Worst job: Working as a cellular lab technologist. I dealt with a lot of pap smears and that wasn't the issue. The issue was that the environment I was in was literally like a prison. Nobody could talk, you couldn't listen to headphones while screening with your microscope. It was bad. I'll never forget one day I had diagnosed a case and I did find cancer in the patient. I missed finding endocervical cells....which, honestly, is not a big deal, ie, not a matter of life and death. It is just something that should be called if you see them, but if not, it isn't a huge, huge matter. At any rate, the head clinician basically made me feel stupid for not finding them and it basically destroyed my confidence with my ability to diagnose. I was actually pretty good I was told after I had left the field, but once you lose your confidence, it's hard to get back. At any rate, I stuck around for a few months (mind you, I went to college and grad school for all of this stuff) and eventually I left the field all together. It was destroying who I was as a whole person, making me anxious, irritable, stressed out. I had truly come to hate my life. I believe that you've got to enjoy what you do in life, because if you do not, you will your anger out on other facets of your life, other people in your life. You will just dread most days and not give your best effort.
Best job? The job I have now. I basically left everything behind in the world of science/lab medicine and I work for my city, plain and simply, as a laborer. When it snows, I plow, when grass needs to be cut, I cut it, when an office in the city hall needs to be painted, I paint it, etc. I definitely took a pay cut, but it was worth not hating myself, my life, etc. On the plus side, the benefits are a hell of a lot better than any job I've ever come across. People tell me all of the time that I left a lot on the table...maybe I did...but as I said, I just want to be happy in life. Nobody can ever take away all of my prior academic achievements and accolades, but it's not the end of the world just because I choose not to use them.
Word to the wise: If you are not happy with your job or you are looking for a job and you truly don't have a lot of financial restraints and all of that stuff....If you can ever land a job working at the local, state or federal level, no matter what it is, take it. Benefits are very good. That's just my 2 cents.