Lumpers, in the trucking industry – They are people who professionally unload the trucks. There’s a ton of drama surrounding the use of lumpers and some truck yards ban them.
Surrogate partner for sexual therapy. You have intimate contact, up to and including sex, with patients while the therapist watches, coaches, and provides therapeutic support to the patient to help them deal with their sexual issues.
Probably mine. I do materials testing for a variety of motor and aerospace companies. Essentially take a raw sample of a metal or an alloy and subject it to a variety of torture tests. I can heat them, supercool them, and then that data goes back to the companies so they can determine if the material is suited for whatever part they’re designing.
These guys work on live oil and gas wells. They cut paraffin in the well bore, install mandrills (utility ports), and help production operators maximize flow.
It’s hard work but it’s not one that people take for granted and don’t actually think about but I used to be an office furniture contractor, go into various offices and build service and tear down cubicles and desks partitions etc there was a branch of the company that I worked for that specialized interior walls there was another that specialized in hotels
Cigarette influencer. No shit, they hang out at bars and when someone tries to bum a Cigarette, they give them one from the specific brand that pays them.
My partner works in a large scale grocery store and once or twice a year and weird guy comes in, takes the eggs to a dark room, lights a candle, and holds them up to make sure the contents of the eggs aren’t bad.
Microtomist. I used to be one. I took extremely thin slices of frozen tissue from larger pieces of tissue, with both gloved arms in a refrigerated box.
Banana room technician – manage to gas to oxygen ratio to control the ripeness level to balance with the shipping volume to hit the correct level by the time the bananas hit store shelves.
Intimacy coordinator. It’s basically someone that shows up on the set for filming movies and stuff to help actors be more comfortable during sex scenes.
I was a relay operator for years back in the early 2000’s. I’m pretty sure the job is still a thing, but it was a dying business even back then getting replaced by texting and IMing. I always had crazy fucking stories doing that job, and I’d go back to that any day if the pay wasn’t dog shit.
Had a job one summer trimming Christmas trees. At the time, I had never really considered how a business like that worked other than around Christmas. Hottest job I’ve ever had to do. 100+ degrees (F) and basically no air flow or wind around all of the trees on the farm.
It doesn’t exist anymore, but in the early 80s, I was a service observer for the phone company. Basically, we listened in on random operator service calls, checking for errors. That’s not the thing we listened to, though. We also listened to random phone calls, both incoming and outgoing. To ensure the routing equipment was sending the caller to the number they dialed. We had 10 seconds to determine if there was an error. You’d be surprised at what was said in those 10 seconds.
The “tea lady” in Japan is a relic of the 1950’s mindset the culture clings to. Practically every school, every office, every public service, has a lady who acts as a “secretary”, but her only job really is to serve tea to anyone to comes for a meeting. She does other things around the office but in my experience this is mostly theatre. She’s the similar to an administrative assistant but her major duty is to make sure everyone’s got tea.
Ship pilot. Just learned a guy I know is one. Every ship that docks in a port requires a pilot to access the ship and dock it in the port. It is a very well paid position.
Planetary Protection Officer kinda sounds like Earth Defense Force/fighting alien invasion. In practice, it makes sure we don’t contaminate the planetary bodied explore with microbes and such that have hitched a ride and we don’t accidentally bring anything back to the planet that could contaminate our own ecosystems
Newborn Care Specialist. (Rich) People would hire me to educate them on the needs and care of their babies to have them sleeping 12 hours by 12 weeks. Yes, it works (if they listened to me) and, no, babies did not cry it out. I worked nights for 8 years then called it quits.
I was a vocational rehabilitation counselor for a state agency for many years. It’s a complex, interesting, & fulfilling job but it’s not a job most people are aware of & I got so tired of explaining it I just said I work for the state when asked. People assumed it was a boring paper pusher gig & I was ok with that.
There are a lot of obscure financial industry jobs nobody has heard of that pay a lot of money. Ever hear of a mutual fund wholesaler? They are like a pharma sales rep but instead of calling on doctors they call on financial advisors and educate them on their company’s investment products. Great gig if you can get it.
