The daily nine-to-five grind can be brutal and soul-crushing. Every day, millions of people force themselves out of bed so they can go to work and do a job they can’t stand. It’s a shame, but what can you do? You know, people say that there’s no such thing as easy money, but we say that those people just haven’t looked hard enough. Whether you like shopping, ice cream, books, fine cuisine, or fast cars, there are plenty of ways to make plenty of money while living life on easy street. Here are ten surprisingly easy high-paying jobs.
10. Mystery Shopper
9. Esports Player
8. Ice Cream Taster
7. Librarian
6. Medical Transcriptionists
5. Insurance Appraiser
4. Purchasing Agent
3. Food Stylist
2. Ferrari Driving Instructor
1. YouTube Personality
10. Mystery Shopper
If you’re interested in both shopping and espionage, then perhaps becoming a Mystery Shopper is your true calling. While this is only really a part-time position – the average Mystery Shopper remains on a company’s payroll for around three years – this job can be an excellent way to make some money on the side. You might’ve heard the term “Mystery Shopper” thrown around before, but what exactly does the job entail, and how much money can you make from it? Put simply, being a mystery shopper is fifty-percent being paid to shop, and fifty-percent being a corporate spy.
Mystery shoppers are sent into retail environments posing as ordinary customers, but as they shop, they’re required to gather data on the quality of the store environment, the customer service, and the products themselves. After the experience is over, the Mystery Shopper is required to write and submit a detailed report to their superiors. The job, on average, pays around $13 an hour. But, considering that the work is essentially keeping a keen eye while otherwise keeping up a regular shopping experience, it’s pretty easy money.
9. Esports Player
Are you young and ambitious? Do you have quick reflexes and a competitive mindset? One more question: Do you like video games? If you said “yes” to all of these questions, then perhaps you should look into a career in Esports. That’s right – if you’re a deft enough hand at a number of the world’s most popular Esports titles (At the time of this video, these include League of Legends, Fortnite, Overwatch, Dota 2, and Counter-Strike) then you can make a living playing video games professionally. If you’re lucky enough to get into the pro-gaming world (typically by winning local or “grassroots” competitions) it’s likely you’ll be signed on to an Esports team.
Your team will then compete against others for cash prizes and professional acclaim in competitive events. Low-end professional esports players can make up to $36,000 a year, however, if you really excel at this vocation, you can make hundreds of thousands of dollars from tournament prizes and sponsorship deals. If you hope to pursue a career in playing professional esports, you may want to get started early, because Esports players tend to skew young. However, being a player isn’t the only way to take part in professional Esports. Like most competitive sports, Esports also has plenty of positions for gaming experts and professional broadcasting commentators. Like a lot of emerging industries, there are plenty of fun roles up for grabs – and if gaming comes naturally to you, it can be a relatively easy job that’ll make you an awful lot of money.
8. Ice Cream Taster
This is one of those jobs that feels almost too whimsical to be real. It’s the kind of thing that every child – and frozen-treat-loving adult – dreams about. And yet, being an Ice Cream Taster is a very real position. And, if you reach a state of seniority, it can pay fabulously. Also called flavorologists and tastemasters, professional Ice Cream Tasters are the masters of quality control for some of the largest ice cream companies in the world. However, their role is actually far more varied than that – They also work extensively in product development, devising and testing new ice cream flavors.
Let it be known: Becoming an Ice Cream Taster may be a dream job, but actually getting the job will be surprisingly hard. To give yourself the best chances, we suggest getting qualifications in food science, chemistry, and product development. Career Trend also recommends getting experience in a more small-scale ice cream store to familiarise yourself with the industry. You’ll also need a keen eye (or tongue) for texture and consistency. However, once you’re in the flow, you can be earning upwards of $40,000 a year for eating ice cream all day. You may need the extra money to invest in a treadmill.
7. Librarian
If you consider yourself a bibliophile, and you’re a fan of good, old-fashioned peace and quiet, then it goes without saying that a public library might be the perfect work environment for you. While being a librarian might not seem like the most glamorous job in the world, according to job site Indeed, the average basic salary of an American librarian is $42,225. This is over ten thousand dollars greater than the median personal income of the average American, according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics.
That’s not to be sniffed at. And, if you have a calm and quiet temperament, and you enjoy the simple pleasures of organisation, then being a librarian isn’t exactly a demanding job. Your main duties involve cataloguing books, enforcing library rules, operating IT systems, and answering enquiries from library customers. For lovers of solitude and literature, being a librarian might just be the perfect career.
6. Medical Transcriptionists
That’s quite enough about reading, how about we discuss writing now? You may think being involved in the medical or pharmaceutical industry involves soul-crushing hours, extreme stress, and getting a PhD or doctorate in your chosen field. But that isn’t the case if you become a medical transcriptionist, a comparatively easy and low-stress job with a median salary of $47,840 and an even more impressive top-end salary of $61,672 and beyond. So, what exactly are the duties of your average medical transcriptionist?
