By Sayli Betawar,
“What do you want to become when you grow up?” We all have been asked this question as a child. How many of us have the same answer as then? Well, there are interesting jobs in the world that will make you hop off your bed first thing in the morning. Have you ever wondered if things like eating, sleeping, smelling, standing, watching, travelling can fetch you a good amount of money? Simply, binge watching Netflix can get you over thousands of dollars. Not only this, you can get paid to live on an Island too! These are not dreams but real jobs that bring you a good amount of money without any hardcore educational degrees!
Let’s look at some of the most interesting jobs in the world!
Get paid to sniff all day!
There are numerous deodorants, perfumes and other fragrance products in the market which smell so good. In order to produce such products with effectiveness, there are people called “Odor Judges” who are hired to smell people’s breath, feet and armpits. They work for deodorant manufacturers to ensure the quality of the product. They spend their days sniffing sometimes up to 60 armpits every hour in a hot room or outdoors. Their purpose is to see if the deodorant is effective. Odor judges are supposed to verify their sense of smell on a monthly basis to ensure that their judgement is correct. Their average annual salary is more than $71,241! They create reports and contribute to making the world smell better.
How good are your taste buds?
There is an opportunity to make a decent living by eating ice cream all day.
Also known as tastemaster, food scientist, sensory analyst or flavorologist, industries for ice cream, tea, wine, beer, gums and chocolate pay you to make reports on every flavour, taste, texture, smell, appearance and other factors. All a person needs is excellent taste buds. The annual average salary for an Ice Cream Taster starts from $41,824.
Fun Fact : John Harrison, known as ” America’s most popular ice cream man”, tasted about 60 flavors of ice cream everyday during his tenure of 1956-2010 at ice cream company Dreyer’s. His tongue is insured for a million dollars (that’s $100 per taste bud) which is as valuable as Heidi Klum’s legs, Julia Roberts’ smile, Beckham and Ronaldo’s legs.
Rental Boyfriend and Girlfriend
Countries like China, India, USA, South Africa, Philippines, Japan have a multitude of ways to keep depression away. One of the exciting services of these countries is a rental girlfriend or boyfriend. If you are lonely and would like a company, this is a guilt free service with so many possibilities. Be it a bachelorette party, wedding plus one, college reunion, corporate events, festivals, proms or play video games, you got a partner available.
Throughout the centuries, only men had a choice to enjoy this lifestyle, now women have got options too. Such an example is of Christina, who hired a man to run errands in the kitchen. On the other hand, Paula from ABC hired a man to watch her 3 kids and tidy up the house. Sounds funny?
Dog food taster
Dogs are man’s best friends and we must ensure that they eat delicious food. Since dogs cannot verbally communicate, people are hired to taste pet food, evaluate the flavors, textures, and check if it is up to quality standards. The dog food tasters taste new dog food products, including bones, tinned meat and biscuits. A professional dog-food taster earns a minimum of $43,694 per annum. Whoever came up with this job must be a true animal lover.
Do you think animals and humans have similar taste buds?
Who can cry the loudest?
How many of you cried in childhood to get money from your parents? Well, if you succeeded, you can sign up as a professional mourner, a most desired profession!
Also known as moirologists, they are a common sight at funerals. It is an ancient custom in Africa, China, Middle and South East Asia, that a loud funeral will assist the soul of the dead as they travel to the afterlife. Therefore, professional mourners are hired to cry and weep loudly. While the practice went out of fashion in Europe and North America during the 19th century, rent-a-mourner services are making a comeback in the West, with professional weepers charging from £75 per funeral to create a more mournful atmosphere.
Be a professional Netflix tagger!
Imagine being paid to watch Netflix all day and be a couch potato. Netflix taggers get to watch all the series and movies even before they are released to the public. The Netflix viewers are paid to review and assign each program a correct tag or genre. Netflix uses an algorithm that provides its users with recommendations and suggestions. This in turn helps us users to find what we are looking for whether it is a crime thriller or a sci-fi movie. The salary can go up to $69,906 per year.
Professional sleeper
Get paid to sleep! You can either get paid as a luxury bed tester for luxury hotels and bed companies or participate in experiments by sleeping for hours for medical, Harvard, NASA research purposes. Luxury Hotels and mattress makers hire people to sleep and test the comfort of their beds. Professional sleepers are supposed to sleep every night on different beds with different conditions, temperatures, lightings and under the influence of caffeine, alcohol and write reviews about the sleep quality, satisfaction and suggest improvements. Another option demands you to sleep for specific hours or days where doctors monitor your physical and mental states and research advancing science. On average, a professional sleeper earns $61,718 annually and differs according to the project.
Example: Pat Phillips from Boston, is paid to participate in sleep research projects at area hospitals. Helsinki Hotel in Finland, hired professional sleepers to test out on their beds and write about the experience in blog posts.
