Ever wonder how much someone really has it all together? Although every profession consists of some amount of guesswork, there are some jobs where you would probably never think that “close enough” is an acceptable way to do things. But even in fields as precise as engineering, it’s sometimes impossible to get things exactly the way you want them. These are 25 Popular Jobs Where You Don’t Need To Be Perfect.
Astrophysics

As long as the number is within a few orders of magnitude…
Law

The law changes so often that not even the lawyers always know what’s going on.
Programming

The amount of code out there that nobody can read (not even the person who wrote it) would astound you.
Sports officiating

If you ever thought that the referee was just blowing his whistle randomly, you are basically right. In amateur sports, where there is no replay, the referee never knows which calls they get right or wrong.
Line painting

When painting those dotted lines in the road, “close enough” is the motto. Most drivers drive that way, too.
Accounting

Especially with big companies, sometimes a few hundred thousand dollars meets the “close enough” mark.
Construction

The disconnect between architects and the guys in the field can sometimes result in some creative, “well that’s close enough” moments.
Army

That $2 million dollar equipment needs somebody to operate it. How about the guy with no training who just graduated high school?
Engineering

If it’s close enough, the safety factor should cover it.
Meteorology

As you may have suspected, it’s mostly guesswork, and most of that can change pretty quickly anyway.
Aviation

Pilots will tell you that one of the most common disconcerting phrases to be heard in the cockpit is “I’ve never seen it do that before.”
Nursing

In school, you learn protocols and steps and the exact order that things should be done in. In practice, that all goes out the window when you have 10 patients in your ER at 2am and 3 of them are literally about to die.
Pharmaceuticals

In spite of all the regulations, there is a reason that, “can vary from person to person” is still included as a warning on the medication.
Plumbing

As long as everything mostly works, good enough!
IT

So…did you turn it off and on again?
Teaching

As long as the student “almost” understands
Investment

A vast majority of a hedge fund manager’s decision is gut feeling and whether or not they liked the company.
Dish cleaners in a restaurant

If the dishwasher doesn’t clean it, try scraping it. If that doesn’t work…clean enough.
Coffee baristas

Most people aren’t able to tell when the barista messes up their specialty coffee…and the barista knows that.
Tattoo artists

The real art of tattoos is being able to conceal your mistakes.
Car mechanic

Sometimes the policy really is “as long as the car is running.”
Parenting

Everyone knows this. The fact that there are so many books and philosophies with completely different (and sometimes opposite) advice is proof.
Government jobs

Rules are more like guidelines in these fields.
Published science

A lot of papers are just pushed out to meet quotas. “Good enough” is pretty common in this arena.
Politics

Does this comes as a surprise to anybody?
Photos: feature image: shutterstock, 24. Chris Potter, 3D Judges Gavel, CC BY 2.0, 19. 龙龙 VU via flickr , CC BY 2.0, 18. Peter Trimming from Croydon, England, Chieftain Tank (9628802829), CC BY 2.0, 17. TAFE SA TONSLY via flickr, CC BY 2.0, 14. Rebecca20162393, Surgical Nurse , CC BY-SA 4.0, 8. Sean via flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0, 3. Patrick Gruban, cropped and downsampled by Pine, UN General Assembly hall, CC BY-SA 2.0, 1. DonkeyHotey, Vladimir Putin carrying his buddy Donald Trump, CC BY-SA 2.0