Episode 166: Odd Jobs From Professional Snuggler to Pet Food Taster

Listen to this episode of "Coffee with Gringos" here or on iTunes, Spotify, and Stitcher.

Ian: Hey everyone, you are listening to “Coffee with Gringos”. I'm Ian Kennedy.

Paige: And I'm Paige Sutherland.

Ian: And today we're going to be talking about unusual jobs. So, there are a lot of people out there who probably right now maybe even listening to this podcast have just a very normal job. Maybe a job that you have in your office or you just answer emails. Maybe it's just a normal job—accounting or being a lawyer or a doctor, all these sorts of run-of-the-mill careers. But what about those people that do jobs that we don't even really think about or maybe we don't even realize exist or jobs that we take for granted? These are jobs not a lot of people pursue even though it can involve some pretty serious cash. So, Paige, and I thought today we would talk about some unusually weird jobs that are outside the normal nine to five office job. So, we're going to go through those and maybe see if we want to do a career change after reading some of these as well. They're pretty lucrative. So, let's dig in. So, the first one that we see, this one makes me laugh. This one is a professional snuggler. So, for our listeners who maybe aren't familiar with the verb to snuggle, snuggling is when you are hugging each other or you have two bodies that are very close. It's like when two people are sleeping together. Sometimes we call it spooning. You make sort of a spoon shape or sort of like you're just you're closely huddled; you're sort of hugging. This is something that people do to comfort each other when they're feeling lonely and so, there are people out there that actually offer their services as a snuggler to people who are, I don't know, lonely, cooped up in their house, and just want to feel a little bit of love from somebody. And reading the hourly rates here, it's going from it looks like sixty to eighty dollars an hour—US dollars per hour—which it's a pretty high rate and so it sounds like at least what it says here, “nothing more than hugs.” We're going into a different career if we go further with that one, but what do you think about this, Paige? What do you think? Did you ever think there was a market for lonely people looking for some snuggles?

Paige: I mean, I guess there's a market for everything. I mean, snuggling is pretty great. I don't know if I would like it from a stranger. It doesn't feel like it would be as intimate if it's a) someone you're paying and b) a stranger but I mean, I guess if there's a market for, yeah, people like it. Are you a snuggler?

Ian: I am a snuggler, definitely. Yeah. But like you said, it’s got to be intimate. The idea of having a random person coming and I’m paying them to snuggle with me, it's just that's really strange to me, but I totally understand that there are those people and everybody needs love. Like you said, there's a market that exists for everything so, we shouldn't be surprised but it was initially pretty funny to see that.

Paige: Okay, so another one that is another odd job is golf ball diver. And so, for those that don't play golf, when you are on the course, there are a lot of obstacles and one of them is just ponds throughout the holes. And so, generally, most golfers probably get a ball in the pond at least probably in a round of eighteen holes at least once. And so, I guess there are people that you pay to go fetch your ball and they dive in and grab it which to me sounds terrifying, especially. Last year, I stayed at this private island in South Carolina that was surrounded by golf courses and almost every hole of this golf course had an alligator that would just be sunbathing at the hole, which obviously lives in these ponds. And so, you just never know what's down there. You’re going to get a golf ball and then your arm is in an alligator’s mouth.

Ian: Yeah, a lot can happen on a golf course. You have the ponds, which for listeners are artificial, small bodies of water so, it's so easy to hit a ball right in the water, and poof, it's gone. You better get another ball. So, as you can imagine, there's a lot going on, but you have in these ponds, thousands, probably hundreds to thousands of balls that people just get on all their scuba gear, they go down there and they just pull up barrels and barrels of these golf balls, which I think they probably then resell or refurbish and do things to get money out of it. But like you said, that’s a scary idea because most of these ponds, the water is dark and like you said, especially if you're in the south, if we are talking about Florida, especially, you're going to be definitely running into alligators in these waters. And so, it's like, is this really worth doing getting these old balls and maybe get my arm ripped off by an alligator? Who knows what else could happen? I know for me the price would have to be quite high to make that risk myself but hey, at least to be exciting. It'd be a lot better than probably a lot of boring jobs where you just don't do anything for. But me personally, I'm not risky enough for that one. What about you? Would you give it a shot?

Paige: Hell no. No. I don't even think I'd go scuba diving. The waters are unknown and scary for me. Because, like obviously there could be water snakes, alligators, all these things that I don't want to encounter but slime and muck and the algae and just gross things that I don't want touching me.

Ian: Yeah, fair enough.

Paige: Hey, Ian. Did you know besides the podcast, Dynamic English offers one-on-one classes with native teachers from all over the world?

Ian: Really? But isn't it just a bunch of grammar lessons?

Paige: Nope, it's completely discussion-based and focuses on topics the student is interested in.

Ian: That's amazing. But what if I'm not living in Chile?

Paige: No problem. Dynamic does online classes so you can be living anywhere.

Ian: Great, but I'm a little intimidated to take the class alone. Can I join with a friend?

