Ben & Jerry’s would be one of the most awesome places to work for many reasons, especially for those who dream of developing new & ingenuitive ice cream flavors. The famous ice cream company has ice cream flavor gurus who - get this - actually get paid to go on trips every year, where they visit local restaurants and order every single dessert on the menu for a little inspiration. Then they come back to the factory, where the magic really happens.
Plus, Ben & Jerry’s employees get three free pints of ice cream...Every. Single. Day. A free gym membership is also part of the sweet deal, so they can work off all that Cherry Garcia.
A hotel in Finland paid someone to sleep in their beds and blog about it for 35 days to determine the comfort level, and NASA released recently that they will be paying a few lucky individuals $18,000 to remain in bed for 70 straight days. So, if your deepest desire is to get paid for what you do best, don’t lose hope (or sleep).
Companies like Cadbury hire taste testers to sample all of their scrumptious products before they hit the shelves. The only downside of this job is that it can come with some health risks; Britain’s Chief Chocolate Taste Tester was forced to retire because his cholesterol became too high from all of the chocolate. Worth it? Obviously.
Mystery shopping, or secret shopping, is a research tool that is used by companies to evaluate their own customer service and products. You are assigned specific tasks, like buying a certain item or asking specific questions, then you report back on how your experience was. Bonus: If you are working out of town, the company will generally provide you with free lodging and meals as well.
In addition to sleeping on a mattress to determine its quality, some companies also hire professional mattress jumpers to literally jump up and down on their products to compress the cotton batting. Professional mattress jumper Reuben Reynoso says that it isn’t just about jumping really high or doing tricks, but that there’s a specific way to jump with the soles of your feet to achieve the best results.
Have you ever wondered where those little nuggets of advice inside the Chinese restaurant fortune cookies come from? Where do people come up with that stuff, anyway? Well, they have to be pretty creative to imagine all of the little quips, and even though their audience doesn’t even know who these people are, they are some of the most widely read writers in the country - and you’ll get the joy of knowing you put a smile on someone’s face.
If you spend all of your free time playing Mortal Kombat anyway, why not make it your official 9-5? Although this job consists of more than just regular gameplay, it’s still a pretty exciting gig, and it’s pretty good pay too ($8-$14 an hour). Your job is to push the games to their limits and report any issues to the game developers, which would be an exciting challenge.
We’re not sure if this is the official title, but we like it. This job description entails meeting the world’s wealthiest people, from Hollywood royalty to sheiks from the Middle East, and customizing the inside of their private jets. When we say “customizing,” we don’t mean swapping out the fabric seats for leather ones. More like, if a customer wants a million dollar movie theater inside the jet, you’re the one to make it happen.
