Get a Job, Hippie

Another hard thing to come up with for your characters are jobs. The written world is full of doctors, lawyers, and teachers. Janitors, plumbers, and builders are always the one to offer words of wisdom. Authors tend to enjoy writing about authors. And don't even mention retail work or food service. It's all been seen and done a million times, but there've got to be more options.

Problem is, it's hard to find them. But don't worry, I've gone ahead and done that for you. Below are 45 jobs you might not think of or may have never heard of, but I assure you, they're real. Whether they pay well or not, well, that's a question for another day.

Do you know of a weird, unusual, or wacky job? Leave it in the comments!

Job	Job Description
Acupuncturist	Inserts needles into everything but veins
Airline Gate Agent	Last call for boarding [your flight and you're halfway across the airport sucks to be you, pal]
Arcade Machine Repair	Plus side, you get to play it when you're done fixing it. To "Test it."
Art Selector	Picks out art for walls at places like hospitals.
Auction Buyer	Goes to auctions in the name of big-name buyers so others won't be tipped off to items of value
Backstage Support	Helps stage actors with quick costume changes, prepares props, etc
Bailiff	All rise
Bird of Prey Trainer	Falcons, owls, hawks, eagles: these are your coworkers
City Councilman	Like a congressman, but at city level
Clinical Research Coordinator	Coordinates, organizes for, and recruits for medical research
Coffin Handle Installer	There's a job just for installing coffin handles. Who knew?
Convention/Concert Organizer	Someone has to arrange the shows, schedules, panels, etc. This is them.
Court Reporter	Records all statements during court
Cover Artist	Designs book covers
Docent	Guides at museums, zoos, etc
Dog Food Taster	Yes, this is a job for humans.
Ethical Hacker	Try to hack into systems that shouldn't be hacked or broken
Fortune Cookie Writer	You will be paid to write one-sentence blurbs.
Golf Ball Diver	Someone has to go into the water traps. Those balls cost money.
Google Streetview Driver	We see 'em rollin', we hatin' try to do something stupid to immortalize ourselves
Herbalist	Why use Advil when you could have St John's Wart?
Hospice Caregiver	Whether at thier home or a facility, these people make their patients' last days comfortable.
Jelly Bean Flavor Maker	Someone had to figure out how to make those grass jellybeans taste that way.
Jingle Writer	That song during that commercial you hate? Someone wrote that.
Karaoke Cab Driver	It's a cab, with karaoke, and you're behind the wheel.
Landscape Architect	Makes your yard worthy of a magazine, if you can afford it.
Museum Curator	Manages and oversees the collections of a museum
Mystery Shopper	Determine how well a business's employees are performing, secretly.
Celebrity Obituary Writer	Newspapers have obituaries ready for more people than you'd suspect.
Orthoepist	Studies the correct pronunciation of words
Party Costumer	Dresses up like cartoon characters or movie characters for children's birthdays
Patent Lawyer	Determines legality of patents
Pet Psychologist	What's eating Fluffy?
Phlebotomist	Inserts needles into what the Acupuncturist doesn't
Physical Penetration Tester	Try to steal things from places that shouldn't have things stolen from (hospitals, labs, etc)
Political Cartoonist	Making fun of the news, one politician at a time.
Professional [Thing] Tester	Think of an object. There's someone to test it. Mattresses, toys, water slides, anything.
Professional Cosplayer / Booth Babe	Cosplays for a living, either personally or for a specific company
Professional Queuer	Don't want to wait in line for the new big thing? Pay someone else to do it.
Prop Purchaser/Builder	Buys/Builds props for TV shows & movies
Radio Phone Operator	"101.5 ROCK. You're caller 7. Try again." (also handles guest callers during downtime)
Search Engine Optimizer	Determines how accurate search engine results are
Snake Milker	Collect venom for the creation of antivenom
Social Media Manager	Handles famous person's social media accounts or presense
Stunt Actor	Taking the hits so the pretty faces don't have to.