Non-profit organization promoting science and technical education for disadvantaged youth
Pros:
Get to play with liquid nitrogen, potato cannons, and robots
See kids who have never succeeded at school get excited by learning
Very flexible schedule
My kids think my job is cool
Organization is well known and respected in the community
Cons:
Low pay
Uncertain future
Constant shilling for grants and money
Trader / White Collar Crook
Pros:
Make as much money as you you stomach
Always something new to learn
Never having to go into work or take crap from anyone, except oneself
Cons:
No ideas that month, no $$$
No clear distinction when the work day is over so turns into 24/7
Impossible to explain what you really do, at family gatherings
Revenooers
Deli Owner:
Pros: I get to feed people good food and that’s a ton of fun. I love the interaction with the customers. Home by 4 or 5 every day. Cooking is easy and enjoyable, usually. Potential to make a very decent living. No boss telling me what to do.
Cons: Very rare to get a full day off and even then it’s a Monday so everyone else is working.
Not profitable yet. Working with my husband 24/7 is not really good for our marriage. I hate peeling potatoes.
Embedded device driver programmer for cell phones
Pro: Free cell phones, usually very high tech and unreleased.
Con: Always looking over my shoulder for the next round of layoffs
-D/a
Executive director, professional association
Pros:
High level of autonomy
Work with interesting people in an industry I am passionate about
Calls for a multitude of skills* on a regular basis, is never boring
Good job security since I’ve been there forever
Much potential to affect success on many levels (individual, team, project, organization)
Great flexible schedule, work from home as often as not
Perfect amount of travel
Great benefits
Is never boring (bears repeating)
Cons:
Won’t get rich doing this, though I am decently paid
*Every so often my diplomacy skill is stretched to the limit, dealing with writers–some of whose egos are second only to those of actors
Local TV News Photog / Reporter
Pros:
Never the same day twice
Out of office most every day
Get to meet interesting people
Get to witness great events
Get to play with some cool technology
Some really great co-workers
Get to work in a job where success or failure often depends solely on my own talent
Cons:
In order to shoot news must go work in hurricane / blizzard / heatwave / whatever
Odd hours, may have to stay very, very late if needed
Keep a packed bag with me, may go out of town for days without notice
Work most holidays
Horrible on family / marriage
High back / shoulder injury rate
Absolute deadlines
Nationally 70% of jobs pay very poorly, 20% liveable wage, 10% decent to good
No-one really understands what we do but sure as hell thinks they know
----(Ex: my political agenda, my willingness to break the law, whatever people think I do)
Harassed by everybody (police, citizens, etc…)
Having to talk to people during the worst days of their lives
Some companies are epicly mismanaged / evil
Some doubt this industry will survive much longer
College professor
– see High School teachers, but add one big advantage:
Only once have I had to deal with a parent.
If they call about Young Biffy’s grades , I say “Have the little Biffmeister call me himself.” Biffy doesn’t. Poor Biffy. But happy me.
Heh. I initially read Dell Owner, then tried to understand the rest…
9-1-1 Center supervisor
Pros:
Being the crucial help in a time of crisis
Reasonably recession proof job
Occasionally get thanked for what I do
Work with some amazingly talented people
Never know what each day will bring
Relatively portable job. There are 911 centers all over.
My pay is pretty ok. My benefits are very good.
Some pretty cool tech at my fingertips.
Cons:
Callers have poor understanding of what constitutes an emergency
Need to press callers for information when they are going through something horrible
Need to suppress my own emotions when dealing with something that hits close to home
Hearing some pretty horrifying things.
Dealing with drunk callers. A lot.
Never know what each day will bring.
Staffing is always shorthanded
Abusive callers.
Pay generally is poor in the industry. In some places you might earn more working McDonalds.
Performing job performance appraisals
Every single center does things their own way. No continuity.
The pretty cool tech breaks far too often.
I can only comment on my particular job. I work for a contractor who does work for a branch of the armed forces. My office and lab are located on base in an R&D facility.
Electrical Engineer
Advantages: Excellent pay. Good job security. Fairly laid back. Wear jeans and T-shirt most of the time. Boss leaves me alone. Get to play with cool hardware. Get to solve problems that perplex other people. Everyone *thinks *I’m real smart. I’m the “go to” guy when it comes to electrical/electronic stuff. If they only knew I’m not as smart as they think I am…
Disadvantages: No major ones. Schooling was a bitch. Too much time is spent on paperwork and writing. Being government/military, things often do not progress as logically as they should, and inefficiencies abound. Younger engineers want me to mentor them. Some people like to look over my shoulder when I work. (I ***hate ***that. I stop working and stare at them when they do this. They eventually get the hint and go away.) Most of the people I work with are boring, conservative, white males; I wish it was more diverse.
Cartographer
Advantages: Interesting work. Deal with a lot of different areas of the country. Constant work load, good pay (public service). Occasional outdoors work.
Disadvantages: Specialised field so changing jobs can take a while. Mostly PC based work so stuck in an office. When I was in a publications area: dealing with clients who didn’t know what they wanted, just that they wanted something. No-one seems to know what a cartographer does these days 
Middle manager in Finance in gigantic global corporation.
Pros:
Surprisingly interesting and varied challenges and projects to work on.
Pay and perks pretty good.
Most of the people I work with are quite intelligent, well educated, and from all over the world.
Cons:
Some of the positions I have had in the last 15 years have been very boring and/or frustrating.
