In context, cool jobs are cool because they sound more fun than other jobs in your field, they may also be more prestigious-- but I’m looking for the type of jobs that it doesn’t take an expert in your field to see why it is a cool job.
Like for an antiques appraiser- working for Antiques Roadshow might be a cool job.
Or for the archivist I was talking to who works for the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library–not only does he get to handle primary sources relating to the true baseball greats, but his co-workers take calls from Jeopardy!, the Commissioner of Baseball, the White House, third graders, and drunk guys settling twenty dollar bar bets.
What could you do that the average person would think was “cool”?
Since I know how to do some pretty advanced business return on investment type stuff with a little brushing up on the stats/probability side I think it would be fun to do something like payout balancing to achieve X% average payout in a casino. I already did this for a few years on redemption arcade games and it was interesting but only a small portion of my work. With the levels of automation available to casinos nowadays its probably easier than it looks.
I just changed jobs about 3-4 months ago and am loving it - it is very cool. I am the head of Marketing, Business Development and Strategy for a healthcare company - we manage a network of physician practices.
From a marketing standpoint - I run the relationships with our ad agency and PR firm - I manage the development of market research, messaging, ad development, etc. I write a lot of the ad copy for things we sound out to news agencies, etc. It is cool to create things that consumers are exposed to.
From a development standpoint - I evaluate the market for attractive deals, either to build our physicians’ network or negotiate deals with companies to serve our network. It is cool to be entrepreneurial and come up with new ideas for relationships we should have and then follow through on them.
From a Strategy standpoint - I am developing the company’s strategic plan and facilitating all related meetings of the company’s leadership team and, in a few weeks, of the Board of Directors. It is very cool to think conceptually and to help company leadership open their thinking to new possibilities for the company.
The honeymoon isn’t over, but I am having more fun than I have had in years…
Whether you consider me an administrative assistant to a pair of mental health providers or an administrative assistant at an institution of higher learning, my job is pretty cool. I work at the mental health center at one of the most prestigious art schools in the country. It’s an exciting and fascinating place to work and the clients are really nice, fun kids for the most part.
I’m a land use planner and get to work with people who turn raw land into communities, or shopping centers, or baseball stadiums, or…everything. That’s the coolest part - following a project from someone’s dream all the way through getting to walk through it and use it.
I’m ostensibly a solar physicist. IMHO the coolest job in this field is going up on the Space Shuttle to operate a solar telescope. But it’s only been done once. In the 80s. For… I don’t know how many minutes. (Loren Acton on the STS-51 flight.)
I went to school with a guy who went on to maintain and set up occupant simulators (“crash test dummies” in the common venacular.) It’s a lot more setup work than actual smashing things, of course, but he thought it was quite the thing, and went on to work for a company that was developing future generations of simulators.
I brew beer for a living, which is cool to begin with, but the REALLY cool job is to run a pilot brewery. At a pilot brewery most of the time you can just brew whatever kind of beer you feel like making that day. Belgian Golden Ale? Imperial Stout? Baltic Porter? Beer with elderberries? No problem! Pure creativity, and you never have to worry about making a profit on it like the poor schmo who owns a brewpub.
In my field, I suppose it’s the entertainment lawyers, both those that represent talent and those that appear on TV. It’s not something that most people in my profession want to do, but I think the average joe on the street thinks it’s cool.
Without going into detail, the average lay-person would probably think my job is really cool (and, well, it kinda is), but most of the people who work in my industry really wouldn’t (because, within the profession, well it kinda isn’t).
Before I got my current job, I did some work in the nitrate vaults of the Library of Congress. The early Edison paper prints. The original camera negative to **The Great Train Robbery**. Countless numbers of forgotten silent films that will probably never see the light of day.
A while back on this board there was a thread that asked “What job would you do if you could do anything?” Several people said they would like to be a biologist, or work on finding cures for diseases.
So as a biologist that works at a company that develops cures for several diseases I guess I have a pretty cool job.
The job I had previous to the one I have now was (IMHO) one of the coolest jobs around in my field. I was writing software and designing machines used for neurobiology research. This was top of the line, cutting edge research on trying to decipher how the human nervous system really works, and it’s amazing how much we know, and yet how much we don’t. An engineer’s dream job is to design cool stuff that no one else has ever done before, and that’s what I got to do every day.
Unfortunately, the job was funded by grant money. After the one grant ran out, the researcher I worked for managed to keep me funded from other projects for almost a year. After that, the money started getting tight. Several researchers there tried to get a permenant position created for me, but weren’t having much success, so I jumped ship and took the job I have now.
If you talk on the radio, or create programming that goes on the radio, or push buttons that make sounds come out of the radio, that’s as cool as it gets. That’s what I do. No sweat involved. The rest of it involves a desk and endless papers and screens full of data and deadlines and analysis and forms and applications and filing and cataloguing, building, fixing, installing, maintaining… in other words, work. I have the cool job in this business!
I work in a museum, and since it’s got a small staff, we all do everything that needs to be done.
I get to play with the old stuff. I clean ancient artifacts, do research, lead tours, and generally have a great time. Nothing is cooler than holding in your hands a letter written by George Washington, or a book written in the tenth century. Nothing is more fun than playing with some of the old toys, or getting to examine historical items closely, in minute detail denied most people who only see things behind cases. I also get to have fun designing and installing new exhibits.
I can’t believe they pay me for this.
We, too, have gotten calls from the White House. Last time Bush was in the state, his staff called to get some historica facts to sprinkle into his speech.
I think any job where you get to work with historical artifacts is utterly awesome.
I clean ancient artifacts, do research, lead tours, and generally have a great time. Nothing is cooler than holding in your hands a letter written by George Washington, or a book written in the tenth century. Nothing is more fun than playing with some of the old toys, or getting to examine historical items closely, in minute detail denied most people who only see things behind cases. I also get to have fun designing and installing new exhibits.