Unbelievable Careers: 43 Bizarre Jobs You Won’t Believe People Actually Get Paid For!
Ever wonder if someone actually gets paid to watch paint dry? Spoiler alert: yes, they do — and it’s a legit gig called a “coating inspector.” Sounds like a punchline, right? But there’s an entire world of oddball jobs out there that sound utterly made up, yet people are cashing checks for them every day. So, how weird can a paycheck get? From guys yelling at geese with a megaphone to professional penguin standers (yes, that’s a thing), this list will have you questioning reality and laughing at the absurdity of real-life professions. Buckle up — your future dream job might just be one you never even knew existed!
While an infinitesimally small number of kids who want to be an astronaut actually become astronauts, at least we can all agree that it’s a real job. For example actually being paid to watch paint dry, better known as a “coating inspector.”
One curious netizen asked the internet “What’s a job that sounds 100% fake but actually exists and pays surprisingly well?” and folks shared their best examples. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote the ones that you’d never heard of and be sure to write out your own examples in the comments below.
I once worked as a part of a security team with a six month sub-contract at a hospital watching a violent ex-con around the clock to ensure safety for nursing staff.
Sounded necessary at first except for the fact that the patient in question was a quadriplegic in the spinal injury ward.
Easiest money I ever earned.
Met a guy whose job was to fly around the country in private jets. He wasn’t even really trained at all, he was a sheriff deputy and did this on the side. He traveled with organs and had to hand them off to people but he wasn’t like medically trained or anything and the deputy part was unrelated.
I once met a guy in a bar in Chicago whose job is to stand up penguins that fall over watching planes. Sounded totally cool.
frankenmullet22:
Not a real job, but I once told a girl at the bar that I was a penguin wrangler at Brookfield zoo. I said the penguins fall over when they look up to watch the planes fly over. I had to stand them up after every plane. She 100% believed me, but we were also very drunk.
I only recently heard of such a thing as a house manager. I thought it was the same thing as a housekeeper, but it’s actually the supervisor of the housekeeper. They also schedule maintenance, get quotes for projects, deal with contractors, deal with mail, make sure the cook and nanny, etc are all paid, coordinates accommodations for guests, makes sure your car is charged or full tank every night, etc. They make $100k.
I used to work as a fire watcher in a nuclear power plant. Basically, any time any form of welding was done I would have to sit there for a minimum of 60 minutes after the work was finished and stare at the metal as it cooled incase any sparks suddenly erupted. Even if it was 10 seconds of welding, it was a default 60 minutes of me sat in something akin to the Nostromo just staring at pipes.
Surprisingly well paid but incredibly boring as any kind of distraction like books were banned. It seemed to be a job that attracted some rather strange people.
Still, a summer of that paid for some incredible travelling around Europe.
In the oil field drilling fluids are sometimes stored in big open air pits. They aren’t exactly poisonous, but they do contain chemicals that can be harmful to wild life. To keep ducks and geese away they hire a guy to yell at them with a megaphone and scare them off. So his job is to yell at geese with a megaphone.
I worked at DirecTV Argentina, and someone’s job was to watch the pay-per-view content and check that the program guide and subtitles were correct; I’d watch all day to see if the scheduled programs were actually airing and if the subtitles were properly synced—I spent the whole day watching movies and adult channels.
Professional gambler.
On average I pull in around $30k a month – requires a lot of patience and the ability to always act rationally, even when the stakes are high.
Also requires a decent bankroll size to begin working seriously.
Not everyone can stomach having $100k on the line, staking it for a less than 5% edge, losing it to variance and continue to remain calm.
Not me but a friend of mine’s story:
Was at a wedding with a lot of strangers and people were going around saying what they did, etc.
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