In a world where literally nothing is free anymore, it is necessary to have a job. Unless we have a sugar momma (or sugar daddy) or we’re still living in our parent’s basement, the only way we can survive this difficult, money-driven world is to have a steady income. It doesn’t even really need to be steady; it just needs to be big enough sometimes to make up for those times when you barely make anything. If you’re one of the lucky few, you probably have an awesome, high-paying job with very low stress levels. You probably have your life figured out and never worry about what you’re going to eat next week. But if you’re like most people, you probably hate your job and would quit right this minute if you had the option. There are also jobs that are so extraordinary it’s hard to tell whether or not they’re worth it. Some of them are pretty insane—we bet you’d never ever try them even if they were your only choice. But the others aren’t actually that bad; they’re just unusual. Want to know what they are? Check out these 10 bizarre jobs people have around the world to see what we mean.
PROFESSIONAL EAR CLEANER
It’s hard to believe that this is an actual job, but we assure you that it’s a real thing. In India, you can have a professional ear cleaner remove the nasty wax from your ears for a small fee. It’s done right on the sidewalk so random passers-by may stop to watch. Using a cotton-covered needle and a pair of pincers, these professional ear cleaners meticulously clean your ears while pitching the “medicine” treatment in which they put some kind of oil in your ears to remove a huge glob of earwax that’s apparently impossible to remove without the oil. This is a dying business, so if you go to India anytime soon, you might want to check this out. They can easily be found on the streets with huge “ear cleaner” signs.
PROFESSIONAL CUDDLERS
This is not a drill: Professional cuddlers are real and you can even book one for yourself. But if you want to get frisky during the cuddle session, then this is not for you. Professional cuddlers only provide cuddling services—they hold you close or hug you for an hourly fee. You’re not allowed to touch them in a venereal manner and you are both required to wear certain clothes to make the whole experience comfortable for all the parties involved. One particular professional cuddler makes $60 an hour—more than what the majority of people make in their more “legit” jobs. If you think you have the skills for this kind of job, you can try applying. Just remember that you’re going to be cuddling strangers, and not necessarily attractive babes (or gents).
CHICKEN SEXER
As the name suggests, a chicken sexer differentiates between male and female chicks after they hatch. The job pays a lot, and according to Inquisitr, you can make up to $60,000 a year. Despite this, however, the poultry industry is struggling to find people who would take the job. Not only does it involve a lot of training, there’s also a lot of pressure on the worker to get it right. Plus, it’s not exactly fun to figure out a chick’s gender—you would have to squeeze poop out of the chick to open up its anal vent and check for a bump that indicates the chick’s gender. It’s important to note that since the males don’t lay eggs, they’re most likely going to get eliminated.
PEOPLE PUSHER
People pushing is another weird occupation that exists in Japan. Pushers, called oshiya in Japanese, are uniformed staff hired by train stations to push people into the train so the doors can be closed. With almost 40 million passengers riding the train each day, it can get extremely crowded, so the pushers have to work hard and push everyone in so the train can run. But their job isn’t as easy as it sounds—they have to get as many passengers as possible into the train while ensuring that passengers don’t sustain any injuries. This is the total opposite of American subway pushers who had the same job almost a century ago. The American pushers had a bad reputation since they pushed and shoved passengers with hostility.
WORM PICKER
Here’s another job that you’d probably never do: worm picking. It sounds as disgusting as cleaning other people’s ears, but there’s something about picking worms with your very own hands that makes it more repulsive. Worm pickers work at night and wear a headlamp to help them find these little wiggling animals. According to Outdoor Life, worm pickers strap a tin can to each ankle—one is filled with sawdust while the other holds the worms. If you’re a really good worm picker, you can apparently pick as many as 25,000 worms in just one night. One person has even picked 50,000 worms in a single session. But while it may sound like a lucrative business, you don’t exactly get that many worms every night. On a bad night, worm pickers can expect to earn only $100.
LINE SITTER
Ever stood in a long line for a product you needed to buy before and thought how it’d be awesome if you could pay someone to wait in line for you while you go get a drink or sit on a bench somewhere? Well, you can now, thanks to line sitters who make a living off waiting in line for strangers. So how does it work? Basically, you contact the line sitter, tell them what product you want them to wait in line for and where and when, and they contact you when your time is ready and then swap places with you. Robert Samuel, a professional line sitter, has once made $14,000 in one day line sitting for iPhones. He now manages his own line sitting company and his team averages $2,000 a week.
PROFESSIONAL MOURNER
Have you ever wondered what it’s going to be like at your funeral? If you’re a friendly and likable person, you’ll probably have a lot of people there mourning and crying over you. But if you’re a bit on the douchey side, you’ll probably get 5 people at most. If you are the latter and want to look more popular even when you’re dead and lying in a coffin, you might want to try hiring a professional mourner. Popular in some parts of Asia and Africa, professional mourners assume fake identities and pretend that they’re a family member or a friend, fooling the rest of the crowd. A British professional mourner named Owen Vaughan has provided a few tips for those who want to take this career path.
LUNCHBOX DELIVERYMAN
Food delivery apps have surely taken the world by storm. Thanks to them, we can eat a nice, healthy (or unhealthy, whatever your preferences are) dinner without going out or making anything from scratch. But in India, food delivery is a little bit different from what we’re used to now. Lunchbox deliverymen, called dabbawala, are paid to pick up warm, packed lunches from a person’s home and deliver them to that person’s workplace. They later come back to collect all the empty lunchboxes and return them to the workers’ homes. What makes them really interesting is the way they deliver these lunchboxes. Some use a balance board to hold the lunchbox on their head while others transport the lunchboxes using a bike or a wooden cart.
BOLLYWOOD EXTRA
India is filled with odd and interesting jobs. If you’re not the type to try cleaning other people’s ears for a living or delivering warm packed lunches to people at work, you might want to consider working as a Bollywood extra if you ever find yourself in India. If you’re a white person and you get spotted by an agent, you might be asked to work as an extra in a movie. You don’t even really need acting skills to get the job. Apparently, Caucasian Bollywood extras are in demand in India. If this is something you’d like to try at least once in your life, try hanging around Colaba Causeway as this is a good place to be found by those casting agents.
ADULT TOY TESTER
Every product on the market has been tested before their launch. This is always part of the process; businesses want to make sure that customers will actually use their product before putting it out there. So it shouldn’t surprise you to know that there are people whose job is to test adult toys. It still comes as a surprise though, mostly since this isn’t really something that we normally think about. Adult toy testers check if the toys are functioning correctly and of course, if they feel good. Adult toy companies wouldn’t want to sell toys that don’t serve their purpose. One woman who works as a professional toy tester makes £15,000 annually and gets 15 pleasurable “moments” a week on the job, according to the Daily Mail.