As the name suggests, you take dictated voice memos from medical professionals and transcribe these audio recordings into written memos for further use. In order to do the job properly, you need to be an impeccable listener, have a working knowledge of medical and pharmaceutical terms, have an excellent command of English grammar, and be a fast and efficient typist. That being said, this position has one of the lowest barriers to entry of most jobs in the medical field, and brings home a generous salary to boot.
5. Insurance Appraiser
Do you like cars? Would your friends describe you as a real gearhead – with a strong working knowledge of the inner workings of your average car? Good, because that’s actually all you need to be an auto-damage insurance appraiser. While being the arbiter of whether an average joe gets a pay-out after an unfortunate fender-bender probably won’t win you any friends, it can net you a yearly salary of around $60,000. Despite the fancy name, the demands of this job are actually relatively simple: Assess an insurance claim, and then perform a visual observation to appraise the validity of that claim.
While it might seem like a job this cushy is hard to get into, you technically don’t need any formal qualifications beyond a high school diploma – though having experience in the world of auto-repair definitely doesn’t hurt. According to job website Owlguru, in spite of the job’s pretty dull reputation, insurance appraisers report 65% job satisfaction. If you’re fine with writing reports and occasionally ruining the day of someone whose car just got totalled, then this may be the job for you.
4. Purchasing Agent
Purchasing agents are little-known roles in almost any company that makes its profit selling goods, but the role is entry-level, well-paying, and in rising demand – with the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimating the demand for purchasing agents will rise by two percent through to 2024. So, what exactly is a purchasing agent, and what do they do? In short, purchasing agents are the foot soldiers of purchasing managers – they buy services and goods on behalf of their employer, typically a larger commercial entity. Say, for example, the purchasing agent works for a large supermarket chain.
It’s down to the purchasing agents and the purchasing manager to determine which brands that supermarket should stock and sell based on current marketing trends. The purchasing agent will then buy the selected products, and arrange to have them brought into stores. In order to be a purchasing agent, all you need is a two-year associate’s degree in business and preferably some experience in the world of salesmanship. The national median salary for purchasing agents is also over $60,000 per year, which is a generous income for essentially dictating other people’s purchases for a living.
3. Food Stylist
Would you call yourself a foodie? Do you have an artistic flair? When you prepare yourself a delicious meal, do you find yourself unable to resist arranging it for a perfect Instagram photoshoot? Then maybe it’s time to pursue a new career as a Food Stylist. Yes, you heard me right, a food stylist. Not sure if you want to be an artist or a chef? Food stylists are essentially the best of both worlds: Food stylists cook and prepare food for film and photo shoots.
They’re responsible for making the most aesthetically pleasing food imaginable. Food stylists get the joy of cooking and making art without the high-pressure environment of a more conventional restaurant chef, for an impressive median salary of $63,900 per annum. As well as being paid a generous salary for making food look good on camera, this career path can also provide extremely interesting fringe benefits. One example is Janice Poon, a woman hired as the in-house food stylist on NBC’s three-season TV show Hannibal – where she cooked and arranged the cannibalistic dishes of Hannibal Lecter himself. That’s a bragging right few careers can afford you.
2. Ferrari Driving Instructor
Much like being an ice cream taste tester feels like every child’s dream, making a living as a Ferrari driving instructor feels like the dream career of your average teenage boy. Ferrari are one of the leading manufacturers of so-called “Super Cars” in the world, with their most expensive car – the Ferrari 250 GTO – fetching over $48,000,000 at auction. This means that the company’s high-class clientele really needs to know how to treat their new vehicles, considering they cost more than what many average people would invest in a house.
That’s why Ferrari driving instructors are the best-paid instructors in the world, with some bringing in salaries as high as $120,000 a year to teach filthy-rich car enthusiasts how to master their new purchase. For the money you’re making, the work is essentially being a regular advanced driving instructor, with the added value of working for one of the most prestigious car companies in the world. The downside for potential applicants is that the bar is high to actually get a position doing driving lessons for Ferrari. They typically farm their instructors from the finest professional racers in the world, so unless you’re already a whiz in that area, maybe don’t hold your breath for this one.
1. YouTube Personality
It used to be a common truism that if ever you wanted to be a world-renowned performer, you needed to live in Los Angeles, New York, or London, and have a mix of film industry connections and years of art school under your belt. However, in the age of the internet, that really isn’t the case. On the platform where you’re watching this video right now, daily vloggers are making thousands to hundreds of thousands to even millions of dollars just for letting their huge YouTube fanbases into their life. While this final entry comes with the caveat that success is never a safe bet on YouTube, if you do happen to make compelling videos that really catch on with the YouTube audience, you can become fabulously wealthy – especially when factoring in sponsorship deals, merchandise, and touring.
In 2018, well-established vlogger Logan Paul made over forty-five million dollars. YouTube Let’s Player Sean McLaughlin – more commonly known by his handle Jacksepticeye – made sixteen million dollars that same year. While only a fraction of YouTubers rise to this stratospheric level of success, thousands of YouTubers make a decent living from the platform, and the website has proven itself one of the best places in the modern world to play for pay. And hey, maybe you can even make a living doing insane challenges for your favorite informative youtube channel.
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