By: Grace Helmke

Our younger selves often dreamt of becoming firefighters, veterinarians, and doctors. But not all of us have followed these conventional career paths like we once thought. Some people have opted for a more unusual work day. Here are the top 10 weirdest jobs in the world.  

1. Professional sleeper

A professional sleeper is someone who gets paid to sleep. Generally, individuals with this job are participating in some form of sleep study. There are a few varieties of these sleep studies. They are as follows: Sleep apnea testing, CPAP Titration, multiple sleep latency test, and polysomnography testing.

2. Netflix viewer 

Netflix has begun to hire people to watch movies and TV shows. The title of this job under Netflix’s website is “Tagger.” They watch Netflix content, and place them under genre categories. They also place them under categories like “movies with a strong female lead,” or “LGBTQ+ TV shows.”

3. Scuba Diving pizza delivery 

In Key Largo, Florida, a hotel named Jules’ Undersea Lodge has hired an underwater pizza deliverer. Jules’ Lodge is located 21 feet underwater, and scuba diving is the only way to get to it.

4. Waterslide tester 

Possibly, the most exciting career a person can have is testing water slides. The job of these testers are to ensure that waterslides are safe in addition to being fun. Most likely, a person in this field would work for a chain of water parks or hotels. They would spend most of their time traveling across the nation to different locations.

5. Golf ball diver 

Country clubs and golf courses around the world pay people to scuba dive in the waters within golf courses. Most of the time, they pay $1 per ball. That may seem like a small amount, but in places with warmer climates, this is a great way to make a decent living.

6. Paper towel sniffer 

Paper towel companies work extremely hard to make sure there is no distinct scent on their product. Companies hire people with extra impressive senses of smell to do a sniff test to make sure that they smell okay.

7. Professional slacker

An airline and vacation agency in Sweden, called TUI, has hired four individuals to be “professional slackers.” The job requirements are extremely laid back, as one might’ve guessed. All they asked is that you listen to some of your favorite music, do a little light reading, put your feet in the sand at the beach, and have a long nap.

8. Panda nanny

In China, the Giant Panda Protection and Research Center hires people to take care of pandas. A nanny must be 22 years old, or older, and have basic knowledge of pandas, but otherwise there are no requirements.

9. Snake Milker

This job involves extraction of snake venom. Individuals in this field milk snakes of their venom for the benefit of hospitals. Snake venom can help to create new treatments for existing conditions, as well as be used to create antivenom.

10. Dog Food tester 

This is not, in fact, the job of one of our trusty canine friends. This is a job for humans. Most people in this field are highly skilled, and often have a doctoral degree from some important institution.

For more information, please visit:

• More on sleeping studies: https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-studies
• Bed tester: https://www.salary.com/research/salary/posting/mattress-tester-salary
• More on netflix taggers: https://askinglot.com/how-much-do-netflix-taggers-get-paid#:~:text=The%20average%20Netflix%20Salary%20for%20Tagger%2FWriters%20is%20%2469%2C906%20per%20year.
• Golf Ball diving: https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2014/youre-a-what/golf-ball-diver.htm#:~:text=Golf%20ball%20divers%20are%20professional,the%20terms%20of%20the%20job.
• Paper towel sniffer: http://weird-jobs.blogspot.com/2013/12/paper-towel-sniffer-paper-towel-earns.html#:~:text=Technically%20falling%20under%20the%20category,varying%20with%20experience%20and%20seniority.
• Pro slacker: https://www.elitedaily.com/p/how-to-apply-to-be-tuis-professional-slacker-so-you-can-get-paid-to-relax-abroad-7856503
• Panda nanny: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/panda-nanny_n_5379929
• Snake milker: https://www.jobmonkey.com/uniquejobs/snake-milker/#:~:text=On%20average%2C%20snake%20milkers%20make,venom%20can%20sell%20for%20%242%2C000.
• Dog food tester: https://recipes.howstuffworks.com/food-facts/food-careers/food-taster3.htm

By: Olivia Knafla

Let’s say that you’re about to leave your hospital room to go into surgery. You may feel nervous, you may feel calm, and you more than likely are able to understand that the outcome of this surgery will rely on the work of a doctor or surgeon.

Do you trust this person? Surely you do, taking into account the years upon years of medical training one must experience to work at such a level. Luckily, most of the time, this person is worthy of your trust, being a competent healthcare professional who will do their best to perform a safe and efficient operation.

However, historically, this has not always been the case.

Meet Harold Shipman (also known as Fred Shipman), otherwise known as “Dr. Death”. What sets him apart from other doctors, who have misused their power, is his repulsively high victim count. Throughout his career of roughly 30 years, he managed to kill at least 215 people, possibly reaching up to 400.

Because of this fact, Shipman is believed to be the most prolific serial killer of all time to date. He killed his victims in his place of work – the operating room. He killed his victims by injecting them with dangerously high doses of diamorphine, and evaded capture throughout his career, which lasted roughly 30 years.

A question that many, myself included, may find themselves asking is: how was he caught? How, after getting away with so many crimes for so long, how was he finally locked up?

It wasn’t until the year 1988 that a doctor, by the name of Linda Reynolds, spoke with John Pollard, a coroner in the South Manchester District (in the United Kingdom), about her concerns regarding the alarmingly high death rate among Shipman’s patients. However, after a short investigation that lasted roughly a month, the case was closed due to lack of evidence. Some blame inexperienced officers handling the case, however, it is unclear as to whether or not that can be confirmed.

For more information, please see/visit:

• ‘Serial Killers and Mass Murderers’ by Nigel Cawthorne
• https://www.parcast.com/medicalmurders
• https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/how-harold-shipman-caught-murder-14582238
• https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploan ds/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/697075/cremation-form-1-app-for-cremation-of-body.pdf