In 2009, 22-year-old student Roisin Madigan had the very important job of trying out luxury beds from England-based bed company Simon Horn Ltd.
How to get this job? Check out luxury bed companies, a good command over the language with some writing skills to convey your experience with the company.
Video game tester
This job is a dream come true for a person who not just loves playing, but is absolutely passionate about video games. As a video game quality assurance tester, it is a responsibility to choose every possibility in the game from start to finish, try every option on the screen, find bugs and software defects. Annual salary for freshers starts at $36,136 and it can go as high as $100,000 for the experienced game testers.
Panda Fluffer – A job to die for!
Pandas are endangered species and extremely lazy animals who are unwilling to move unless they want to eat. They require human assistance even to mate with each other. There comes a dream job of a Panda fluffer who is required to cuddle and frisk them so that they get excited and move around. At the China Giant Panda Protection and Research Centre in Ya’an, Sichuan Province, a Panda Fluffer can earn 200,000 yuan (£23,000) per year.
Car Plate Blockers
In order to reduce congestion, the local government in Iran limits the number of cars allowed on the road (even number plates are allowed one day, odd plates the next), Iranians hire people to walk or stand behind their cars so that the cameras don’t capture their number plates. And it seems India is not the only country of jugaad (easy hack)!
Professional Snuggler
If you need to be hugged, cuddled, feeling loss of human touch, depressed, then your answer is a professional snuggler. This simple job rapidly gained popularity in the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and is already starting to emerge in Latin American countries, such as Mexico and Colombia, due to its high demand and substantial salary.
Japan has cuddle cafes, for some dollars, you can snuggle or sleep next to a woman.
Example: Janet Treviño, a full-time snuggler working in San Antonio, U.S. She charges clients $80 per hour and spends around 20 hours a week cuddling people. Started in August 2016 as a part-time snuggler, she soon turned full-time later.
Water Slide Tester
Are you a daredevil who is ready to try water slides first hand before anyone else? It is more like a paid vacation around the world. All you need to do is review factors like height, water stream, time taken to reach down, safety level, adrenaline rush and fear factor. A water slide tester checks if the water theme parks are accurately working or not. World’s first water slide tester is Sebastian Smith.
Private Island Caretaker
Planning for an island gateway from the busy life of the city streets? Look for super rich people who own private islands and need a caretaker.
Ben Southall is said to have made $120,000 in just six months by serving as an ambassador and caretaker of a tropical Australian island. Another private island caretaker James makes his living by maintaining a private island in the Bahamas, while enjoying the perfect weather, fishing and water sports that goes along with being an island resident.
Live-stream Eater (Mukbang)
Popular in South Korea, live-stream eaters often consume large quantities of food for hours, eating as loudly and savoury as they can on live streaming platforms, which is mugbank. Salary starts from $10,000 and depends on popularity.
Fun Jobs in the Wedding Industry
In Asia, the larger the wedding guest list, the better the wedding is. People in Japan, China, and Korea hire fake wedding guests who can pretend to be a family member, a friend or even a boss. A typical guest in Tokyo can cost $200 per event, but the price goes up if you want this guest to dance or even make a speech. Apart from money, guests get free food.
“From Milan to Malibu, Brussels to Bel Air and Minneapolis to Maui, I’ve had the honor of attending more than 75 weddings”, confesses a Professional Wedding Guest, Glynis Costin to the InStyle magazine(2017).
Fun Fact: A guy in China was arrested for bringing 200 fake wedding guests for his own wedding.
Jen Glantz co-founded Bridesmaid for Hire, a company that provides “undercover” bridesmaids for assistance. She charges $300 to $2,000 per wedding. For $2,000, a bridesmaid is hired for full time who assists you for the whole wedding with finer details. They can even stand at the altar with you.
Big weddings aren’t for everyone, and that’s why many people opt to elope instead of getting married. The service costs between $350 and $2,800. The elope planner handles the planning and place.
Wedding cakes are the center of attraction, therefore, come at a high price. One company devised a plan and created an entirely new job to help couples save more money- fake wedding cakes. FunCakes’ bakers build the exteriors of cakes using real icing and fondant but the cake inside is just foam, cutting the cost significantly. After cake cutting, servers take the cake into the kitchen and bring out slices of actual sheet cake. A large sum of money is saved without the guests learning the truth.
Are you one of these professionals? How many of these unusual yet interesting jobs did you already know? If you know any more such coolest jobs, do comment below!
References
- Hoeller, S. (2014, April 29). The 15 weirdest jobs in the world. thethrillist.com. Available here
- Thomson, M. (2018, March 6). 12 amazing jobs that don’t even sound real. insider.com. Available here
