43 Jobs That Make “So What Do You Do For A Living?” A Much More Interesting Question

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.

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.

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 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.

The weirdest one I have met was falconer. He trains hawks and travels to airfields to scare off birds so that they don't hit planes when they take off or land. He used to be a mycologist researcher but hobby turned into career.

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.

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.

Puppy nanny. People that purchase puppies that are located far away, pay a puppy nanny to book a flight and fly across the country carrying their new puppy in their lap the whole way.

I knew people who watched paint dry for a living because they were paint chemists. Coatings inspectors go offshore and look at the paint there and get paid decent money for it.

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.

Tree counter. He would go deep into tree fields in the middle of nowhere, set up a standard area an count how many trees were in it. For the logging industry.

Not super well paid, but I know someone who's a Standardized Patient and basically acts a set of conditions so med students can get experience talking to actual people and trying to make a diagnosis.

Golf ball diver.

Getting paid to scuba dive into golf course ponds and collect lost balls sounds completely made up.

I sell rocks. Like literal rocks.

I’ve done this for almost 20 years. Supported my family, raised two kids.

Just rocks.

Professional line stander. Companies pay people to wait in line for product launches, court seats, restaurant openings, you name it.

The province I live in in Canada hires minors to go into liquor stores to try and buy alcohol, that'd be such a fun job if you were 16 or 17

No clue how well it pays.

Met a dude the other night who owns a company that does nothing but make artificial palm trees.

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.

Arrogant finance guy goes, talks at length about himself, how much money he makes, etc.

Gets to my friend and he decides to mess with drunk finance guy, tells the group of strangers that he is the guy who sits inside an ATM and counts the money and hands it back to people.

They laugh at him, say he's lying and ATMs are machines- friend is deadpan says that it is true that many new ATMs are automated and they are taking jobs like his away and that the majority of ATMs out there still have a man inside them counting the money and handing it out.

Finance guy tries to belittle him saying there's no way that pays a living wage, friend is just acting humble says its not much and hard on the back but he makes $22/hr and he's happy and feels blessed by the job, etc. Made the guy look like a jerk.

Funniest part to me is the guy is an undercover narcotics agent and has crazy stories, just did it for the lols.

Two of my acquaintances just so happen to have such titles where they work.


Chief Happiness Officer.

Customer Excellence Director.

Bear removal expert - oilfield.