Paige: Of course. Dynamic offers group classes of up to four. Plus, for the next month, Coffee with Gringos listeners get 10% off individual or group classes. So go online to www.dynamicenglish.cl and mention that you are a listener and get your discount.

Ian: Well, I'm sold. Sign me up.

Ian: The next one we have on the list; this is a good following one. We have a “pet food tester”. So just like we have our own testing for our own foods, we have got to test foods for our pet friends. So, these are the kinds of people who work with pet food companies to find out if the flavors of the food for the pet is good enough—sort of a quality control kind of a job. So, these kinds of people, they just sit around and try different dog foods. So, I just imagine them sitting in a room and people from Purina or whatever company are coming in and saying, “Alright, this is our latest chicken-flavored cat food. Go ahead and have a fork-full of that and tell us what you think. Alright, here we have our dry dog food pellets. This is supposed to be salmon-flavored. Tell us what it’s like”. It doesn't sound very fun to me. First of all, how good can pet food really taste? It can't be that good. So, I imagine that this would just get old after a few minutes for me personally. But again, you imagine for these kinds of jobs, they have to have the high hourly rate or that high salary in order to get people to sign up to do that. So, I imagine this could be one of those where you have that carrot on the stick in front of you that’s like alright, you're getting paid a lot to do this even though it's pretty miserable eating dog food all day.

Paige: It's interesting because I feel like it could go both ways where you could get a lot of people who are desperate. They're in college and they want to get beer money and so, they see this ad that's like “Come eat dog food for twenty minutes and get one hundred bucks.” That's beer for the week. So, you could get that crowd or you could get maybe the market that is more reliable. People who would like be like, “oh, this tastes like this” or like someone who actually has some knowledge within the food industry. I'm not sure because I feel like eating dog food sounds gross so, I would assume it's probably more people who just need fast cash that would sign up would be my guess.

Ian: Yeah, I agree. Just some courts are like a college beer money job but you know what? I can guarantee you there are some niche people out there as well who actually probably enjoy eating their pet’s food. I have to admit when I was young, I did try one of my dog’s bacon strips, one of the treats one time. It wasn't terrible. I wouldn't eat it every day but, I'm sure that there's definitely a niche out there for people who enjoy it. So maybe that's the key for the companies, finding those people who take their passion to work every day, you could say in this case.

Paige: It sounds like you want an application. I'll look into it for you, Ian.

Ian: I'm interested in at least looking into it if things go bad.

Paige: Okay so, the next one is a tissue paper sniffer which is basically what you use to wipe your nose especially when you're sick or something. And so, what this job implies is they're supposed to, oftentimes, a lot of paper tissue brands have all these scents. That's how they diversify their product and another thing that's big about it is they care about texture because your nose is really sensitive and if you're sick and you're blowing your nose twenty times a day, you want to have a good paper tissue that's not going to give you a rash, that’s not going to hurt and so there's a job is that they test out all these different tissue paper products to see if they like the smell if it irritates them if the texture is good. Allegedly, according to this article, it's a really hard gig to get, which is surprising. Again, it feels like a market of fast-cash college students to me but what do you think, Ian? Would you test out some paper tissues for an hour for some money?

Ian: Absolutely. It sounds a little bit better than the pet food testing so, it's growing on me. No, it'd be nice. You get to take in some nice scents, your nose would probably be pretty tired after that. But no, I could think of worse things to do and if it's this niche of a job, that's something special. You could really brag about that, right? You could put that all over my LinkedIn, let everybody know. “Yes, I am a paper towel sniffer—professional paper towel sniffer.” So, I think that could have some notoriety to it as well. What about you? Sound fun?

Paige: Yeah, I mean, again, it sounds way better than the dog food one. I think this one I could get on board with but I think it's funny to be a tester of any kind because you're the guinea pig, as we say in English, where often if you're a tester, they're giving you all the products at an early phase where you could get some weird tissue paper that smells like shit or smells like garbage or you're getting the worst of the worst usually because they're trying to improve it. So, you could get a tissue paper that has the texture of sandpaper and you're rubbing your nose with it and so, it would be funny to hear the stories that these testers have of just the worst products they tried and what they smelled like, tasted like, felt like—all those things.

Ian: Yeah, I'd like to hear what a typical rough day on the job is like for them. Some of them come home after a long day was a long day of sniffing paper towels or sniffing tissue papers. So, I think that would be a pretty interesting career to take. And the next one sounds really fun. This one might be the most fun out of all of them on the list here and this is a waterslide tester. So, when you go to a water park and you see the big slides where you're having fun, lots of families and kids going down, well you have to have somebody test that for its safety, for its quality, and just do some tests on it before it can be open to the public. I don't know, it sounds really fun to me. I guess technically you would run the risk of maybe getting hurt in some cases but gosh, that sounds really fun. Just going to different water parks and trying out the slides and giving your opinion on it and, again, I’m interested to see what the hourly rate is for this but it could be a good side gig even. To have that as you have that as on the side, that'd be really fun. So, what about you? Do you like water slides? Would this be a good one?