Having to deal with incompetent people we have been forced to hire because they have some connections with higher management.
Quite a bit of overnight travel, miss time with my young child.
Our maintenance guy is named Dell if it helps. 
Librarian in a public research university:
Advantages:
A lot of autonomy - as long as I get my job done in a timely manner, I have a lot of choice in how I do things. (there are exceptions - HR stuff and the like, but in general)
I’m faculty - I get to study and write about things that I care about
Libraries are changing. Higher ed is changing. I’m not sure what my job will look like in two years, but it’s fascinating to see where it’s going
I get to work with students and a lot of them give me a lot of hope for the future with their enthusiasm and drive
Disadvantages:
Librarian stereotypes
I have faculty status without tenure - I still have to fulfill the service and scholarship requirements, but I without the security of tenure.
Librarians can be hell to work with. We’re often pedantic and passive aggressive (no, not all of us, but the profession does have some stereotypes for a reason). Add this in to the faculty governance system that’s part and parcel of most of academia and…yeah, there’s sometimes too much talking, not enough DOING for me.
Managing librarians/faculty is hard. Really hard. A friend elsewhere compares the experience to herding cats. That’s pretty accurate.
Budgets - less here than at my last job - there’s a lot of “everything’s online, why do you need this budget” and “I just go to the journal site from my computer and I have access” -we’ve done so well at making things seamless on campus that people don’t realize the access is paid for by us. And it costs a lot.
Students - there are the ones who are very needy, but needy without being willing to learn
I worked at a few when I was younger and because they always hire anyone. My track record at every single one of them was awful because it’s the most emotionally and spiritually degrading and undermining work in the world. Everything you said in the CON section is exactly what it is and I can’t even believe you wrote any kind of PROs to it. I would call off “sick” weekly at every single one of these jobs. At one job, one I had as a teenager, I didn’t even go in anymore for something like six or seven months, and on the day I got back I got a raise. Then I just kept calling off because of how bad it was. Ditto for the other one, even though I needed the money, because it was actually affecting my mind. I just couldn’t live that kind of life and I swear, no matter what happens to me, I will never work in that kind of environment again. Not for any reason. Never. Just never–ever. Ever. Ever ever. Ever.
Good luck to you.
Police Officer
Pros: Every now and then when you do your best to help someone, they appreciate it. Being able to help people in a time of need. Decent pay. Good benefits at the end of 25 years. New challenges every day. Once you get some seniority you are able to pick a shift or work schedule that better fits your life.
Cons: Despite picking my shift, long hours. The good benefits mentioned above are being eroded daily. Seeing people at the worst moment of their lives day after day. Having everyone who has watch Law and Order think they know your job better than you (“I know my rights!” Apparently you don’t). Not knowing if the next day will be filled with boredom or terror. Or the next hour. Or minute. Dead people. Dead babies.
I’ll add a couple more.
Advantage: if you find yourself out of a job, you can always hang out your own shingle and be self-employed. It’s not perfect, but it’s at least a viable fallback.
Disadvantage: you’re always dealing with other lawyers, and they’re not always the most “fun” bunch. They also have problems giving straight yes/no answers to any question put to them (I’m including myself in that statement).
Earth Scientist/Engineer for a large O&G company
Advantages:
[ul]
[li]Get to live and work in a variety of countries.[/li][li]Paid airfare for two R&R’s and one home leave. [/li][li]Because of a lack of college students earning degrees in this field I get good raises, foreign service premiums, and the occasional retention bonus.[/li][li]Get to learn a new language and experience diverse cultures.[/li][li]No unannounced visits from relatives. :)[/li][li]No WalMarts here. :D[/li][/ul]
Disadvantages:
[ul]
[li]Hydrocarbons are usually found in third world countries so infrastructure is lacking or breaking down[/li][li]Traffic and shopping can take quite a bit of time. You have to go to different stores and markets. No Walmarts here. :mad:[/li][li]Difficult to get work visas for spouse so they have to find ways to occupy their time.[/li][/ul]
High School Teacher:
As noted above by Manda JO and greenslime.
Additional Pros:
-I make a difference. I teach.
-Seeing the light come on behind their eyes makes most of the Cons worth it.
-When you have the kids for 4 years (like my Debate team) you get to see amazing growth and development.
Additional Cons:
-Educational in-fighting is among the most vicious and petty in the world. That’s because the stakes are so low.
-Nothing is more dangerous than an assistant principal with a Vision. (See Army Rule #7 - Nothing is more dangerous than a second lieutenant with a map.)
-Sometimes you can’t save them from their stupid.
Ultimate comment on the field.
Psychotherapist - agency based, not private practice
Pros:
Love the job
Using my brain instead of my back, I can work without vision, legs, even deaf. As long as the brain holds out…
Physically comfortable
Make a difference a decent percentage of the time, sometimes dramatically
Good job security/decent pay/benefits. Pretty good mobility if I wanted it (I don’t)
My work helps me make better choices in how I live my own life.
Smart, funny colleagues.
No on-call/extra hours, etc. No pager.
Generally respected profession.
Constant variety - I do individual and marital therapy, run groups, give psychoeducational lectures…
Cons:
bureaucratic constraints on resources
Can be exposed to a lot of emotional pain of others.
Risk of burnout if I don’t do ongoing stress management (that’s really more of a neutral…)
Tom Cruise doesn’t believe in what I do for a living.