Say, if I wanted to become a doctor or teacher, all I have to do is pick up a book or cruise around the net to find info. But, what about the more rare careers? How do you find out how to get your foot inside the door? What it takes to succeed in the career? Daily tasks? Pros and cons?
Many rare careers will likely require you to move. A common example is acting - if, in the US, you want to act professionally, at the top of your game, you’d better head to LA or NYC.
The careers are rare because only a few people can do them and they require rare skills. You have to find your own path on them and few can help you. For example, my mother always knew what her eventual career would be: motivational speeches in education spanning the world. She started working on it when I was young and started achieving her goal at age 52 or so. Now she just travels the globe 200 days a year, motivates, speaks to huge audiences, writes books, and performs comedy. They are all based on a theme. There are only a handful of people in the world that does what she does. However, there are thousands of niche careers that people have built for themselves.
Nobody can write a cookbook or a summary or what these people do. You have to ask someone who does it directly or read an autobiography from someone that did it in the past.
I have a job that less than 200 people in this country have. I got it by getting educated in a field that is highly specialized, and by having the willingness/ability to sell a product.
Software is full of these kind of jobs - there is software for grocery stores, fire stations, schools, sports, any medical specialty, etc. Get to know a market segment in depth then find a company that markets to that field.
These jobs usually pay extremely well, and once you are in, you are in. I could (and do, in fact, on Monday) get an interview with any of the other companies in my field almost upon request.
Well, what kind of rare job are you looking for? Would you like to become a bio-hydro-whatsit scientist or are you looking for something less rare but more extreme like a treasure hunter? (And if you find out how to be a treasure hunter, let me know and we can be a treasure hunting team!)
I guess mine’s rare. I’m a zookeeper and I do off-site presentations with the animals at schools, dacyares, birthday parties etc.
I’ve always had an interest in animals and I’ve always been a show-off. It’s the perfect job for me. Most of the animal part is self taught. I read voraciously. The presenter part was helped by years of high school Drama and church Drama Team. I’m pretty well fearless on stage.
I got the job by asking to come to the zoo when I needed to do a work experiance. I just never left! Tha boss taught me a lot too and of course it was he that took a chance and let me out the door with his animals.
I love it!
I don’t think this career is rare in that way. I don’t think it is rocket science. It’s rare because you will only find these places of employment in like 15 per state (on average).
I doubt I can find actual autobiographies, but I might have luck finding blogs. If, I find someone who does it directly, what kind of questions should I ask them?
I totally know this market segment in depth. What I don’t know I can find out, there’s like unlimited info out there about this target segment. 
Nah, the pay actually sucks. The few people I do know who is/was in this profession say it is worth the smaller paycheck. This career rocks that much.
Although I’ve insulted you in another one of your work-related threads, I commend you for asking this question, because it means you want to earn your living despite not being fond of the traditional means of doing it. Hopefully you’ll find your niche. Do realize, though, that in the mean time you’ll need to support yourself somehow. You might start by doing gigs (you’ll need to find your own city on the main page, but that will give you an idea at least) if you’d rather not do the 9-5 thing.
When did you decide on this career path?
Why did you choose this career path?
Why did you choose a nontraditional career path in general?
Were their hard times? If so, how did you get through them?
Do you have any regrets?
What advice would you give someone who wants a nontraditional/rare career but doesn’t know which one?
This career has rarity value.
Hopefully.
As I replied in another thread, career counseling plus Vocational Biographies will help you locate jobs. What does “rare” mean to you? Highly skilled? Interesting to tell people about?
My parents were recently featured in a little book called Odder Jobs whicb gives short profiles of people who have unusual careers. They do a very particular type of product research study, and only a handful of companies are doing this type of research worldwide. They did not invent the technique, but they did apply it in a novel way.
When their business began they did mostly very traditional types of market research, like surveys and focus groups. It was a pretty normal job by most people’s standards, aside from the usual ups and downs of having your own business. However, they started to take on a lot of “difficult” projects, particularly medical ones that tended to squick people out or make the participants nervous about telling the truth. They became known as the go-to guys for this kind of project. From there it was a small jump from untraditional projects to convincing their clients to accept untraditional methods.
I don’t think anyone can tell you exactly how to break into a non-raditional career. You have to make your own way, because most of these “non-traditional careers” didn’t even exist until someone with the right skills invented them to meet a need.
Good luck!
I work in broadcasting. I guess you could consider it rare. There may be dozens of McDonalds, but there’s only six or seven television stations in town.
I majored in it in college, and had an internship in college at a TV station in town. I was able to put that on my resume and I’ve worked in the industry ever since.
It might be worth asking about it here.