Fantastic response, thank you for sharing. I'm just burnt out and can't seem to take more than one day off without my life imploding, two good nights in a row will perk me up again. Camming has cycles, mostly based around their paydays or how drunk/high they are when they log in or how mad at their wives/girlfriends...January has forever sucked as an earning period.It's so interesting reading the opinions and experiences from everyone in this thread. I completely agree with what's been said about the playing dumb/not saying what you'd want to say as an intelligent person because it pays to placate. But to put maybe a bit of a more positive spin on things, this is actually part of the job I often find to be a fun challenge.
Without sounding like some kind of psychopath, you're essentially manipulating people (same as with any sales job I guess) and our intelligence goes a long way towards knowing how to manipulate in the right direction depending on the particular situation. I like choosing when it's best to play bimbo (like the nipples thing @Vixxen81) and when to be open about being highly educated. There are customers who go private just to have an intellectual discussion with me, and that's stimulating for me. And there are also customers who go private just to rant to me about how clever they are, complex their job is etc and I find that just as stimulating to sit and listen and ask questions like I'm dumb, because I know what I'm doing. It doesn't really bother me how I'm perceived.
Coincidentally with some of you guys talking about wanting to maybe quit soon and/or the struggles of getting back into vanilla work after being in this industry, I handed in my notice at my vanilla job yesterday and am finally taking the plunge to do this full time. Despite 2 degrees and one (cancelled) PhD I was barely earning over minimum wage and in this financial climate, the sensible thing was to follow the money, I'll deal with the consequences later.
Good luck!!