Is "Pope" the hardest job in the world to get?

Factual Questions
1

I was thinking about jobs that are difficult to get. They’d have to be very exclusive and rarely available. World leaders fits the category, since a nation’s president or prime minister requires millions of votes and a sustained campaign to win it. But oftentime they would have birth requirements, like being born in the country you want to rule, so I ruled those out. I didn’t want to have any jobs on the list that automatically rules out billions of people, since that shrinks the pool down considerably and makes the odds that much better.

CEO’s of large corporations are rare, and openings are rare as well. And as far as I know, they don’t have any specific birth requirements. But those guys are selected from a pool of similar people, so one could say that once you get into the inner circle, it’s just a matter of time. Plus, they can be removed easily, they resign often, and when they leave one job, sometimes they go to a similar job in a different company.

I thought about sports head coaches. Typically, for any sport, there are about 30 active at once. But these guys tend to come from a select pool of college coaches or former players. More often, they have assistants that can range from minor league coaches, other assistants, or maybe sports analysts, or whatever, making the pool of available talent much smaller than people realize.

The original impetus of this post was head coaches, then I somehow got the idea that the Grand Wizard of the KKK or the shadowy, evil, occult leader of the Illuminati might be good candidates, but I’m sure both of those have birth requirements.

Then I thought: The Pope! He doesn’t have any birth requirements, does he? Technically, anyone can be Pope, they just have to convert and lead a very devout life, working their way up through the ranks. Unlike corporate heads, there is only one Pope at a time, and he has the job until death, so in a person’s lifetime, they may get only 1 or 2 chances to become Pope. But I suppose the male-only club rules out too many people. Yet I can’t think of any other job in the world that is freely available to more then 3 billion people.

2

Actually, becoming Pope is easy. You just need divine support. :slight_smile:

My understanding is that the people who elect the Pope have their own preferences, but they also allow for the possibility that they may be moved by divine inspiration when casting their votes. If so, absolutely anyone could be selected. They don’t have to work their way up the ranks or even be a Christian; they will be converted/baptized/elevated to the appropriate church position, as necessary.

I wonder… what would happen if the divine guidance led the electors to choose a woman?

3

Technically, you have to be a male Catholic. In practice, you have to be a cardinal of the Catholic Church.

There are going to be lots of jobs that are unique in one way or another, but which (in theory) anyone could aspire to if they followed the right career path. However, most are jobs that only those involved in that industry have heard about.

4

[cynical old coot]
It don’t work that way, kid.
[/cynical old coot]

5

Under the standards you have laid out, I suppose the hardest job to get would be Paramount Leader of the People’s Republic of China. There have been only five openings in the last 61 years, and in theory any of the 1.3 billion Chinese would be eligible. In contrast, there are fewer than 600 million male Catholics, and the average papal reign is less than eight years.

6

I’d say royalty is even harder. If you’re not in the line of succession, you’re screwed.

7

My vote goes to Millennium Baby, one child per 1k years. :slight_smile:

8

Getting to be the head of the NSA can’t be no cakewalk.

9

Dalai Lama?

10

How about U.S. Supreme Court Justice. Technically, you don’t have to even be an American citizen. (Warning: PDF)

In other words, the only requirement is that a President nominate you, and enough Senators vote to confirm you. There are only nine slots, and turnover tends to be pretty slow.

11

dictator of cuba.

12

What about an elite academic position? It’d be open to the world population, but would require extreme specialization.

13

What does it take to, ah, screw one’s way into it?

(Or was Grace Kelly born royal?)

14

Not only do you have to be born into it - you have to be the very same person as the last Dalai Lama. :smiley:

15

True, but there will probably be two next time around, as the Tibetan exile community will select one and the Chinese will choose an anti-Lama. So double your chances.

16

I was gonna say Secretary General of the UN but the Wiki article says they don’t usually select nationals from the Permanent Security Council: China, US, UK, France, and Russia. That’d leave a huge chunk of people out of the running.

17

Hmm.. does that fit, though? Just because China doesn’t have written rules, doesn’t mean it doesn’t have rules. No one can be in upper echelon of CHina’s governemnt without also belonging to the semi-exclusive Party.

And the Pope doesn’t have to start Catholic. Theoretically, the Pope could be a non-Catholic who is selected and converts. You could have a massive ceremony of Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Orders, and investment as Pope. Nothing like that has ever happened, but they have had people become Bishops before becoming Priests, and I believe adult converts sometimes mesh Baptism and Confirmation.

18

Better yet, make it Chief Justice, so there’s only one. I think that beats Pope: There are at least twice as many people eligible, and the average tenure of office is longer (Pope John Paul II was an anomaly, in that he lasted for much longer than the average).

19

In practice, the CJ is always a US citizen – which you can get by naturalisation, though I think all have been born in the US – and always a lawyer, and usually has had a career as a judge.

What about Lucasian Professor of Mathematics? The sole requirement is that you aren’t “in holy orders” (i.e., not a clergyman in the Church of England), and the average tenure in the job is about 20 years. You’d be following in the footsteps of such eminences as Isaac Newton, Charles Babbage, George Stokes and Stephen Hawking.

20

Pope is a hard job to get.

Messiah is even harder.