Professional Sleeper

Dream Jobs

English, No. 5, p. 34

Chocolate consultant

This could well be the ultimate job for anyone with even the smallest craving for chocolate – and yes jobs like these really do exist. There are lots of different types of chocolate consultant too; from people that work with high street brands and liaise directly with their outlets to people that work with more niche brands.

Louise Thomas has worked in the chocolate industry for two years and been passionate about chocolate for more than six years. She became frustrated by the lack of education and awareness regarding fine chocolate, so started her own company to share her love of the cocoa bean. She now runs events and tastings – similar to wine tastings – as well as doing consultancy for hospitality and retail, to find a particular chocolate for a client or extend their range.

If you don’t yet have what it takes to be a chocolate consultant you can still work with chocolate as a pastry chef.

Beer tasters

Maybe not one for everyone, but if you prefer beer to chocolate then many breweries hire technologists to check the quality of their drink before it goes on sale. In order to thrive in this job you have to have an adept palate – and that doesn’t mean being able to sink six pints on a Friday night.

It’s still a pretty popular job; when Welsh brewery Evan-Evans started the search for a group of beer tasters to help with the development of a new beer range, the company received more than 250 applications.

Of course, if you'd rather be selling the beer than tasting it, then the career of a bar manager awaits.

LEGO sculptor

Who hasn’t at some point in their life sat down in front of a box of LEGO and set about building (or helping to build) a fantastic creation in multi-coloured blocks? For some people this becomes more than just something you did as a kid.

LEGO has a number of certified professionals who work with the company to create sets and build models for them.

They work against fairly tight budgets and thematic constraints, and are based in Legoland Discovery Centres around the world. But competition for the jobs is fierce, with estimates varying as to exactly how many there are in the world – from nine to 30. The latest one to get a job was 23-year-old Andrew Johnson who submitted a clever video, then competed in a hard core three-round build off, allegedly fighting off 45 other competitors.

If you love childhood toys but don't fancy building them, why not consider joining the retail sector and work in a toy shop?

Island Caretaker

OK, everyone lists this but what a job! It was advertised as “Officially the best job in the world” in 2009 and involved working for the Queensland Tourism Board. The role was a newly created position designed to help promote the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef to the world.

Briton Ben Southall won the job, earning £73,400 to live on an island in the Great Barrier Reef for six months, swimming, exploring and generally enjoying himself whilst filming and blogging about all the fun he was having. And it didn’t end there, after his six-month stint on the island, Ben went onto become Global Tourism Ambassador at Tourism Queensland.

If you’re not lucky enough to land a job caretaking an exotic island then the travel and tourism industry can still take you to some pretty interesting places.

Shark Tank Cleaner

Window cleaning is probably not the most fun of professions. However, add in the requirement to share your job with a bunch sharks (and not the loan variety) while simultaneously being watched by a crowd of people, all of whom are no doubt secretly hoping at least one of the sharks is feeling a little peckish; and suddenly the interest levels notch up a level or two.

However, if you don’t fancy risking the odd limb, but still want to work with fish perhaps a career as a fishmonger would be a better choice.

Professional Sleeper

If you’re addicted to the snooze button on your alarm or spend all day at your desk yawning and drinking cups of coffee to stay awake, then maybe you should consider turning your vice into a profitable career. Believe it or not you can actually get paid to don your Pjs and catch some Zs.

Typically, professional sleepers participate in university studies on sleep or dreams, but others make sure beds are comfortable. In 2009 during an art show at The New Museum of Contemporary Art, women were paid to sleep as part of a “living art” exhibition, so you never no where you could be asked to rest your head next.

If you enjoy your sleep, you probably want to avoid these sleep deprived jobs.

Submarine cook

This probably isn’t a good job if you get claustrophobic, but the pay is pretty impressive! Apparently, the highest paid non-officer in the military is not a SAS sergeant- it's the guy cooking food on a submarine. A senior submarine cook in the Australian navy with more than six years of experience can earn in the region of $200,000 (about £129,000) per year, the same as a junior admiral. So it might be time to think about emigrating.

The base pay is Aus $58,806 (£40,000) per year, but the key is in the bonuses, which include a capability bonus of Aus $40,000 (£26,000), seagoing allowance of Aus $22,254 (£14,000), submarine service allowance of Aus $26,703 (£17,200), and a bonus of Aus $50,000 (£32,200) a year just for showing up for work, because the job is listed as critical to the navy.

However, if you’re reluctant to live and work in a steel pressure tube deep under the sea, preparing three meals a day for up to 58 people, possibly a more traditional chef job on terra firma might be a better move.

Airplane repo-man

If you like adventure and high-stress work, then this could be the high-paying job for you. Aircraft repossessors can get a 6% to10% commission of the resale price of a plane they get back for a bank. For planes costing millions of dollars, that could add up to £600,000 per plane. You need to be prepared for tough work, though, as some repo men get shot at or even thrown into foreign prisons.

Maybe a safer way to get closer to planes, might either be to work as a pilot or get a job in the cabin crew.

White hat hacker

Hackers very often switch sides, and instead of trying to steal information from computers and use it to make money, they become ethical hackers.

Ethical hacking, (also known as intrusion testing or red teaming) is used to find loopholes in an IT system and break into it. An ethical hacker is a computer and network expert who attacks a security system on behalf of its owners, seeking vulnerabilities that a malicious hacker could exploit.

With the increasing use of the internet, it has become an essential part of IT security industry today and top certified ethical hackers earn up to £80,000 per year, and need a bachelor's degree in computer science or information technology.

If you don’t quite have the hacking skills then maybe look at working up to this level as a developer for an internet security firm.

Bounty hunter

You might need to move to the US if you want to join the bail enforcement industry – yes there really is one. But there is still something strangely glamorous about the idea of being a bounty hunter.

Wikipedia define a bounty hunter as an individual who captures fugitives ("hunting") for a monetary reward ("bounty"), for apprehending by law, if such laws exist. Other names include Bail Agent, Bail Enforcement Agent, Fugitive Recovery Agent, or Bail Fugitive Recovery Specialist.

Pay for this is between 10% and 45% of the bail deposit amount, and experienced bounty hunters who take high-risk assignments can make more than $100,000 (£62,000) per year.

Source: http://www.totaljobs.com

Date: 2015-12-18; view: 1840