25 Weirdest Jobs That Exist (No 19 is…, Why, FAQs)

weirdest jobs that exist

Ever wondered what kind of wacky and weird jobs exist? Hold tight because we’re about to ride through the list of the weirdest jobs. 

You won’t believe your eyes when you discover the incredible diversity of careers beyond the ordinary. 

We’re talking about everything from cuddle professionals to professional mourners. 

Buckle up and get ready to be amazed by the fascinating individuals who have taken these offbeat professions.

Why is it called a Weird Job?

The term “weird job” is used to describe occupations that are uncommon, unusual, or out of the ordinary. 

These jobs often defy traditional expectations of a typical career or profession. 

They may involve tasks or roles most people would not consider standard employment. 

The label “weird” is subjective and is usually applied due to the unconventional nature of these jobs, which can range from performing obscure tasks to catering to niche markets or fulfilling peculiar needs. 

However, calling a job “weird” does not diminish its value or the skills required. Instead, it highlights the unique and extraordinary aspects that set these occupations apart from the mainstream.

13 Weird Jobs That Exist

1. Professional Sleeper

Have you ever dreamt of getting paid to sleep? Well, for professional sleepers, this peculiar job is a reality. 

While most struggle to find a good night’s rest, these individuals earn a living by dozing off. 

Their primary duties involve analyzing sleep patterns and testing sleep-related products like mattresses, pillows, and quilts. 

Equipped with monitoring devices, professional sleepers provide detailed reports on their experiences, from comfort levels to room lighting and noise disruptions. 

It may sound bizarre, but their services are valuable to scientific research, hospitality, and manufacturing industries. 

While making over $45,000 annually, they are the sleep enthusiasts who have turned their slumber into a unique and lucrative career.

2. Dog Food Taster

There are people out there who make a living by sampling dog food. 

These brave souls evaluate canine cuisine’s nutritional value by tasting it. 

With a keen sense of taste and vast knowledge of foods and ingredients, they assess not only the nutritional content but also the flavor, texture, and aroma of dog food. 

Armed with their discerning palates, dog food tasters provide objective feedback and even write nutrition reports to improve our furry friends’ culinary experiences. 

And yes, they earn over $34k annually for their unusual but crucial role in ensuring our canine companions are well-fed. This is one of the weirdest jobs that exist.

3. Snake milker

One of the strangest jobs that exist is that of a snake milker. 

Imagine a profession where individuals extract venom from snakes regularly. 

Snake milkers are crucial in supporting research and development processes, ensuring the production of life-saving antivenoms. 

Their primary duties involve inducing snakes to bite a membrane or using electrodes to stimulate venom glands. 

With meticulous attention to detail and exceptional hand-eye coordination, these brave individuals earn around $19 per hour. 

4. Odour Sniffer

In the vast and lucrative fragrance industry, a peculiar profession often goes unnoticed: odor sniffers. 

These individuals ensure perfumes, deodorants, and cosmetic products smell pleasant and possess long-lasting fragrances. 

As unconventional as it may sound, being an odor sniffer requires a keen sense of smell and an ability to discern various scent notes. 

With hourly wages ranging from $20 to $25, they play a crucial role in maintaining the quality and appeal of scented products. This is one of the weirdest jobs that exist.

5. Professional cuddler

Professional cuddlers offer a unique service to those needing comfort, whether they are feeling lonely, depressed, coping with medical issues, or have experienced severe traumatic events. 

Becoming a professional cuddler doesn’t require extensive training but demands qualities like empathy, ethical conduct, and strong moral values. 

These cuddlers often promote their services online and can earn between $20 to $40 per hour, providing both solace and an unexpected career choice for those seeking human connection in a touch-deprived world.

6. Professional Mourner

In some cultures, where societal reputation holds great importance, a peculiar occupation has emerged: professional mourners. 

These hired mourners play a significant role in funeral ceremonies when a vital person dies but lacks a substantial circle of friends. 

Their purpose is to enhance the deceased’s reputation by creating an atmosphere of grief and sorrow. 

These individuals earn around $40–$100 per session, and their involvement often extends to participating in post-funeral rituals, including the solemn eating ceremony. 

7. Professional Mermaid

Imagine a job where you get paid to be a mythical creature from the ocean’s depths. 

These individuals, often licensed and trained, bring the magic of mermaids to life. 

They grace birthday parties, events, and even swimming classes, captivating audiences with their shimmering tails and graceful movements. 

As they dive into the water, they transport people to a world of imagination, all while earning around $300 per hour. 

8. Professional Line Stander

These individuals do what their job title suggests – they wait in line on behalf of others. 

