Top 11 Most Unusual Jobs

Are you looking to change your career? Have a read through these 11 very unusual jobs

There are professions you have probably never heard of. You might find them strange and even unnecessary. But there are people who enjoy them and receive a salary for doing them.

To succeed in any of them, you may need to write more in a cover letter than just being communicative and ready to face new challenges. That is not always enough for an armpit sniffer or a water slide tester, for example.

If you are tired of your current job or are looking to change your career or need something more exciting, then you might be inspired by these unconventional professions. We have listed 11 of the most unusual jobs for you to choose from.

Table of Contents

1 Professional sleeper - Salary: £2,000 per 2 weeks
2 Golf ball diver - Salary: £40,000-£80,000
3 Armpit sniffer - Salary: £13,000-£40,000
4 Pet food taster - Salary: £45,000
5 Waterslide tester - Salary: £25,000
6 Food stylist - Salary: £14,000-£30,000
7 Snake milker - Salary: £25,000
8 Professional mourner - Salary: £45 per hour
9 Full-time Netflix viewer - Salary: £50,000
10 Professional queuer - Salary: £12,000
11 Chief listening officer - Salary: £60,000

Professional sleeper - Salary: £2,000 per 2 weeks

As a professional sleeper your main job role is, you guessed it, sleeping! However, being a professional sleeper is not always as easy as it sounds. Professional sleepers are often examined during scientific research to monitor and record sleep patterns or to evaluate the effects of different sleeping products. This job might sound like a dream, but in reality, can be quite demanding. You may also be required to take sleeping pills as part of medical trials and sleep with numerous wires attached to you whilst being observed.

Professional sleepers may be also testing different beds, mattresses and pillows to review their comfort especially for hotels and companies that need to provide customers with quality sleep. To do this work, you need to know how to lie on the mattress, how to check it and so on.

There is no set salary for this job. You can be offered a certain amount of money depending on the company hiring you and the number of days you will be working. You could get paid £2,000 for a 2-week job.

Golf ball diver - Salary: £40,000-£80,000

Are you someone who likes diving? If the answer is yes, you might be a great candidate for the post of a golf ball diver. People who do this work are responsible for catching golf balls in ponds and lakes that are part of golf courses. Being a golf ball diver is not an easy job and it can be extremely physically demanding as many times, these ponds are full of mud.

There aren’t many requirements to become a golf ball diver however, there are two main things that you will need. The first thing is an entry-level certification from any licensed diving agency and the second thing is liability insurance. Depending on the job you are applying to, experience may also be required. The salary for a golf ball diver can vary between £40,000 – £80,000.

Armpit sniffer - Salary: £13,000-£40,000

Your nose is a major asset in this highly specialised field. Armpit sniffers work for deodorant manufacturers to ensure quality of their products.

As the sniffer, expect to spend your days in a hot room or outdoors at low temperatures and smell 60 armpits per hour! Your role will be to determine if a product works under various conditions such as heat, sweating or cold. And the requirements?

Good sense of smell
Willingness to smell someone else’s sweaty armpit

Pet food taster - Salary: £45,000

Being a pet food taster does not seem like the most pleasant job, however, you have to be highly-skilled for this job. As a pet food taster, you are typically in charge of checking the smell, taste and texture of different pet foods. Your role is to evaluate it and suggest how it could be improved. It is important that the taste of food for the pets is balanced and nutritional. Most pet food tasters do not swallow the food but rather spit it out.

The more experience you have in this job field, the higher your salary. To become a pet food taster, there are many requirements such as having a degree in food science, culinary arts field or a nutrition related certificate. Animal knowledge and good taste buds come in handy to help you develop the food that our pets will like. The average salary for a pet food taster is around £45,000 but it can vary.

Waterslide tester - Salary: £25,000

Would you consider yourself an adrenaline junky who loves swimming? If yes, then riding the slides could be your new career. Whenever a new waterslide is built, it has to undergo a testing process to make sure it is 100% safe to use before it is opened to the public.

But safety is not the only feature you would be testing. The other important factors that a water slide tester would have to examine are whether or not the ride provides enough fun with the big splash at the end of the ride, how much water it needs, how fast you get down and the uniqueness of the slide.

