I love getting a firsthand account of a job I know hardly anything about—even better, a career I never knew existed.
It’s like a glimpse into a new world, one that is totally normal for, say, the person sitting next to you on the bus.
So every time Reddit, the forum known as the frontpage of the internet, features someone with a cool or random job on their Ask Me Anything page, I can’t resist seeing what the life of a person in that career is like—and what kinds of quirky questions people of the internet ask them.
Here I present to you, the best cool and random jobs I found featured on Reddit in the past year.
Dialect Coach and Accent Expert
It’s hard enough knowing the difference between an Irish and a Scottish accent let alone a New Orleans and a Cajun one. But this guy doesn’t just know the difference—he trains people on how to nail it for the movies.
I may still mistake Australians for Kiwis on occasion, but I have been practicing Arnold Schwarzenegger impression from a young age…
Question: how did you get into this field?
“Great question! There’s no standard path, but most of us come up either through acting or through linguistics. I’m an actor with a strong and longstanding interest in languages and accents.
Influences: Check out http://ktspeechwork.com/about-the-work/ For nitty-gritty phonetics, but also really clear and accessible, check out the late, great J.C. Catford’s A Practical Introduction to Phonetics”
Licensed Plumber
Ok, so mostly people are just bombarding this good samaritan with tons of questions about their plumbing issues.
But I have to say, seeing the plethora of problems that this plumber knowledgeably deals with is, in itself, a fascinating look at the life of a plumber.
Also, I learned what to do when you accidentally flush a plastic fork down the toilet.
Question: “A few days ago, I accidentally flushed a plastic fork. I haven’t had any issues so far, but should I be worried? Should I report it to building maintenance or something?”
“Yes. The fork may not have made it out of the toilet. Take a big wad of toilet paper and flush it. If the toilet stops up the fork is stuck in the toilet and will continue to cause problems. If you are able to flush multiple wads of toilet paper I wouldn’t worry”
Quit a corporate job with $2k saved to start a business that’s now worth 7 figures
Who can resist the success story of the underdog?
Not only do you feel like cheering this woman and her boyfriend on, you also want to know exactly what they did, just in case… you know… you come up with any bright business ideas.
“Hi Reddit! I’m Monique. Two years ago I was working a typical corporate job in Cincinnati, Ohio. This was my “dream” job after college, but after a few years there, I realized I hated it. I was too chicken to quit without having a “Plan B”, so I spent my lunch hour writing lists of what I could do next. I wrote about how I could be more optimistic about my current job. I wrote lists of what I enjoyed doing. Skills I wanted to learn. What to do next. One day, I wrote a list about “10 businesses I could start in a day”. I showed the list to my boyfriend that night at dinner, and he liked one of the ideas. We started working on it as soon as we cleared the dishes.
We each took $1,000 from our savings to start the business. For the next three months, we worked on our business whenever we weren’t at our corporate jobs. Within weeks, I realized I had been naïve, and that there was an enormous sacrifice to starting a business. I stopped volunteering. I lost touch with a lot of friends. I stopped working out. I gained weight. My boyfriend and I fought a lot about the business and I questioned whether what we were doing was worth it.
Two years ago today, we took our website live. Since then, we’ve had plenty of highs and lows. We’ve both quit our corporate jobs, moved from Ohio to New Jersey, hired people, fired people, and made a ton of mistakes. But we’ve also managed to grow our business and grow as people. We’re proud to provide a living for several employees, and send our customers a product that they love.”
Orphan rhino saver
Perhaps the most noble of all positions, the saving and protecting of endangered animals isn’t something you set off with the goal of one day “being” when you grow up.
Which is what makes reading this thread so captivating. Especially when you see the part about how the person got into this field… because the answer is so perfectly simple.
Question: “How does one get into this field? I’m currently a fish and wildlife conservation major in a US university but I’d love to have a career like this in the future.”
“Probably start by either volunteering or by shadowing someone in the field!”
Plastic Surgeon
The best part of this AMA is having your stereotypical image of a plastic surgeon shattered.
The sleazy stigma is shed when you realize this guy is not only smart but also—shockingly—has some serious integrity, and makes some life-changing things happen for people. It also kinda makes you go “Huh… maybe I could be a plastic surgeon and still love myself.”
Question: What do you have to say about parents seeking cosmetic surgery for children?”
“I would say that the parent should see a therapist and/or have someone slap him/her.”
911 dispatcher
Here’s an interesting look into the life of the person who says “911, what’s your emergency?”
While you’d think it’d be a very grim job, this Q&A highlights a lot of the quirks of it while acknowledging the inevitable intensities, too. If you could never imagine sitting in that seat before, it’s remarkably easy to after perusing this gold mine.
Also, you learn a lot about protocols for your next 911 call.
Entomologists who work in the Amazon rainforest
Sorry, that’s a big word; let me put these guys’ jobs in more clear terms: bugs. Lots and lots of varieties of bugs.
The two Field Biologists in this AMA explore the jungle discovering new species of bugs, and the further in the thread I read, the more certain I was that being an entomologist is wayyyyy cooler than I expected.
Question: “Can you identify all the bugs Timon and Pumba eat in The Lion King?”
“Important question. They took some liberties with their illustrations, but in general the bright beetles are called Pleasing Fungus Beetles, Erotylidae and many of the wormy looking things are either worms, or scarab beetle larvae“
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Written by Carly Walde