjoy my job the hard days go by fast and usually feel like we accomplished something. The easy days I can fuck around or work on projects I find interesting. Most days I learn something new at the very least so that's good.

I'm sure I could make more somewhere else but I make enough as it is and somewhere else I'd probably have to work a lot harder on less interesting stuff.

I'm happy with the work I do—I find it rewarding personally and the inkling of a possibility that it might be useful one day for any number of biological applications is exciting.

Unfortunately, I am entirely replaceable, compensation is meh for the level of education, and society as a whole does not place much value in basic sciences so career prospects are bleak (and this was BEFORE the current administration).

I know my job is very important and I'm proud of my work. That said, I'm also burnt out.

My job as a graphic designer was mostly selling other people's overpriced crap. No, it wasn't important, but I did enjoy doing it, and I was occasionally proud of what I produced. But, the end purpose for my product was nothing to be proud of.

I had talent and I made a living with it. There are much worse ways to make a living. Fortunately, I retired before AI slop took over. I can only imagine what the job is like now.

I am a locksmith and I would say my job is somewhat important and I'm somewhat proud to do it. The world would continue to run without me specifically at my job but having people who can manage large key systems and mechanical security is important. It also gives me enough satisfaction to feel good about what I do. When I am able to repair things and prevent things from ending up being thrown out is when I feel most proud of what I do. When I feel least proud is when we do work for companies that are involved in making weapons for the US military but that's rare and I am not in a position at my company to decide who we do and don't do business with.

I don't think my job is particularly inportant, but I'm definitely proud to do it. I work in repair at a small model train electronics producer. I fix the electronics for customers and also do a bit of customer support.

Unlike a lot of companies where you just get crappy outsourced call center support and if your thing's broken you just get a new one (with all your settings reset of course), my company actually fixes people's stuff. I love that I get to do that, and individually help people. It's also stimulating because customers manage the weirdest things sometimes, and I get to figure out what, why, and how.

I work in a slaughterhouse so I'd say my job is important till all of humanity goes vegetarian (which I don't think even the most diehard vegetarian or vegan believes will happen in my lifetime). Am I proud of it? No, but I'm not proud of anything I do.

I definitely do. The companies' key product for the last decade was developed by me.

My job is important but I feel that either I'm not equipped enough for it or that my users don't get value out of it.

Without getting too specific, I'm a data engineer that is doing ETL work for maintenance data. So it could allow the business users to optimize the business and potentially lower a large carbon footprint while also saving the company millions.

I have a devops background so I really just need to git gud at databases and data engineering

n o o o o o o o . . . and it makes me want to die. society is crumbling and i'm getting chewed out about TPS reports.

No and a little.

I get paid well, I work from home, and we take every other Friday off because we can. But the work itself isn't groundbreaking, though I don't hate it or anything.

I'm a crane operator, if we still got the wages people would get 15 years ago and all the required paperwork it would feel important.

But now it's just a: "hey guy, go try it out...see how it goes" and if it goes well you get to stay...for the same wage and no official paperwork to prove you're capable and as such no opportunity to do the same at a new employer and maybe build up your wage.

It's a bit if a run on ramble, but yeah... that's how I feel, after 30 years of trying to save money, increase my skills and wage, not owning a car to save on costs and doing everything on a bicycle up to 40km a day and still not being able to buy a house...I'm ready to throw in the towel

No, but yes. I was laid off. But, it was because my employer was a federal contractor in the USA who suffered at the hands of DOGE. We were doing good stuff, actively helping others, so I was quite proud of it. It was also important, important enough that people could literally be dying -- other than the fact that the people who managed to stay behind and are now doing the job of 3 or more folks are managing to barely keep things going.

I'm in tech sales as a SE. So it's definitely not important. I've been in this job for almost a decade and as an engineer I hate the sales process. I have been skating by for a vast majority of my time in the job simply doing what I need to to "answer the mail." My customers like me and know I'll do what they need when they need it, but I'm not banging on doors to make the sale. The account has been successful the entire time I've been working it and my company pays me buckets of money. I think I'm proud of my work-to-income ratio but not of anything I actually do as part of the job.

I answer some emails, sit on calls while playing video games, and point people at other people to get answers. It's mindless and boring and I'll do it as long as they'll let me.

I'm an IT purchaser for a public health system. Get rid of me and my colleagues and the system would keep ticking over for years in some form.

But I'm a small part of something very important.

Yes, many local businesses depend on me on a daily basis

My job is unimportant. I manage a bakery that I do not own. But I can’t do it poorly. Like even though I literally do not care if the building burns to the ground, I still act like Customer Service Barbie as soon as I’m clocked in.

I started a new role this week and I feel like my job is too important. A lot of self-doubt this week.

I have faith that I'll handle things, though.

However, I am concerned that my job is morphing into something less than what I care for. It feels like we're moving to a low-code solution, but personally, I want to get technical.

I set orthopedic patients up with a piece of equipment that prevents scar tissue buildup. While this is helpful to their recovery, what I find most important is the way I can help some patients with their anxiety about their surgery through soft skills I didn't know I had prior to this job.

What they don't realize is how much helping them helps me. It gives me a sense of purpose and meaningfulness. I get to help people get their mobility back. Mobility is freedom. After watching my dad slowly lose his mobility later in life, this allows me to help other people in a way that I could never help my dad. I know what that means for them even if my patients don't fully.

If I won the lottery, I'd still want to do this job or something like it that allows me to feel this way.

Indirectly important. I help make the tools others use to do important things. Or rather I'm learning to. I'd say that what I do is as much art as precise science. The pay is a bit knaff but it's interesting work.