Professional waterslide testers are paid to use and examine the water slides and can even work around the world. Although, the water slide testers are hired on a temporary basis, the job can be rewarding for anyone who enjoys splashing around in water.

To become a water slide you need very little to no qualifications. However, these are some basic skills you should learn:

Observation skills
Be stable and calm
Dare to ride all types of rides a few times
Be active on social media

This is a rare job and when the opportunity comes up, you can compete with a thousand of applicants. If you manage to land yourself an interview, the interviewer will be observing your personality and experience. The average salary for a water slide tester is around £25,000.

Food stylist - Salary: £14,000-£30,000

Have you ever seen an image of food and thought “how does it look so perfect?” That is the job of a food stylist. As well as making food look aesthetically pleasing and presentable, food stylists have many other duties. Some of these duties can include:

Going through a recipe for a video demonstration
Maintaining a clean and safe kitchen demonstration are
Purchasing food items
Planning ahead for shoots for efficient and cost-effective output
Conducting live demonstrations
Using props to style food and make it look presentable to be photographed.

To become a food stylist, you will need a degree in culinary or baking arts, or a qualification related to nutrition. Some companies also may require you to have experience and may ask to see some of your previous work. The salary for a food stylist can range between £14,000 – £30,000, depending on your experience and location.

Snake milker - Salary: £25,000

Did you get shivers thinking about touching a snake? A snake milker is definitely a job that requires some bravery and also a love for snakes.

As a snake milker, your job is to collect the venom from snakes. Snake venom is a very popular ingredient in many expensive cosmetic products and medical research. Scientists use it for research to treat disorders such as blood clots, high blood pressure and heart attacks. It can also be used to create antivenom, the antidote, which helps cure people who have been bitten by a venomous snake.

A snake milker falls under the same category as a zoologist. Although zoologists usually earn around £40,000, typically a snake milker will earn around £20,000.

Professional mourner - Salary: £45 per hour

Yes, you read that right. A professional mourner is essentially a paid actor whose job is to attend funerals and increase the number of people attending the funeral. They are usually hired by the family members of the deceased and help them cope with the tragedy of losing a loved one.

Before the funeral, you will have to meet with the family to learn about the deceased person so that you can fully take on the role of a family member or friend. During the funeral, professional mourners are expected to express emotions of grief and sorrow usually through crying.

Professional mourners do not tend to have this job as their main career, but will work on the side of their main job. This is because this job is a lot less common now then it was in the past. Today, professional mourners can be found in countries such as China and India but also in the UK.

Professional mourners tend to get paid per funeral they attend or at an hourly rate of £45 an hour, depending on whose funeral it is and the role that they are playing.

Full-time Netflix viewer - Salary: £50,000

Are you someone who watches a lot of shows on Netflix? If you are, why not get paid to do it? Netflix hire people to watch shows and then provide information by using tags or keywords. Tagging helps others to find the right content.

Reviews from the Netflix viewer helps the company with the personalisation process and to categorise shows. The Netflix algorithm then recommends shows based on what you watch the most. The average salary for a Netflix viewer is around £50,000.

Professional queuer - Salary: £12,000

Whether it is a new product being released, an upcoming summer sale or waiting for football tickets to be released, people tend to queue for hours. Although many would be surprised by the English crowd’s willingness to form an orderly queue, waiting in line can be annoying and inconvenient especially when it is cold and raining. There is good news though! You can now hire a professional queuer to stand in line for you.

Professional queuers are usually paid at an hourly rate or charge a set price for the whole time they are standing in the queue. You could be charged £20 per hour and roughly £12,000 a year.

Chief listening officer - Salary: £60,000

Would you classify yourself as someone who is a good listener? If yes, this could be the perfect job for you. Chief listening officers mainly use social media platforms, such as Instagram and Twitter, to find out how consumers feel about a certain company or organisation. They then use this information to help implement improvements for the company.

Not only do they listen to the consumers, but also to the employees of the company. Listening to the employee’s suggestions help the officers get a better idea of how the company is doing. Employees can also give an insight on what it is like to work there and the officers provide then their feedback to managers so that improvements can be made.

The average salary for a Chief listening officer is around £60,000, however, it can be slightly more or less based on your experience and the organisation you are working for.