Jobs. Which one do you like?

I realize it's impossible or virtually impossible,  to chose among many jobs in these days. However let's imagine you have a chance to select a job, even you can select your favourite job. Which one would you choose?.  I am going to write a short list of jobs in which I would like to work on. You can make your own list and take part of this fantasy.

1. Chef.  This is one of my favourite jobs, I like to cook very much. When I am in a friend's meeting and we have to prepare dinner, I always try to convince my friends that I am the best cook choice. One of the most important tool as a cook is a sharp knife. You can cut onions and garlic very fast, but carefully don't cut your fingers. It's very important to have a wood table to handle the knife and display the spices close to you (such as parsley, pepper, paprika, oregano, curry, and all of them that can give a better taste and smell to your dishes).

2. Baker. Despite it is an amusing work, as a baker you must get up at 3:00 a.m. or earlier to start making bread. The principal ingredients you must handle are water, salt, flour and yeast. It seems very simple, but you must control the ingredient measures and the cooking time quite carefully. Many bakers have their personal recipe. I have seen bread with sesame seeds or with black olives. The most curious one of all of them is the bread named "pregnant" (in Spanish "preñado"). Before the baking, a piece of sausage or other kind of stuffed meat is put into the dough.  After the cooking, this bread has a mix of bread and sausage flavour and a smooth texture. I really recommend it to all of you.

3. Musician. Probably this is a job that everyone would like to have among her or his favourite list of jobs. Unfortunately very few people work just as a musician in Spain. I know many people with an upper degree (ten years of hard study) on piano, trumpet or violin, but in fact they work as a teacher, engineer, doctor... However, the people that work just as musicians are very lucky people in my opinion, and the professional ones are very good, because as I have said they have to study and practise very hard (eight hours per day trainning with the instrument and four hours per day studying musical theory). Among the kinds of jobs held by musicians, being a conductor is the most rare choice of a potential musician. As a conductor you must master the piano, sing very well, read scores in all the different keys, play another instrument (maybe the violin, guitar, oboe,...), and know how to play the other instruments in a orchestra. It seems hard, and it is. So, as I have said, it is rarely a vocation.    

4. Luthier. This kind of job is connected to the previous and the next described job. If you like music and you like to work with wood (maybe this can be an odd combination, but it is possible) this will be your best option. The luthier not only makes instruments, but he or she repairs and adjusts them for a better performance. Probably the most famous instrument maker of all time was Antonio Stradivari. Not only did he manufacture violins, but he also fabricated many amazing cellos, violas, guitars and harps. 

5. Carpenter. There are two ways of working as a carpenter. The first one is in a factory making, polishing, varnishing or painting doors, windows, tables, chairs or staircases, and likely within an assembly chain. The second one is in a small workshop, surrounded by dozens tools, and working and carving the wood slowly and carefully. I suppose everyone who is thinking about this job, will choose the last described option, it is much more creative.

6. Gardener. This work needs patience and perseverance. Every plant, vegetable, flower, tree... must be planted in a suitable time (I have heard old men saying: "Onions and garlics must always be planted on Friday". Don't ask me why, I think I will never be able to understand this ancient wisdom). If you were a gardener from  "Los Monegros", you would be planting rosemary and thyme all the day.  If you were a gardener from another place with a softer and wetter weather, you would be planting and watering tulips, roses or orchids.

7. Policeman. In this kind of jobs, I just like the research work because you have to use your brain instead of your muscles. There are many types of cases in which you can work as a detective. So, you may be researching within a case of robbery, theft, burglary or assault. It is quite unlikely, but the case could be about kidnapping, but I hope that the case never becomes into murder.

8. Engineer. This term is quite broad because there are many kinds of engineering fields. In all of them you must use your inventiveness to solve problems or finish projects successfully. Engineering includes mechanics, chemistry,  materials, electricity, electronics, communication or software. I'm afraid it is thoroughly necessary to have a good knowledge of technical matters as well as a good knowledge of English, because for instance if you need technical support to review data sheets or to consult an API (application programming interface) to make a piece of software, in many cases this information will be in English.

 

9. Astronomer. You can expect that an astronomer is someone who lives at night and "waste" all his or her time looking at planets, stars or galaxies, or searching hazardous asteroids coming to the Earth. I think this is not the work of a professional astronomer, it would rather be the work of an amateur astronomer. The amateur ones spend all the time trying to catch an unknown star, asteroid or any stellar body, and they understand the cosmos contemplation as a pleasure. The professional ones research within odd fields. Do you know what a black hole is? Have you ever heard something about space and time fold, string theory or quarks?. Nowadays a professional astronomer studies the far universe as well as the smallest material particle.

10. King. What can I say about this job?. I realize this is not that kind of job that you could have a chance to work for. But I am sure everybody has always wished to be a King or a Queen. You could have a huge palace, many servants, counselors, even a pretty carriage pulled by beautiful horses... Really, it seems a wonderful job, doesn't it?.  However, I would not like to be a King if I were living in the eighteenth century, particularly if I were a French King and I were named Luis XVI.

Which would be your list of jobs?

Give your reasons and we talked about it at class.

By Miguel Angel Varona