World’s Coolest Jobs: From Bed Tester to Beer Taster

Amidst the depressing news about slow-going Haitian relief efforts, MSNBC ran a fun little story over the weekend about the “world’s coolest jobs“. I figured I would know about most of them since that’s our specialty here at the JobMonkey — cool, fun jobs. But there were a couple gigs that surprised even me. You can click on over for the full article, but here’s a brief look at what one reporter deems the coolest jobs in the world:

1. Caretaker of a paradise island — ala Brit Ben Southall who won that Australian job competition to be caretaker and unofficial ambassador of a tropical island). Tough day on the job for Ben? When he got stung by a jelly fish. Poor thing!
   
2. Inventor of fried foods — It’s not exactly fine dining, but Abel Gonazales Jr. has made a living out of deep frying anything — from PB&J sandwiches to a tall glass of coke
3. Water-slide tester — Believe it or not, there is actually one person out there who tests out those water slides at hotels, resorts, country clubs and even public swimming pools. His name is Tommy Lynch and he slides at over 27,000 pools a year. I can’t even begin to fathom how many slides he must see a day, but darn, it sounds like a cool job!
4. Chocolate Taster – As it’s name implies, chocolate taster Sally McKinnon has one sweet job. (Sorry, I had to.) It reminds me of my best friend in high school who had a job scooping up double scoops at Baskin Robbins. She told me that after the first month of all-the-ice-cream-she-could-eat it got rather boring. Sure it did!
5. Google cyclist in Paris — And you thought you had to be a tech genius to land a job at Google! Two guys were hired by the mega search engine to ride around the city of Paris in bikes rigged up with cameras to capture thousands of images for Google maps. Oh la la!
6. Beer Taster — Did you know that the ideal time for beer tasting is the lunch hour? Apparently that’s because your taste buds won’t be tired out yet. And no, I don’t think you can convince Coors to hire your office mates as their official beer tasters.
7. Video Game Tester — Now this is a field I actually know something about! Well, not the video games themselves but the industry. We cover it extensively on the JobMonkey. Check out our section Video Game Jobs and land your own super cool job.
8. Medical Marijuana Reviewer — I think I’d better just leave this entry well enough alone.
9. Luxury Bed Tester — Oh, now that sounds up my alley. Sleeping on $40,000 mattress?! Of course, you have to be willing to sleep in a bed showroom and answer endless questions about your mattress preferences.
10. Internet Savvy Globetrotters — Wow, what an awesome job! The country of Thailand recently hired five couples to blog, tweet and chat boaut their all-expenses paid trips to some of the best beaches in the country. Winners had to be savvy users of social media and “good storytellers.” If you have the wanderlust spirit but not the all-expenses paid budget, be sure to check out our sister site, FrugalMonkey.