'I once worked as a professional bubble wrap popper': 20+ unusual jobs you don't see every day

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Apr 16, 2023 4:00 PM EDT

It's not like a regular job, it's a cool job. Well, maybe "cool job" is a bit of an overstatement, but some of these are certainly memorable. We're talking professional bubble wrap popper, moving a historic home, coat check for celebrities, overnight security for a cemetery, and, my personal favorite, Santa's elf.

 

Based on the reactions to this r/AskReddit thread, it's quite clear that everyone has had a strange out-of-the-box work experience. Ideally, it's one that you can laugh about and not something that makes you shudder when you think of it. Personally, I once had to help convert a dusty abandoned mill into an event space, which did at one point mean brushing the floors of a giant mill with a toothbrush. 

 

Keep scrolling below for this list and feel free to share your most unusual job or work task. For more, here are some top tales from your server!

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  • 01
    Font - r/AskReddit Posted by u/sproutwasthere : D What's the most interesting or unusual job you've ever had? 135 Comments + Award
    via u/sproutwasthere + comments
  • 02
    Font - BrainKatana 15 days ago Kept books for a stro club. It's where you track the tips the dancers make so the club knows how much the to pull for the DJ/Bouncers/etc. The day I was hired the manager (a friend of a friend's dad and how I got the job) said "if you want them to like you, don't count too hard." I counted just hard enough to keep my job and it paid dividends. It was good money, but the things I've holy seen.
    via u/sproutwasthere + comments
  • 03
    Font - Back2Bach 15 days ago Most unusual job = Funeral parlor organist The console was located adjacent to the coffin open for viewing during wakes. People would come by the organ and request specific songs and hymns, frequently placing tips in the open urn atop the instrument.
    via u/sproutwasthere + comments
  • 04
    Font - Gumburcules 15 days ago I was a "light industrial" temp all throughout college to earn some extra money. Every job was different but some interesting highlights:
    via u/sproutwasthere + comments
  • 05
    Font - Security for a private party thrown by the founder of Burton Snowboards at his house. I was the door person and i got to meet a ton of famous people from snowboarders like Shaun White and Hannah Teter to actors like Luiz Guzman. After my shift ended Jake Carpenter personally thanked me, gave me a $100 tip, and said I could join the party where They Might Be Giants was doing a private show!
    via u/sproutwasthere + comments
  • 06
    Font - Working for a dry stone wall builder, creating stone fences with no mortar, learning how to fit each rock perfectly together.
    via u/sproutwasthere + comments
  • 07
    Font - Moving a historic house to a new location. We had to knock holes in the foundation, insert girders and house jacks to lift it off the ground and onto a truck then doing it all in reverse at the new site.
    via u/sproutwasthere + comments
  • 08
    Font - Being the videographer for a woo woo convention, meeting the weirdos and watching their crazy presentations. One guy thought eating a diet of nothing but black beans would fix all your problems, and of course there were the crystal healers and aura photographers and all the standard new age bulls
    via u/sproutwasthere + comments
  • 09
    Font - There was also plenty of normal boring stuff like landscaping and factory work but the pay was fantastic for being a college student at the time ($15/hr in the early 2000s) and choosing your own hours was great too.
    via u/sproutwasthere + comments
  • 10
    Font - neonoiceness 15 days ago . Well, I once worked as a professional bubble wrap popper. My job was to test the durability of bubble wrap by popping it for hours on end. It was a bit noisy, but I got paid to pop bubbles all day, so I guess you could say it was a pretty popping job.
    via u/sproutwasthere + comments
  • 11
    Font - twodogstwocats. 15 days ago I was a hotmop guy for about 2 hours in high school. Those are the guys who spread boiling tar on roofs. The boots they gave me were old and the heat got through and burned my feet. Worst job ever. It was more-interesting than anything else I've done.
    via u/sproutwasthere + comments
  • 12
    Font - The68Guns 15 days ago Coat Check guy at a busy function hall. F'N loved every gig. Just meeting people, getting paid, nervous brides, funny dr ks, celebrities, etc.
    via u/sproutwasthere + comments
  • 13
    Font - BeerCanThrowaway420. 15 days ago Innovation brewer. I brew beer and design recipes for one of the larger regional breweries in the country. My "art" gets scaled up and shipped out across half the country.
    via u/sproutwasthere + comments
  • 14
    Font - LianOLis 15 days ago I had a job as a kind of freelance translator, I found this guy on Craigslist who was looking for someone to translate his religious books, it was actually pretty decent.
    via u/sproutwasthere + comments
  • 15
    Font - Slumlrd213 15 days ago I was an Industrial Radiographer at one point. Super cool title, but basically we would take very high power radiation equipment and use it to see what was inside concrete walls/floors and then map it out so that way we would know where to drill without hitting anything
    via u/sproutwasthere + comments
  • 16
    Rectangle - FirebladeCBR1000RR 15 days ago night cook at a st p club in my 20s
    via u/sproutwasthere + comments
  • 17
    Font - rusty_L_shackleford 15 days ago Overnight security guard at a cemetary. Also i used to design, build, instapp and maintain custom aquariums
    via u/sproutwasthere + comments
  • 18
    Font - Phil330 15 days ago Setting pins in a bowling alley. I'm old.
    via u/sproutwasthere + comments
  • 19
    Font - LazyDynamite 15 days ago Cash office specialist at Target. Basically you're locked in a small room where the safe is, get to count all the cash that came in from the day before, and balance the safe. Spend a few hours alone, listening to whatever I want and handling 5-40 thousand dollars in cash every day? Yes please. I only did it for less than a year about 15 years ago, but it was still my favorite job I've ever had.
    via u/sproutwasthere + comments
  • 20
    Font - Ameratsuflame 15 days ago I used to work a pool side snack shack at a nudist colony. And before you ask, yes I wore clothes. People that worked there are required to. But you better believe I saw some things there that I wish I hadn't.
    via u/sproutwasthere + comments
  • 21
    Font - Key_Half697 15 days ago I was an elf taking pictures of kids with Santa at the mall.
    via u/sproutwasthere + comments

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