Cultural Resource Management (CRM) Field Technicians. They are archaeologists that work to fulfill section 106 of the Historic Preservation Act. Every road you see had to have a survey done by them after the late 70s. Most construction needs to be cleared by them. I worked as one for a few years. It is mostly boring. Usually you find nothing because your job is to make sure that there is nothing there.
I was a theatrical designer. For ten years I designed the sets, lighting and costumes for live stage productions as an integrated whole, as opposed to independent elements.
When I explained to my immigrant Ukrainian grandmother that’s what I spent four years learning at university, and how I put food on my family’s table, she sniffed and said, “Dat iss no tchob for a man!”
As a Firefighting Breathing Air Technician I test and service high-pressure breathing air compressors and Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus.
There are only a few dozen companies that do this, and since I’m factory trained on 3 brands of compressors and 2 brands of SCBA, it’s likely that I’m the only one in my state with these specific certifications.
I pick out seeds for construction landscaping depending on location: grass that does not go to seed near a runway (because birds are attracted to seeds and airplanes + birds = bad), low water grass in more arid climates, etc.
[Insert crop] breeder. They take a crop, like corn, and breed better varieties. They will pick varieties with traits they want, such as disease resistance, cold/heat tolerance, yield, etc. and cross them. Then they select the best results and grow them, select the best results, over and over again. Then they do a study compared to known varieties to get a comparison, and advertise it to seed growers. Then the seed growers will buy the rights to the variety and grow it for the purpose of selling to farmers. Farmers buy this seed and grow it for food.
Almost everyone in North America has eaten food my dad bred. I don’t want to say the crop he has bred because there aren’t many people in the job. But it is a crop that I’ve never heard of someone being allergic to, and it is in a lot of foods. He has also made some varieties that have represented the majority of that crop grown in North America.
Design in oil and gas. Even recruiters in the O&G field don’t have a clue what we actually do. We make well into the six figures and many of us don’t have a degree in anything related to our field, or in many cases a degree at all.
You might have heard of designing. You might have heard of drafting. Unless you know, you have zero idea what this job is.
Comments
Blind Rehabilitation Specialist
Peanut butter tester
Paid Socialites
Professional cuddler – getting paid to cuddle people
Lumpers, in the trucking industry – They are people who professionally unload the trucks. There’s a ton of drama surrounding the use of lumpers and some truck yards ban them.
Fluffer
Cigarettes testers
Surrogate partner for sexual therapy. You have intimate contact, up to and including sex, with patients while the therapist watches, coaches, and provides therapeutic support to the patient to help them deal with their sexual issues.
Being a Cooper.
Presidential Diaper Changer.
By the way, I’m reading all these in the voice of the 1980’s Bud Light ad announcer.
Probably mine. I do materials testing for a variety of motor and aerospace companies. Essentially take a raw sample of a metal or an alloy and subject it to a variety of torture tests. I can heat them, supercool them, and then that data goes back to the companies so they can determine if the material is suited for whatever part they’re designing.
Knowledge Manager
Ediscovery. Been in the industry for 20 years now. I consider it the easiest work I have ever done and it pays a ludicrous amount. No degree.
Continuous improvement manager
Wireline Operator
These guys work on live oil and gas wells. They cut paraffin in the well bore, install mandrills (utility ports), and help production operators maximize flow.
I used to know a guy whose father was a worm farmer.
Chicken sexer.
My job: GIS Engineer
Transpondster
Pet food tester.. yep. People get paid to try dog food and the like!
Sex toy tester
Game assistance player
Porn moderator
Swinger coach
Rov pilot- fix and fly underwater robots
A foot job
Saggermaker, and saggermakers bottom knocker.
Facebook support phone operator
Movie theatre music picker
There’s a place in Japan where you can rent a real doll girlfriend.
There is also a guy there who has to clean them.
I’m a construction site medic. It’s a very nice cushy job
sterile processing. I work in a hospital washing, repacking, and sterilizing surgery equipment so it can be used again.
