Top 10 weirdest jobs
Forget the wacky titles that HR teams come up with to make jobs sound more interesting. Our top 10 strange jobs are genuinely odd, outrageous and mystifying.
Discover wonderful and unusual careers from around the world – from NASA labs to Japanese train stations, South American streets to Finnish hotel rooms.
Our selection of weird jobs sees people dealing with alligators, wielding feather dusters and checking Facebook posts – but not in ways you might imagine.
So, does it pay to be strange? Find out and see if any tickle your curiosity for a career change. Some HR teams come up with wacky titles to make jobs sound more interesting. But you won’t find Customer-Service Ninja or WordPress Guru on our list of weird jobs. These unusual careers are for real.
Professional Sleeper
A Finnish hotel employs a full-time Professional Sleeper. He or she sleeps in a different room each night and critiques the comfort of beds to improve the guests' experience.
NASA posts ads for Professional Sleeper jobs, too. As the space agency preps for travel to Mars, it studied the effects on the human body of lying still for a long time. Volunteers got £12,000 to catch Zs for 70 days.
Search for the latest aerospace jobs on Monster.
Panda Fluffer
Pandas are an endangered species and notoriously difficult to breed. To get these shy animals in the mood, China's Panda Fluffers use feather dusters – and extreme caution – to help them perform. At the China Giant Panda Protection and Research Centre in Ya’an, Sichuan Province, a Panda Fluffer can earn 200,000 yuan (£22,900) per year.
Search for the latest animal care jobs on Monster.
Teddy-Bear Repair Technician
Teddy specialists Build-A-Bear hire soft-toy surgeons to sew limbs and eyes back onto injured teddies. So, if your bear gets in a scrape, rush him to your nearest high-street BAB A&E. Depending where you are based and who you work for, you can earn between £30,000 and £40,000 per year.
Search for the latest repair technician jobs on Monster.
Pro Queuer
Us Brits know how to queue. But some take it to pro-level. Like the guys and girls who stand in line for stores on occasions such as Apple releases and Black Friday. They earn around £100 a day for their patience.
Professional Mourner
A known profession in China, as well as some African and Middle Eastern countries, this job now exists in the UK. Earning £45 per hour, they attend funerals to increase numbers and weep on demand.
Search for the latest funeral care jobs on Monster.
Golf-Ball Diver
Golfers spend more time retrieving balls than hitting them. For those out-of-reach ones in water hazards, courses employ Golf-Ball Divers. They earn around £150 a day and the Florida divers have more than shank shots to contend with.
Search for the latest golf jobs on Monster.
Pro Car Watcher
For $10 US, Costa Rican Cuidacarros watch your car – and make sure it stays where you parked it. It's a small price for peace of mind, especially in areas where theft and vandalism reign supreme.
Search for the latest security jobs on Monster.
Acoustics Consultant
With an average starting salary of £18,000 a year, an Acoustics Consultant measures how materials react to noise vibrations. They make sure you’re heard (or not) in office meeting rooms, and can pick out all the a capellas from the back of a concert hall.
Search for the latest music jobs on Monster.
Roof-Snow Clearer
Yellowstone National Park gets a lot of snow in winter. So much that its Welcome Centre hires a full-time Snow Clearer – for the roof. To clear ice that would otherwise cave in, Roof-Snow Clearers cut checkerboard chunks of 10-foot high snow then slide the blocks to safety. Stephen started on $13.24 (£10) per day, back in 1973. We hope he’s had a pay rise since then!
Search for the latest roofing jobs on Monster.
Chief Listening Officer
At £60,000 plus, a Chief Listening Officer is one of our unusual jobs that pays well. They listen in on social-media conversations about your brand – good or bad – to help improve products and services. Technology helps, but companies need a human touch to translate the data.
Search for the latest social media jobs on Monster.
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