Paige: Yeah, again, I think I go back to being a tester where this would be funny as bloopers which is videos of things that go wrong, and so it would be funny to film and get all these bloopers of people who tested out this waterslide and the middle fell through or it curved weird and you flipped over the slide or you fell on the grass. I bet there are some really funny videos that come out of this. I think I would try this one. I like water slides but again, being a tester it's like, am I going to fall fifty feet from this slide that doesn't work well?

Ian: Yeah, I think the risk of liability or injury is probably pretty high so you probably need to get an insurance policy but in terms of having fun on the job, it's probably way up there. I can't think of what could be a whole lot more fun than that. That'd be an enjoyable one.

Paige: Fair. Well, so that brings us to our final one, very similar to the waterslide tester is just an overall stunt tester. And so, this is someone who is paid to do all the dangerous stuff that we see in movies. I think it's incredible that these people, not only can do all these dangerous, whether it's fight scenes, car scenes, all these kinds of different things but that they can also mimic the actor that they are in the movie. Tom Cruise doesn't do probably ninety percent of his stunts and there's this guy “Steve” that does them and he's this professional athlete probably that puts on a helmet and is in the driver's seat and actually doing these crazy explosions and flips and all these kinds of things. To me, being a stunt, a stunt double, I guess they call them, seems scary. I guess these people are probably trained and experts but I don't think I would want to do that. What about you, Ian? I'm guessing it doesn't pay well, and you probably risk your life every day on the job.

Ian: I think you said it. I think if I'm if I'm risking getting hurt and/or killed every day, I better be getting paid a lot. So, if it's not a really high salary, then no, it's definitely not for me. You hear stories about stunt doubles who, break their arm in a scene, and then maybe the director doesn't even use the scene so now they're stuck with a broken arm and they find someone else or their view and have been cases of stunt doubles dying. And so, it is very high risk and I know that there are a lot of people who do it and I don't know, just for me, I guess, obviously, I would need a lot of training but doesn't sound very fun to me. I think I would live doing a different career on the list, personally.

Paige: Fair. It would be interesting to see the footage of the stunt double doing the scene and then what the final product is because I am curious now with technology, how much stunt doubling is necessary because you can use CGI, which is digital imaging to recreate some of these scenes and that may be not as dangerous because they don't need stunt doubles as much. But I don't know, that’s just my guess but seeing some of these scenes, you're like how does anyone flip in a car and be next to an explosive? And some of the stuff seems very intense.

Ian: Yeah, exactly. I think I'll eat the dog food instead.

Paige: Fair, yeah, I'll do professional snuggling, you eat the dog food.

Ian: That actually sounds better, surprisingly enough to say. Okay, so listeners, there were just a few there. We know that there are many other unusual jobs out there so, we could probably cover some more in a future episode. Maybe we will. Who knows? Maybe we will pursue some of these as a second career or if things really hit rock bottom, then we know we can look for these other options. So, listeners, if you're bored with your job, consider it. Consider changing your career to one of these and see how it works for you. So as usual, if you get lost, go online and check out that audio guide and transcript at www.dynamicenglish.cl. As always, thank you for listening.

Paige: We'll see you next time.

Paige: Coffee with Gringos was brought to you by Dynamic English, where you can learn English simply by using it. If you're interested in taking classes or just want to learn more, go to our website at dynamicenglish.cl. Thanks for listening.

 Key Vocabulary, Phrases & Slang:

 1.     run-of-the-mill (adjective): ordinary; usual.

a.     The majority of people have a run-of-the-mill job.

2.     to take (something) for granted (idiom): to fail to properly appreciate someone or something.

a.     It is easy to take a lot of jobs for granted that we don’t usually think about.

3.     lucrative (adjective): producing profit.

a.     It actually can be a very lucrative career.

4.     to fetch (verb): to retrieve and bring something back.

a.      There are a lot of people who fetch golf balls for a career.

5.     muck (noun): dirt; mud.

a.     The ponds are completely filled with nasty muck.

6.     niche (noun): a specialized segment of the market for a particular kind of preference.

a.     There is a very niche market that exists for that kind of service.

7.     rash (noun): an irritated part of the skin.

a.      He got a rash from testing so many of the paper tissues.

8.     gig (noun): job; temporary job or endeavor.

a.      I can’t believe they hired him! It’s such a difficult gig to get.

9.     to brag (verb): to talk confidently about one’s own accomplishments.

a.      He likes to brag about all the money he has made recently.

10.  notoriety (noun): state of being famous or well-known.         

a.     She gained a lot of notoriety for her efforts in the snuggle industry.

11.  to get on board with something (idiom): to agree with the idea of something.

a.     I could definitely get on board with the idea of getting an unusual job.

12.  guinea pig (idiom): a person or thing used as a subject for an experiment.

a.      A lot of people serve as guinea pigs for scientific services.

13.  to mimic (verb): to imitate or copy something or someone.

a. They like to mimic the professionals but they aren’t quite the same.

14.  rock bottom (noun): the lowest possible level.

a.      I will consider some of these odd jobs if I ever hit rock bottom.