It’s hard work but it’s not one that people take for granted and don’t actually think about but I used to be an office furniture contractor, go into various offices and build service and tear down cubicles and desks partitions etc there was a branch of the company that I worked for that specialized interior walls there was another that specialized in hotels
Professional Sleeper, Water Slide Tester, Pet Food Taster, Odor Judge.
Chicken sexer.
Dog walker
Jizz Mopper. It’s explained in Clerks.
Cigarette influencer. No shit, they hang out at bars and when someone tries to bum a Cigarette, they give them one from the specific brand that pays them.
Turkey neck bender.
Dog food tester
Perfusionist
Actuary.
Paleoscatologist.
Read about the Lloyd’s Bank Coprolite restoration on its wiki page, definetly a job title I hadn’t heard of before
Fluffer. Look it up.
Visual Interpreter.
Egg Candler.
My partner works in a large scale grocery store and once or twice a year and weird guy comes in, takes the eggs to a dark room, lights a candle, and holds them up to make sure the contents of the eggs aren’t bad.
Poopsmith
My job: industrial-organizational psychologist
Microtomist. I used to be one. I took extremely thin slices of frozen tissue from larger pieces of tissue, with both gloved arms in a refrigerated box.
One that pays a decent salary.
The professional cuddler people. They give cuddles for a career
Banana room technician – manage to gas to oxygen ratio to control the ripeness level to balance with the shipping volume to hit the correct level by the time the bananas hit store shelves.
Intimacy coordinator. It’s basically someone that shows up on the set for filming movies and stuff to help actors be more comfortable during sex scenes.
Non destructive testing. I worked as an accountant at a company that did a decade ago. My boss didn’t know what it was. She didn’t last long.
When I tell people I’m a horseback trail guide they give me the blankest stare. Like they never considered that could possibly be a thing.
Period/Menstrual Coach.
Cat servant
Genetic counsellor
I was a relay operator for years back in the early 2000’s. I’m pretty sure the job is still a thing, but it was a dying business even back then getting replaced by texting and IMing. I always had crazy fucking stories doing that job, and I’d go back to that any day if the pay wasn’t dog shit.
Steel Curler
Transponster
Eyeball harvester
Histotechnician/histotechnologist.
You ever look at a slide under the microscope? Have you ever wondered “who makes these slides?”
Cat confuser
Had a job one summer trimming Christmas trees. At the time, I had never really considered how a business like that worked other than around Christmas. Hottest job I’ve ever had to do. 100+ degrees (F) and basically no air flow or wind around all of the trees on the farm.
Fight Club promoter.
And the first rule of Fight Club is. . . .
The official scuba diver for the Mexico City sewer system.
It doesn’t exist anymore, but in the early 80s, I was a service observer for the phone company. Basically, we listened in on random operator service calls, checking for errors. That’s not the thing we listened to, though. We also listened to random phone calls, both incoming and outgoing. To ensure the routing equipment was sending the caller to the number they dialed. We had 10 seconds to determine if there was an error. You’d be surprised at what was said in those 10 seconds.
The “tea lady” in Japan is a relic of the 1950’s mindset the culture clings to. Practically every school, every office, every public service, has a lady who acts as a “secretary”, but her only job really is to serve tea to anyone to comes for a meeting. She does other things around the office but in my experience this is mostly theatre. She’s the similar to an administrative assistant but her major duty is to make sure everyone’s got tea.
Actuary
Power System Operator/Grid Operator
Chicken sexer. Since half the chicks are male, they are not needed. For most people, distinguishing the two sexes in newly hatched chicks is almost impossible, unless the breeder has arranged for a clear difference in color or pattern.
https://digfir-published.macmillanusa.com/pel4e/asset/img_ch8/myerspel4e_08un07.jpg
penetration tester…. its not what you think it is either lol
Ship pilot. Just learned a guy I know is one. Every ship that docks in a port requires a pilot to access the ship and dock it in the port. It is a very well paid position.
