Welcome to my list of 7 well-paid jobs you didn’t even know existed. Whilst I know that each of these jobs isn’t for everyone, it is just a bit of fun with the not-so-subliminal message that there are a lot more possible paths out there that you can take outside of what society would consider ‘the norm’. Most of which you probably aren’t even aware of! So sit back, relax and enjoy this very interesting job listing. Remember: you can never be too niche!

Professional Snuggler

Everyone loves a good hug and if you are especially good at dishing them out then you could become a professional snuggler. Turns out cuddles are in quite high demand and ‘cuddle sessions’ can last anywhere from 15 minutes to 5 hours! The going salary is around $1 per minute which certainly isn’t bad at all. Take Janet Treviño as an example. She is doing this full time and charges clients $80 an hour and spends around 20 hours a week just cuddling!

Waterslide Tester

Waterslide testers do exactly what they say on the tin and is the summer job that I strive to have one day. They travel around the world, all expenses paid, testing and rating waterslides on their ‘Biggest Splash’ and ‘Adrenaline’ factors. Sebastian Smith, a member of my own university, beat off the competition of 2000 other applicants in order to land this amazing summer job which also paid him £20,000. Not a bad way to pocket a bit of extra cash.

Professional Sleeper

Imagine getting paid to just lie down and get some peaceful shut-eye? That’s exactly what Pat Phillips does. It turns out many hotels want their beds and mattresses tested as well as scientific studies that are looking at the effects of sleep. They need participants from somewhere and it turns out that you can get around $15,000 a year from simply hitting the hay!

Feng Shui Consultant

Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese practice that looks at how the placement of objects in space can affect things like your health, mood and overall wellbeing. According to Job Monkey, Feng shui consultants rearrange the spaces in a client’s home, giving advice on things like which way a door should swing or what colour a room should be to optimise energy and mood of a person. It seems like it is a form of professional de-cluttering and re-designing that can command a salary anywhere from $20,000 all of the way up to a staggering $250,000 which certain celebrities have paid for this practice.

Ethical Hacker

While this job may require more skill than many of the others on this list, it is certainly viable as a full-time option and is in quite high demand. An ethical hacker is a computer hacker that is hired by businesses to try and hack their servers and find weaknesses in their systems that could be compromised by a real hacker with bad intentions. With more and more reliance on the internet for our whole livelihoods, this is a job that is increasingly in demand and that not many know about.

Golf Ball Diver

This is possibly the one job on this list that blew my mind the most. If you do this full-time and don’t mind diving in a few lakes, you can actually make around $150,000 a year from this very niche job. According to a CNN report, on average, a golf ball diver can find about 5,000 balls in a single lake dive and sell them for 75 cents apiece. Obviously, these are very rough estimates, but that equates to around $3750 per lake dive. Incredible stuff.

Veterinary Acupuncturist

The final job on this list is quite specialised but very, very awesome. The BLS reported that the median salary for veterinarians in 2017 was $90,420 but now many are also completing additional training to be able to do this variation of their job and perform acupuncture on your pets. So what does it entail? Veterinary acupuncturists insert small needles into specific areas of an animal’s body to stimulate nerve activity, relieve pain or increase circulation. Acupuncture procedures are also known to treat arthritis and some neurological disorders in animals.

What do you make of these weird and wonderful jobs? Are there any that you would love to give a go? Let me know in the comments below!