It is Sunday evening. Are you excited to go to work Monday morning? Unless your job entails tasting ice cream or wine, or testing the comfort level of hotel room beds, you probably are not happy-go-lucky about going to sit at your desk and start the week’s routine. If you regularly feel disengaged from your work after a couple of weeks or months, you are not alone. Up to 70% of Americans are utterly bored with their jobs, according to a Gallup study. If you are a real asset to the company, the human resource manager might try to make things a little bit cushier for you by offering gift cards or free lunches. But, regardless of the free burritos, pizza slices and soda, the fact is you are simply not cut out for cubicle life. It is time to get out, do super exciting work and still bring home a plausible paycheck.
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Here are jobs that will never make you hit the snooze button when the alarm goes off:
1. Professional sleeper
Would you rather be snoozing than looking at a computer screen every day? You could make as much as $39,000 a year as a professional sleeper; not too shabby for easy, extra money. Professional sleepers work for sleep researchers, they are hired by hotels to test the general ambiance of their rooms, and by mattress manufacturers to assess the comfort of different types of mattresses. If all you want to do is sleep when you are bored, then this could be a good fit for you. Just be ready to travel, if hotels or mattress manufacturers hire you, or to be attached to a ton of machines all day long, if you are working for researchers
2. Body-part model
Do you have a particularly outstanding part of your body that you do not mind showing off? Body-part models do more or less the same work as a full length model, only that the job entails showing just one or two parts of your body; mostly the face, lips, hands or legs—nothing too risqué. There is little time to get bored on this job, given the lights, cameras, cosmetics and plenty of socializing that comes with being a model. Typical employers include movie directors, fashion retailers, modeling agencies, hotels, or food manufacturers looking for someone to model accessories, fashion apparels, food, cleaning products and much more. Body-part models can make up to $75,000 a year or more.
3. Professional food taster
Nothing beats boredom like eating pizzas, freshly made ice creams or a having a glass of Pinot Grigio. That is the life and job of a food taster—earning a living from putting their taste buds to work all day long. There are plenty of job options for professional food tasters including tasting pet food for manufacturers (it is best to spit out the pet food after munching it), ice-cream tasters for artisan makers and larger factories, food tasters for restaurants and food manufacturers. If you are more into the drinks, a beer or wine tasting profession will give you little time to snooze or feel bored. You could make as much as $58,000 a year or more, simply by eating food, tasting drinks and licking ice cream.
4. Dog surfing instructor
Dogs and water, sounds like oodles of fun. If this combination gives you a rush of excitement, working as a dog surfing instructor might be the break of a lifetime. You certainly need to be an excellent surfer, understand canine language and know how to connect with the furry friends. Dog surfing instructors not only teach canines how to catch their waves; they also instruct the pet owners. This is mostly a travel job with beachside hotels being your employers. With all the splashing water, furry friends and pet owners that you meet, there is barely a mundane day in the life of a dog surfing instructor. The starting salary for a surfing instructor is about $30,000- not too bad just for playing in the water.
5. Sensory scientist
Does consumer research sound too academic? Not too fast- no thesis or lengthy reports involved here. Well, some people may write the final report but not you, if you work as a sensory scientist. The work of a sensory scientist is much like that of a food taster, only that you can do more than just taste food; you could also assess the effectiveness of products, such as cosmetics, before they are put on retail shelves. There is potential to become very busy once you get industry connections, especially among research institutions, cosmetics manufacturers and food makers. There is also plenty of travelling involved in the general field of consumer research. With this job, you could taste, feel, and smell your way to $62,000 a year.
6. Water slide tester
Are you willing to get wet at work, hang out in your swimwear for the most part of the day and travel at least 182 days a year? The UK-based resort marketer First Choice, made a splash when they hired what is probably the first water slide tester for a going salary of $32,000 and other enviable perks including a one-week free vacation. But, this is not the last you will hear of these cool job opportunities. CNN Travel reports that such, out of the box, tourism-related careers are on the rise as marketers and resort owners seek to create a buzz, while also ensuring that their towering and curvy water slides are fun, and more importantly safe for their clients.
7. TV watcher
You get paid to do what? That is the befuddled people are likely to scream out when they hear that you watch television for a living. Be warned though, this is not a job for the lazy, non-critical person nor is it for the rigid, guilt-ridden workaholic. It is somewhere in between, you need to be laid back, intelligent and disciplined enough to get the job done. A professional TV watcher not only binges on show after show; their work primarily entails analyzing these shows and providing suitable tags, finding appropriate clips to incorporate into a main show, or simply providing feedback about a program before its airing. If television is your go-to remedy for boredom, then watching shows for a living could be a perfect fit, and with an annual salary of about $53,000 to boot, what’s not to like about binging on Netflix?
And, while we are at it…does testing video games for a living sound like a more exhilarating way to spend your days than being stuck in a cubicle? You may not retire rich, but you will at least not die young from stress and work-related boredom. Video game testers do more than just play games; their primary role is to look out for errors, analyze games and provide feedback. This could entail playing the same section of a game repeatedly for about $8 per hour or for $14 per hour for the more experienced testers.
There is a way to kick your work-induced boredom—simply find work that suits your personality and engages most of your senses, physically, emotionally and mentally. Whoever said ‘cubicle nation’ is all there is, that person was clearly lying; it is possible to be enthusiastic about your work and still be paid pretty reasonably whilst having the time of your life!