Occupations you would be good at if pay wan't an issue

In My Humble Opinion
41

I’m sure there must be an official photographer of some sort for the National Park Service. I could do that.

42

This OP was written with my husband in mind. He graduated out of university with an career goal of being a sport writer, just as everyone was laying off all writers. He has a good career now as a construction safety officer (which makes some pretty good money), but if you gave him safety officer money to go to sporting events and write about sports, it would absolutely be his dream come true.

I don’t have much to offer the OP for me - I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. If someone would pay me a living wage to look after my house and yard and household and all that and watch tv and surf online, that would probably be my dream job. :slight_smile:

43

I’m actually now doing the best job ever that pays exactly nothing; retirement is good:). MrSin and I are part time camp hosts. We split our time between Maryland, where our son and his family live and SoCal, where our daughter and her family live. We work 1/2 days 3-4 days a week. 99.9% of the people we encounter are totally happy because they are on vacation. We are surrounded by kids and adults having fun. The rangers and park aids we work with are awesome. BEST JOB EVER!

44

Honestly? While I love what I do now, I really enjoyed being a barista throughout college. I’m sure bartender would work as well, but I’ve never done that. I liked getting to know the local community, chatting with patrons, meeting new people, etc. The coffee was a bonus, but I met so many interesting and talented people in my few years then. And I like to think I was pretty good at what I did.

45

I would go back to doing research but maybe change focus. i could swap immunogenetics for virology to make things interesting.

46

My choice would be catering/party planning. I’ve done it on a small scale in the past but there was no way I could have possibly made a living doing it from scratch - those pesky roof over our heads/lights on/heat on/food in our stomachs kinds of things kept me from quitting my regular job and trying to build a business.

47

Funny you should mention that. When I was still in the industry I was recruited to open a brewery in India. I will never forget the phrase the recruiter used; “By Western standards the pay is abysmal”. It did, however, come with a free house and servants.

So maybe that is the answer, travel the world assisting others in opening breweries. Damn, that would be great.

48

I think I might make a pretty good geologist. Only problem is, getting the academic creds to get a job in geology would probably take some time, and the OP stipulated “short amount of time.” But I’ve always had an interest in geology and paleontology, and interest has always been the significant factor in whether or not I can succeed at something.

49

  1. If I can’t be President, can I be the Senator from my state, or the Representative from my Congressional district?

  2. Op-ed columnist for the Washington Post. I’m a better writer than most of the people who are currently being paid to fill that space, and have more interesting things to say, to boot. When was the last time you got a new insight from a Robert J. Samuelson column?

  3. Blogger. There are a number of people who are blogging for a living, some in the employ of newspapers and magazines, and others making it on a mix of ad revenue and contributions from readers. So it’s a real job, but not for very many people.

  4. My current job, as it was ~7 years ago before it got so crazy, and before I became so damned indispensable.

50

I would be a baseball umpire.

51

Pay remains the same, eh? For ever, or just for a probationary period?

Assuming I could figure out how to live comfortably in NYC on what I make now, my answer is music director on Broadway. I’d need to woodshed some of my piano skills to play with the cats in the big league, but it’s basically the end-game of the career (well, one of them) I have now; music directing for regional, university, community, and high school productions (listed in decreasing order of prestige). The only reason I haven’t pursued New York already is that I can’t imagine moving to the city and having to work a 9-5 that I don’t love just to pay rent, while being stuck in an expensive, dirty, urban jungle.

But if I get the job just by filling out this thread? Count me in!

52

Well, I do it often enough anyway - I could be a Guitar Matchmaker. :wink: So many folks - even those who’ve been playing for a while - don’t quite know what they want and why.