What surprised me most:

I read the posts about real estate, journalism, and teaching. What surprised me most was how much work (not only writing) is involved with all of them. I guess when you consider a profession, such as architecture, you only think of someone designing a building. You don't think about how much work is actually involved with it, like customer contact and communication, the logistics of the job, and the hours involved. It was also interesting to read what people pulled from their interviews.