From poultry processor to odor tester, here's a look at the weird jobs that might make you grateful for yours.
Poultry processor (Salary range: $16,000-$30,000)
If you get grossed out pulling the gizzards from your plucked and processed chicken, imagine what it's like to be surrounded by the smells, sights, and sounds of a lively poultry processing plant. Workers quit their jobs at a rate five times that of the average employee. It's definitely not a job for the chicken-hearted.
Lift-pump remover (Salary range: $22,000-63,000)
Imagine getting paid to swim -- in sewage. Lift-pump removers actually dive right into the doo, sometimes five stories high, in order to lift a stuck pump in an area of a sewage treatment plant. You could say this is one crappy job.
Animal semen collector (Salary range: $17,000-$54,000)
The sperm of various animals is a necessary ingredient in artificial insemination, but it's not like a dairy bull can just walk into a private room with the latest Playbull in his hooves and walk out with a sample for the Mrs. That bull needs a hand, as do horses, pigs, goats, and even turkeys (who are notorious for low libido).
Diaper sorter (Salary range: $14,000-$27,000)
Cloth diapers are a noble answer to the mountains of disposables babies use annually (on average, 2,800 just for baby's first year). But someone has to sort through these dirty little nappies before they're cleaned and bleached for re-use. This is the kind of job you might take only to increase your bottom line.
Crime-scene cleaner (Salary range: $25,000-$68,000)
It's gruesome, it's gory, it's the stuff of nightmares. Bits of this and that can be splattered all over the place at a crime scene. It's a good job for someone with the guts for it -- or at least someone who doesn't mind cleaning them off the carpet.
Carcass cleaner (Salary range: $40,000-$85,000)
A distant cousin to the crime-scene cleaner, the carcass cleaner fixes up animal corpses so they're fit for display. Among their techniques: Using maggots or flesh-eating beetles or boiling the body. This isn't an entry-level job: Trained biologists, zoologists, and taxidermists usually get the gig.
Odor judge (Salary range: $19,000-$52,000)
As an odor judge, one day you could be sniffing armpits to see if a new deodorant is effective. The next you could be smelling bad breath, stinky feet, or used cat litter. If you're nosing around for a new job, keep in mind that people tend to stay in this line of work for a long time.
As you can see, being happy with your job may be as easy as shifting your perspective. Or, if any of these jobs actually sound appealing, maybe you've just found your true career calling!
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