Whether during major events like Black Friday or highly anticipated product launches, such as the release of the latest iPhone, these dedicated line standers brave the queues so that their clients can skip the wait. 

Surprisingly, this unusual job can earn them around $1,000 weekly, proving that even the weirdest jobs can be surprisingly lucrative.

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9. Face Feelers

These sensory scientists have mastered the art of using their hands to evaluate the effectiveness of various skincare products. 

Lotions, facial cleansers, and even razors are subjected to their touch. 

With specialized training, these face feelers can earn up to $25 per hour by discerning the subtle differences in texture and feel on different faces. 

10. Human Statue

Have you ever imagined being paid to stand still and be admired like a work of art? 

As the name suggests, human statues are live mannequins draped in paint or clothes, adding a touch of uniqueness to various businesses. 

From fashion retailers seeking innovative models to street performers mesmerizing passersby, these immovable artists earn a surprising sum. 

A human statue can rake in approximately $100 per hour, proving that being frozen in time can be a lucrative and truly extraordinary career choice. This is one of the weirdest jobs that exist.

11. Golf Ball Diver

Have you ever wondered where all those stray golf balls end up when they take an unexpected dip in the water hazard? 

A group of adventurous individuals is explicitly hired to retrieve submerged golf balls and give them a second chance on the greens.  

With an average earning of around $200 daily, it’s a unique opportunity to turn a quirky passion into a paycheck.

12. Professional Paint-Dry Watcher

Have you ever wondered if there’s a job out there that’s as mind-numbingly dull as watching paint dry? Well, believe it or not, such a profession exists.

Professional paint-dry watchers observe paint as it dries on cardboard sheets. 

The main objective of this peculiar occupation is to assess how different paint mixes interact and determine the duration it takes them to dry completely. 

Surprisingly, these paint-dry watchers earn around $40,000 annually for their extraordinary expertise in watching dry paint. 

13. Paper Towel Sniffer

Another weird job that exists is the paper towel sniffer. 

Though most people use paper towels for their intended purpose, some dedicate themselves to ensuring the absence of any foul odors from these essential household items. 

Sniffing each roll, they ensure customers are not greeted with a putrid aroma while cleaning up spills. 

This peculiar profession may not be glamorous, but it offers a unique opportunity to earn about $52,000 annually for those who find joy in the scent of paper.

14. Professional Cuddler

The occupation of professional cuddler is one of the more unusual ones out there. This is a job where you are paid to cuddle with strangers.

The purpose of the position is to comfort and encourage patients. Amazing human beings, professional cuddlers infuse each session with love and care.

They always give it their all and bring all the benefits of their training, honesty, professionalism, and crystal-clear speech. This is one of the weirdest jobs that exist.

15. Professional snuggler

It would help to have formal education and testing to call yourself a professional cuddler or snuggle therapist. There are classes where you can learn the finer points of cuddling.

They instruct one in proper client boundary establishment and the most effective methods of providing emotional support.

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16. Horticultural therapist

Horticultural therapy (HT) is a relatively modern field with historic roots.

The “roots” of horticultural therapy can be traced back to the early 19th century when Dr. John Burroughs popularized using plants and plant-based activity for therapeutic purposes.

Horticultural therapists are trained to use gardening to enhance their patient’s health and happiness. Horticultural therapy has been recognized as a viable treatment option in recent years.

It has various applications in therapeutic, occupational, and community settings. Methods from the field of horticultural therapy are used to help people develop or recover lost abilities.

17. Body Painter

“Body painting” refers to painting designs or images directly into a person’s flesh. Like tattoo artists, body painters use the human body as their canvas to create unique designs.

However, you don’t utilize long-lasting ink as a Body Paint Artist. Instead, you use water-based paints to make pictures that fade after a few days at most. This is one of the weirdest jobs that exist.

18. Fragrance Chemist

A fragrance chemist is an expert who works in the perfume, food, cleaning product, and manufacturing industries to create new scents.

These scientists explore new fragrances for products like perfume and cleaning supplies.

They could hold dual positions in business and the academy. They may be required to do more scent development work if employed by a private company.

19. Fake Wedding Guest

Simply put, a fake wedding is a wedding that isn’t real. You can expect to see the bride and groom, a traditional ceremony, a reception, some corny speeches, and perhaps some tacky party goodies.

The only distinction is that the couple featured in this drama is not getting married.

Fake wedding guests are hired to give the appearance of attendance at a wedding so that the bride, groom, or both can give off a positive impression to their peers.

20. Thief Taker

A professional thief-taker goes after thieves and gets your stuff back using various techniques and devices.

