59 People With Unusual Careers Explain What They Do For A Living

Online paralegal. It’s not weird per se, but people always think I work at a law firm with a traditional 9-5 schedule, but actually I work from home, work with multiple lawyers from across the country, and have flexible hours. And I love the freedom of it while pursuing a career.

In graduate school now to be an objects conservator, specializing in archaeological and cultural materials. It’s a basically a mix of studio art, history, science (esp. chemistry), community engagement, and anthropology. It’s a really interdisciplinary field and takes a lot of different training in a multitude of fields.

Conservators work with museums, archaeological sites, indigenous communities, scientists, and sometimes even anti-crime units (to help prevent smuggling, forgeries, etc...) to help conserve, understand, and protect cultural heritage.

Did a lot of searching/ exploring/ trying different careers before I even heard about this field, and then more years of pre-grad program training (I came from an art background, and had to catch up on science), but think it’s the coolest work imaginable.

I used to be a product manager for Valentines Day cards. I would brief cards into Designers for “husbands who don’t like their wife but don’t want an argument for not getting them a card”, or “for a child’s first crush”, or “peonies are in this year, we need a geometric peony with a basic message because you want to keep us causal but feel like you need to get something”. Getting judged for buying cards I like for research purposes because one is for “my husband” and another for “my girlfriend”. Once I spent a month writing down everything that made me go “aww” or smile to get ideas for future cards. Probably the happiest I’d ever been while doing it - I had to really focus on what made me happy and why.

I had a marketing job before that and just applied on the off chance as it’s a niche area in marketing and it sounded interesting.

I listen to, and then type a synopsis for phone calls that are tapped by the Police. I literally just applied for the job through and online ad.

I own a restaurant delivery service in Thailand. I started it because I was lazy and wanted to order food from places that didn’t deliver. I will go to great lengths to acquire food, apparently.

I work for a non profit that is in charge of regulating the *entire* poultry industry in my state. I am one of 2 people who is in charge of 700+ farmers across the state. It’s wild. I’m testing/auditing farms (which includes eggs, chickens, turkeys, other “poultry” birds like quail and pheasants) to make sure what you buy from the grocery store or when you eat at a restaurant, etc, is safe to eat. I ended up here purely on accident - I come from a horse pre-vet background, needed a new job, applied for it over the summer and here I am! I always have stories!

I work in a wound clinic. I assist providers with debriding wounds, sending toes to pathology, wrapping legs in compression dressings, applying wound vacuum therapy, and managing ostomies.

I started my career as an oncology nurse then moved around, mostly working on cardiology units. I felt bored or burned out at most jobs. But I always had mad respect and a bit of jealousy for the wound care nurses. They were VIP in my book. Then my senior manager (who was interim management for the wound care team) told me they were hiring. So I jumped on it, and here I am.

I love it. I feel like I'm in the true spirit and grit of nursing. I see and smell awful things.

I’ve posted this a few times in similar threads, but nuclear reactor operator! (Not anymore. I’m going back to school for a masters)

My whole job was watching some water boil, making sure other water didn’t, keeping atoms splitting, and steam turbines turning. I toured a research reactor right before college and was hooked on learning about the unknown, invisible stuff that scared people.

Orthotic/prosthetic technician. Probably not a weird job, but certainly not a common job. I make prosthetic limbs and foot orthotics ("inserts," if you will). I got the job because my grandfather is a patient at a clinic he goes to and he heard they were hiring. I knew nothing about the job but applied anyway.

I worked for a “weird” industry/company. My company works in the high-end car lease industry. The car has to be worth at least $50k. Ferrari’s, Lamborghini’s, Bugatti’s, you name it. Only about four companies in the US do it, aside from financial companies directly tied to the car marque (ex Ferrari Financial). Leases last about 3-5 years. Cars old and new.

I ended up there because of a hiring company approached me, I interviewed for it, and been there since. Difficult to describe to friends, no one really grasps it immediately. And no, most employees don’t own high end cars. I drive a Kia.

Not right now but in High school I used to guard a guy's little weed farm. Hung out with his two dogs, got to read a lot, good gig.

I’m an esports coach. Starting volunteering in the field eight years ago, worked my way up in the collegiate space, almost left the field altogether after a lay-off and got pulled back in!

I'm an audiobook proofreader. I listen to audiobooks and read along with the text and find any material errors. It's a job no one has ever heard of or at least doesn't think of. I always feel a little silly telling people what I do because it's unusual.

I read 2-3 books a week (400-700 pages) of every genre and topic, fiction and nonfiction. I work from home. I freelance so no benefits, but I have a flexible schedule and can work early AM and at night, and have my days to enjoy. One downside is due to the nature of the work (it requires extreme concentration), I can only work about 4 hours a day (I'd compare the level of concentration to taking the SAT-I am mentally and physically drained after about 4 hours). Due to this I tend to work 7 days a week. In fact, this whole year I've only taken about 5 days off. Not bragging, I really wish it wasn't that way.

I've been doing this job for 3 years (working on my 200th book now) and I got into it through a friend who does the same and hooked me up with some publisher contacts. Prior to that I was a hedge fund analyst for 7 years. I have a degree in Economics and an MBA which I'm not using.

I'm an architecture historian. Most people I admit that to (outside of my industry) have no idea what that means or that it could be a full-time, well-paying job.

I went from being a chemist analyzing heavy metal pollution in the environment to disaster management. Believe it or not, diaster management pays more. My current job now is to review FEMA reimbursement projects within my state and make sure they're compliant. I ended up getting the job because I knew someone. It was a huge career shift ,but I honestly really enjoy it.

I'm a summer camp director! Most people think it's weird that it's a year round gig.

Not sure if weird, but maybe a job people don't think of. I'm a welfare fraud investigator for social services. Investigate reports of fraud and set up claims for any overpayments. Lots of paperwork.

I was a "Christmas Specialist". I fixed and prepared holiday lights for professional Christmas light installers. The owner of the company asked me if I was afraid of heights, intending for me to be an installer. Ended up in the light prep room for four seasons, ran it for three of those.

I’m a percussionist! I hit things and teach others how to hit things for a living.

I started in high school for fun, got better, liked it and just kinda kept doing it. And now here I am.

My mom does! She works at a pet crematorium that offers memorial items like clay pawprints and urns. She puts the vinyl names on each pawprint and fills in the toe beans with colour, and she does all the custom orders. People send in a picture of their pet and she'll paint the pawprint to look like it's fur. She's been there for 5 years now!

She's an artist by trade, locally famous I suppose, was very well known at the time in the art scene here. Someone had basically just shown up at her studio and asked if that's something she could do, im not sure how they knew to ask her.