8 Crazy Jobs You Didn't Know Existed
I've held plenty of jobs in my day. I've worked in a candy store, a car dealership, a tuxedo shop, and at a donation-by-phone operation, but I wouldn't consider any of them weird or crazy. Definitely not like these eight jobs that are so crazy, you have to see to believe.Which is why I've scoured the web to find YouTube videos of folks in action doing the most insane jobs ever. EV-ER! Take a look, and be thankful you're at your cushy desk gig getting paid to do it.
1. Worm Picker
Ever wonder how those worms you use as fishing bait — namely nightcrawlers — get from down under to that little dish you stash in your tackle box before heading out on the boat? Nope, it's not the early bird doing the dirty work. Worm pickers, primarily located in Toronto, Canada, are the ones digging up the squirmy, slimy Annelidas (their scientific phylum), so you can bring home the brag-worthy catch of the day. Even if it's not as big as you say it is.
2. Professional Mourner
When a family member dies without much family to mourn for them, professional mourners can be hired. That's right, you can hire someone to wail like the Dickens over your Uncle Archibald if nobody else will. There was a show on TLC called Best Funeral Ever — which, let's be honest, is an oxymoron — that showed the process of becoming the person who gets turnt up at Archie's wake in order to turn heads.
3. Vomit Collector
You'd think that Mother Nature would do its thing to wash away the chunks spewed after too many twists and turns on a roller coaster, but Thorpe Park, an amusement park in England, doesn't leave it to chance. That's where Rhys Owen, official vomit collector comes in. He's the "devoted chunder cleaner" who makes mouth-messes disappear when ride passengers lose their lunches.
4. Passenger Arrangement Staff
Tokyo, Japan, has a real problem with overcrowding on public transportation. Surely you've seen the videos of commuters trying to pack themselves like sardines into a train car, right? It puts your daily gridlock in perspective, doesn't it? Yet, they wouldn't be so successful in cramming into the subway trains if it weren't for the passenger arrangement staff, whose sole job it is to fill the cars to the gills with human beings. Few passengers get left behind, as evidenced by this video filmed at rush hour.
5. Bull Semen Collector
Apparently, lots of things need to be collected, including worms, vomit, and, yes, even bull semen. Because how do you think we get so many cows in the world to feed the population beef and milk? It can hardly be done the natural way, considering how much we consume. So the process must be expedited by artificial insemination.
6. Dog Food Tester
No, it's not like that time your brother dared you to eat a dog biscuit, because that wasn't fun. Rather, dog food testers spend their days as quality-control specialists ensuring that fresh batches of dog food meet brand standards. Which, granted, doesn't sound like much fun either, until you get the paycheck. Apparently, an entry-level tester receives about $30K a year, while more experienced professional taster can command $75K. That's a lot of bones.
7. Olive Stuffer
Olives are washed, pickled, and pitted by a mechanical process, but would you believe that they're stuffed individually by hand? It's some lucky duck's job to stuff each olive with filling — like jalapeno peppers, sundried tomatoes, or garlic cloves — before turning the finished product over onto a group of glass jars until each olive finds its final resting place. Before your belly, that is.
8. Odor Testers
Nobody wants to go around smelling like last week's garbage, which is why odor testers are hired by a variety of companies to sniff out the effectiveness of a product. Deodorant brands, specifically, are probably the most prominent hirers of odor testers since their very livelihood relies on the pleasant smell of their products. But other companies, like producers of nail polish, also are in the business of testing odors that may cause headaches and other side effects.
Have you or someone you know ever held a weird or wacky job? Let me know in the comments below.
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My first job out of high school was working at Princeton University caring for slugs. A professor there was doing brain research. These particular slugs, "Limax", had well defined brain sections, allowing him to experiment on specific functions. So, memory, motion, sensory input, etc. were in specific areas of their little slug brains. My job involved cleaning out their homes, (modified refrigerator crisper boxes), and setting up their food twice weekly. As the work was done in a refrigerated room alone, it wasn't the most social job, but once I got out for other tasks, it was fun interacting with the department researchers. An odd side benefit. Since these critters are covered with digestive juices, I never had any problems with dry, rough hands.