As the number of crimes and publications reporting them increased, thief-takers emerged to help bring offenders to justice. This is one of the weirdest jobs that exist.

21. Professional foreigner

Foreigners who work in “professional services” are those whose job it is to dress formally and make business introductions.

They are occasionally compensated for attending real estate events while pretending to be foreigners or famous people. Careers involving interaction with foreigners in China are competitive but not impossible to pursue.

22. Movie Watcher

People are frequently employed by streaming services to watch and evaluate content.

Only the highest-rated ones are released. You don’t need background knowledge to be a movie buff, but you must know how to distinguish a good film from a bad one.

Expertise in film and the capacity to correctly label video content are necessities for a career as a film critic.

A job as a tagger at Netflix can sound like a dream come true. A word of caution, though: working full-time can get boring. This is one of the weirdest jobs that exist.

23. Professional Ethical Hacker

An ethical hacker is a trained professional in information security (infosec) who breaks into a protected system, network, application, or digital infrastructure on behalf of the system’s owners.

To be hired as an ethical hacker, you must show that you have top-tier technical knowledge of cybersecurity.

Desired knowledge and skills include the capacity to suggest preventative and corrective measures. A candidate for the ethical hacker role must be familiar with wired and wireless networks.

24. Human statue

A living statue, often called a human statue, is a performance artist who dresses and poses like a statue or mannequin.

Finding work as a human statue is unusual, but you can earn a good living if you do.

This job is exactly what it sounds like you get paid to pose like a painted or clothed mannequin.

Some stores will pay top dollar to have a human statue represent their brand in promotional materials.

25. Worm Picker

The term “worm picker” refers to a worker whose job entails the collection of worms. They sell the worms alive as bait for fishing. The hours of a worm picker are at night.

They drive their trucks to several farms. They spend their days “hunting” and “collecting” soil worms in the big outdoors.

The worms may be sold to fishermen as bait, a fishing company could hire you to collect and sell bait, or you could work for a school that uses the worms in its classrooms or laboratories.

Tips for Excelling at Any Job

It does not matter how weird your job is; here are some tips that would enable you to find success at it:

1. Be proactive:

Be always proactive if you desire to succeed at any job you do. It will assist you in pinpointing risks and overcoming challenges.

It also helps you identify your strengths and exhibit your capacity.

Furthermore, being proactive would enable you to learn many new things and empower you with the confidence to make giant strides in your career.

2. Be open to continuous development:

You cannot grow at any job you do if you shut the door on continuous development.

Since most industries experience regular evolution and development, seeking advanced education consistently and improving yourself would enable you to stay relevant.

Some channels of continuous development you should embrace as a professional are advanced certifications, higher educational programs, upskilling courses, and volunteering.

3. Carryout personal assessments:

Reflect on yourself from time to time and identify areas that you need to improve upon.

You can develop a personal system to analyze how well or badly you have done by pinpointing specific objectives and developing a course of action for executing them.

Make up your mind on the timeframe you intend to take to analyze your results.

These results would be useful when identifying areas you can do better and developing a strategy for improvement.

4. Learn from mistakes:

Don’t allow what you have done in the past to repeat itself in the present or future. Rather, learn from it and develop steps that will enable you to evade them in the future.

If the mistakes you made have a huge effect on the work, take steps to ease its impact. Doing this would surely assist you in developing a dependable status.

FAQs on Weirdest Jobs That Exist

Why would someone choose a weird job?

People may choose weird jobs for various reasons. Some are passionate about unique interests or enjoy breaking the mold. Others may find fulfillment in serving niche markets or fulfilling peculiar needs.

Are these weird jobs in high demand?

The demand for weird jobs varies. Some may have niche markets or limited opportunities, while others might attract more attention and competition. It depends on the specific job and its popularity.

Are there any educational requirements for these weird jobs?

The educational requirements for weird jobs can vary greatly. Some may require specific training or certifications, while others may simply require a passion for the job and a willingness to learn.

Are there any risks associated with these weird jobs?

Depending on the job, there may be certain risks involved. For example, snake milkers may need to handle venomous snakes, which carries inherent dangers. Each weird job comes with its own set of considerations and potential risks.

Who creates a statue?

A sculptor is a professional name for that.

Conclusion

These weird jobs show that the world of work is filled with surprises at every turn. 

So, if you ever daydream about a career entirely out of the ordinary, just remember that real people live their wildest dreams in these weird professions.

Who knows, maybe you’ll be the next professional dinosaur impersonator or dog food taster! 

Keep exploring, keep dreaming, and never be afraid to follow your passion, no matter how strange it may seem.

Awesome one; I hope this article answers your question.

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