So, there’s a thread in here about strange jobs that you might not realize people get paid for. It occured to me that maybe there should be a thread for totally awesome paid jobs you would gladly do for free.
I’ll start:
Jet pilot. Honestly, raise your hand if you’d willingly do this for free, assuming that you had some means of providing yourself with food and shelter when not actually flying. raises hand
I used to test video games. Some people found it boring - playing the same thing over and over again - but I thought it was awesome. I got paid for playing video games!
You can see my name in the credits of Need for Speed: Most Wanted, for PSP.
Game design. I did that for free for, uh, about 7 years. I don’t have the technical skills required for the actual implementation of many of those ideas in a paying environment… but design, hell yeah, I can design. And I know how to put my ideas in terms the “tech people” understand.
Process improvement anywhere. I just like it - but if you ask me to review your process, you have to eat my opinions. You can ask for clarification but you’re not allowed to whine that I had the gall to do exactly as you asked me to do and actually gasp pointed out things that can be done better and how.
Sports… well, you might have to pay me to do those. And you never would because I suck. But the people who do it for a living… man, what a thing to get paid for!
And acting (or any performing) is something I’d pay to be allowed to do for the rest of my life.
Every time i babysit, I feel like I’m getting a good deal. I love kids and love entertaining them. I’m the type of person who wants to hold the baby. And if you’re going to let me hold your baby for three hours and then pay me for it, there’s no way i’m going to argue with that. That’s why I do it for free a lot- not because I’m some saint and champion of the children. Just because it’s fun.
One job I heard about from a friend that I was very tempted to apply for: B-movie reviewer for a movie importer and distributor.
The company my friend worked with imported B-movies from all over the world for the Japanese market. The reviewers watched the film, ranked it on different criteria from image/sound quality to suitableness for the Japanese market, and based on their recommendations, the company either picked up the film or didn’t. I would have loved this job.
Teaching. I’ve done a lot of it for free, in both formal educational and community settings. I love to teach and feel like this is one of the ways I can give back to my community. I would teach (and provide clinical services) even if I didn’t need to work.
Prosecuting Domestic Violence cases and representing women (and possibly men, though I’ve never been asked to) in getting restraining orders against abusive husbands/boyfriends.
Seriously, I get paid to do this now, but I would (and have) done it for free. It makes me feel like Captain America.
I once saw (I think) an Oprah show on this very topic. One of the jobs on there was a dude who drove and reviewed the latest sports cars. I thought that was pretty cool.
I get paid to spend money. Actually it’s kind of scary, but I like to think I’m a pretty conscientious guy. I treat it like it’s my own money and am pretty tight with a buck. It’s fun, as long as you realize you have to account for every penny.
I write computer games for a living, and it’s a pretty damn good job. Game testing, however, is not nearly as fun as it might initially sound. It’s VERY repetitive, and testers tend to get very very little respect.
On the other hand, it’s a good way to break into the industry, if what you want to do is be a game designer.
(By the way, I work at Cryptic Studios, makers of City of Heroes/Villains, and we’re desparately trying to hire good programmers…)
I was very envious of a job my friend had once. She wrote NFL-licensed children’s books. She would write up short, simple pieces on things like “The Basics of Football,” “The History of Football,” “Teamwork,” that sort of thing, and then go through NFL archived material to find photographs to illustrate the books.
A fair while back I missed out on an interview to be a porn reviewer (they asked me for an interview but I couldn’t make it before the deadline). The job involved some admin work but the interesting part was watching the porn and either writing reviews for a website, or writing a synopsis for the box.