By: Sandra Wiktor
Finding a decent job in a society ravenously competing for them is difficult. However, one does not need to be a lawyer or doctor to achieve life-long success and happiness. People are able to find satisfaction and comfort in a lesser known, but equally fulfilling occupations such as a “paper towel sniffer,” or perhaps “coconut safety engineer.” These ten jobs, ranging from horrifying to fascinating to simply strange, are perhaps unconventional, but someone has to do them.
Golf Ball Diver: This is an occupation where individuals dive into lakes where golf balls have sunk, retrieve them and sell them for about six cents each. The most notable feature about this occupation is the salary. People diving for golf balls may make up to over $100,000 per year. This line of work can be dangerous though. People have died fishing for golf balls, be it from drowning or snake bites.
Coconut Safety Engineer: Coconuts may pose a true safety hazard when they fall. What better way to ensure that people do not meet their demise by these fruits than to pay people to remove them if they appear to be on the verge of plummeting from the tree? However, this treacherous task is not for the faint of heart, as trees can tower up to sixty feet, and it takes a special eye to notice a mature coconut that is about to fall. Though a specified salary is not given, one should not expect it to be high.
Professional Sleeper: Being a traditionally lazy member of society can actually serve a productive role, as in the case of professional sleepers. These people usually participate in sleep research and make an average of $31,000 per year.
Professional Binge Watcher: One can now fulfil the dream of being paid for watching TV, thanks to Netflix. The company hires people to binge watch movies and TV shows for hours so that they can appropriately tag them with phrases like “race against time” or “darkness of humor.” At $500 per week, the deal seems like a good one.
(Breath) Odor Evaluator: The gutsy individuals who serve as breath odor evaluators smell the breaths of individuals after consuming undesirably smelling products, such as garlic, and give the odor a rating. After this mildly unpleasant experience, they give the subjects whatever product the evaluator is working to test, like mouthwash or gum. They smell the subject’s breath again and rate it once more. There are few breath odor evaluators specifically, and therefore they do not have a set salary. However, generic odor evaluators (who could test anything from the smell of cooked food to how well deodorant works) do. On average, they receive $35,000-$115,000 annually, and breath odor evaluators may fall under this category.
Paper Towel Sniffer: The odds for landing a position as a paper towel sniffer are decidedly slim, but there is still a chance for people to get a job in which they do nothing except smell paper towels to make sure that they are odorless. With the salary ranging from $19,000 to $52,000 a year to smell paper towels, this job may be a dream come true for many.
Face Feeler: Skin products often make outlandish remarks. “Our product will make your skin feel like a newborn baby’s,” they might claim.“Your skin will feel smooth within a week!” Well, their statements must have at least an inkling of truth, and this is where face feelers, or “sensory scientists,” come in. They simply touch a person’s face after using a product to check how well it works and collect a check of $10-$25 per hour.
Snake Milker: It is common knowledge that snake venom is a virulent killer, and this acts as motivation for scientists to create antidotes. Unfortunately, these antidotes are made using the snake venom itself. In order to overcome this inconvenience, snake milkers are hired. They extract the venom by making the snake bite into some material, stimulating the excretion of poison, and then collect it in a container. The average salary is $2,500 per month.
Wrinkle Chaser: There are people in this world who are dedicated to making sure that shoes for sale are wrinkle free. They do so by using a special iron. These individuals, wrinkle chasers, earn $18,000 – $49,000 annually.
Pet Food Tester: These benevolent souls beta-test pet food by checking if it is appetizing enough to sell for animal consumption – by tasting it. To be fair, they do not only taste the food; they do spend a significant portion of their time trying to figure out ways to enrich the nutritional value of it as well. The salary can range from $34,000 – $117,000. For this amount of money, perhaps some people would decide that dog food is not as repulsive as they had originally thought.
The next time someone sinks into a pit of despair over their lack of motivation for pursuing conventional occupations, they may benefit from and find solace in turning to the less typical ones that also make decent salaries.
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