Process Chemist
Planetary Protection Officer kinda sounds like Earth Defense Force/fighting alien invasion. In practice, it makes sure we don’t contaminate the planetary bodied explore with microbes and such that have hitched a ride and we don’t accidentally bring anything back to the planet that could contaminate our own ecosystems
Transponster
Chicken Debeaker
So they don’t kill each other on the way to be killed.
Hospital ward Bum cleaner for the incapacitated
Fire tower watcher
I think being the Town Crier would have been a pretty baller job back in old days.
Printed circuit board designer. I did this for 35 years.
Newborn Care Specialist. (Rich) People would hire me to educate them on the needs and care of their babies to have them sleeping 12 hours by 12 weeks. Yes, it works (if they listened to me) and, no, babies did not cry it out. I worked nights for 8 years then called it quits.
Cosmetic chemist
Mongo and shoddy manufacturers!
Also, Chick Sexer is an actual job.
I was a vocational rehabilitation counselor for a state agency for many years. It’s a complex, interesting, & fulfilling job but it’s not a job most people are aware of & I got so tired of explaining it I just said I work for the state when asked. People assumed it was a boring paper pusher gig & I was ok with that.
Wanker
Probably what I do: railroad track inspector.
Electric plating rack designer. 42 yrs non stop
Water slide tester. Still can’t believe that’s real.
Mine, I guess?
I inspect closed/abandoned landfills. Most people don’t even know the landfills exist, much less that they get inspected.
There are a lot of obscure financial industry jobs nobody has heard of that pay a lot of money. Ever hear of a mutual fund wholesaler? They are like a pharma sales rep but instead of calling on doctors they call on financial advisors and educate them on their company’s investment products. Great gig if you can get it.
Cultural Resource Management (CRM) Field Technicians. They are archaeologists that work to fulfill section 106 of the Historic Preservation Act. Every road you see had to have a survey done by them after the late 70s. Most construction needs to be cleared by them. I worked as one for a few years. It is mostly boring. Usually you find nothing because your job is to make sure that there is nothing there.
The guy who works for Nintendo who has to do taste tests to see how bad they can make the Switch cartridges taste without making people sick
(They do this to discourage kids from eating it then choking)
A guy in a technology/media company I worked at 20 years ago had the title “Keeper of the Magic.” He owns a bar now.
I was a theatrical designer. For ten years I designed the sets, lighting and costumes for live stage productions as an integrated whole, as opposed to independent elements.
When I explained to my immigrant Ukrainian grandmother that’s what I spent four years learning at university, and how I put food on my family’s table, she sniffed and said, “Dat iss no tchob for a man!”
I’m a FireBAT!
As a Firefighting Breathing Air Technician I test and service high-pressure breathing air compressors and Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus.
There are only a few dozen companies that do this, and since I’m factory trained on 3 brands of compressors and 2 brands of SCBA, it’s likely that I’m the only one in my state with these specific certifications.
I pick out seeds for construction landscaping depending on location: grass that does not go to seed near a runway (because birds are attracted to seeds and airplanes + birds = bad), low water grass in more arid climates, etc.
[Insert crop] breeder. They take a crop, like corn, and breed better varieties. They will pick varieties with traits they want, such as disease resistance, cold/heat tolerance, yield, etc. and cross them. Then they select the best results and grow them, select the best results, over and over again. Then they do a study compared to known varieties to get a comparison, and advertise it to seed growers. Then the seed growers will buy the rights to the variety and grow it for the purpose of selling to farmers. Farmers buy this seed and grow it for food.
Almost everyone in North America has eaten food my dad bred. I don’t want to say the crop he has bred because there aren’t many people in the job. But it is a crop that I’ve never heard of someone being allergic to, and it is in a lot of foods. He has also made some varieties that have represented the majority of that crop grown in North America.
Design in oil and gas. Even recruiters in the O&G field don’t have a clue what we actually do. We make well into the six figures and many of us don’t have a degree in anything related to our field, or in many cases a degree at all.
You might have heard of designing. You might have heard of drafting. Unless you know, you have zero idea what this job is.
It’s impossible to find salary comps.