Explanation of what kind of person would love the job subtly tells readers that a lot of people would absolutely hate it.

Young kids are years, or even decades, away from reaching the point in their life where it’s time to choose a career. Still, it’s worth starting to think about such a big, important decision well in advance, so we’re sure Japanese Twitter user Akinobu Lee approved when he saw his elementary-school aged daughter looking through a children’s book that explained the various types of jobs that grown-ups do.

Being an educator himself, specifically a professor at the Nagoya Institute of Technology, Lee was of course curious to see what the book had to say about college professors. Turning to the page for his profession, he found an easy-to-understand yet surprisingly thorough explanation of how one becomes a professor, and what the daily activities associated with the job are.

At the very bottom of each’s jobs page the book even has a section telling kids what kind of person would have an aptitude for this type of work. Not surprisingly, the college professor description says the job is a good match for people who like to make presentations and do research, and Lee also applauded the mention that would-be professors need to be skilled writers, since they’ll often have to draft detailed written plans and budget proposals for the research projects they hope to carry out.

This being a children’s book, in the interest of keeping the topic understandable to young minds certain nitty-gritty details are left out of the discussion. That doesn’t mean the book is sugarcoating everything, though. Upon flipping to the page for systems engineer, Lee found this charming anime-style girl cheerfully calling out “Let’s study how to use all sorts of software!”

That probably sounds like a lot of fun to kinds with an interest in computers, or technology in general. Detail-oriented tykes also probably nodded their heads at the list of people who might make good systems engineers, which include “People who are good at searching for mistakes” and “People who are good at organizing/summarizing.” That first one even sort of makes it sound like being a systems engineer is kind of like getting paid to play word search games.

There’s one more point in the list, though, which is:

“Not getting in a bad mood even if you’re woken up in the middle of the night.”

“Even though it’s for kids, this explanation really gives you a lot to think about,” mused Lee, who, as an adult, was quick to read between the lines and recognize that the book is saying if you become a systems engineer, your company is likely to want you on call around the clock in case there’s some sort of technical difficulty that needs your attention.

We’re sure some kids who’ve read the book didn’t bat an eye at the mention of nocturnal activity, since it implies the awesome truth that systems engineers don’t have bedtimes. Still, as they get older and learn that staying up late and having fun aren’t always one and the same, hopefully they’ll remember the book’s off-hand comment when deciding whether or not they want to spend their days, and nights, working as a systems engineer.

You can follow Casey on Twitter, but since he’s not a systems engineer, don’t expect him to be tweeting in the middle of the night.

Source: Jin, Twitter/@LeeAkinobu