Do you have a job that is particularly mundane or simply doesn’t satisfy your creative spirit?  Are you tired of being just one in a crowd on the subway, dressed in a suit, and headed for another long day at the office, just like millions of other people? Maybe you need to dance to the beat of your own drum, and get a job that is totally unique to your personality.  For instance:

The Nose Knows

Most people have a favorite shampoo, perfume or even deodorant.  Sometimes, it’s simply because that particular brand works better than any others previously purchased.  But, generally people are really sold on the smell.

If the perfume smells good, then the consumer is more likely to buy the fragrance.  Shampoos and soaps are the same way.  No one wants to go throughout the day smelling offensive to themselves, not to mention the people with whom they come in contact.

But, when it comes to deodorant, the nose knows what really works and what doesn’t.  While that baby powder scent might have been appealing in the store, the absence of body odor is what really counts.  But, how can you be sure the antiperspirant works as well as advertised?

To make sure the product works exactly as advertised, even before it hits the store shelves, companies hire specially trained personnel.  The odor tester will put his/her nose to work, in order to sniff out any potential problems with the product.  Question is:  What happens when the odor tester gets a cold?

If you can Boil Water . . .

If you can boil water this job may be right up your alley, as the saying goes.  Did you know that you can make a living boiling animal hair? I guess the saying, “Waste not; want not”, really applies.  After shearing a sheep or scraping a hide, the hair is boiled to be used at a later date.  Lest you think that no one would use animal hair¸ consider where you got that nice wool sweater. In fact, cosmetic brushes are sometimes made from animal hair.

But, have you ever considered the plight of the blind?  They depend on Braille to communicate the written word.  But, unless the intended audience is also blind, who will know what message is being shared?  Maybe you would be interested in learning Braille, so you could translate the message into English, French, Spanish or Chinese for that matter. Braille translation may just be the unique and strange job for you.

Anti-aging Shoe

If you take really good care of your feet, then you already know that leather makes the best shoe.  Leather allows the feet to breath, and keeps them from getting quite so sweaty.  The durability also makes a leather shoe a wise buy.  But, you want them to stay looking good for as long as they will last.

But, leather has one drawback.  After you wear them for about a month, creases start to appear in the leather right above the toe, because the shoe naturally bends a little when you walk.  Now it’s time to pull out the shoe polish on a regular basis.  Wouldn’t it be nice, if those nasty wrinkles would not always appear in your favorite pair of shoes?

Actually, if your purchase your leather shoes from the right company, they employ wrinkle chasers.  It is their job to make sure you shoe never gets those ugly markings that you have to later polish away.

Most of the jobs we know about are heavy on the manual labor or entail being cooped up in an office all day long.  Oftentimes, you arrive before the sun and leave after it has already gone down.  You have effectively missed an entire day.

So, the allure of a less-than-ordinary job is pretty tempting.  Many of the jobs out there are so rare, you may not have even heard of them before.  Other jobs are just plain weird, and most people wouldn’t touch them with a 10-foot pole.  But, you are not most people.  Some of these jobs sound pretty interesting, while other seem really mundane.  But, after working in the hustle and bustle of your current job, maybe a little boring is exactly what you need.

Some rare and unique jobs are dedicated to helping people that need help communicating their thoughts and ideas with others, like a Braille translator.  Even if a job is weird and more than a little strange, someone has to do it, and that someone might just be you.

Everyone makes mistakes. Many errors are small and often easily rectified.  In many cases, the person making the mistake is the only one that knows, unless he/she chooses to tell.  On the other hand, there are some blunders that are of historically epic proportions. As a bell can’t be un-rung, the error cannot be undone.  For public figures, this could make worldwide news, and be hard, if not impossible to live down.  For example:

The Commander and Chief

In 1948, Harry S. Truman ran for president against Thomas E. Dewey.  The Chicago Daily Tribune was so sure that Dewey was going to emerge victorious that they already had the next day’s edition ready printed up, before the election was official over.  Unfortunately, they were wrong.

Unable to live their blunder down, the edition will go down in history as one of the biggest publication errors.  As a result, publishers will now prepare two papers.  It still saves time, so they can make the morning edition; but, they wait until the race is called.  Then, they send the correct paper to the presses.

How do you Spell Potato?

In 1992, Vice President Dan Quayle made history as the politician that couldn’t spell.  For those with a tendency to add a vowel here or there, it’s best not to attend an elementary spelling bee, and attempt to correct a student.  If you add an “e” to the end of a word that doesn’t need it, and it hits the national news, you could end up spending a lifetime living it down.  Just as Mr. Quayle.

It’s just a Game

It’s just a game. If you tell that to Armando Galarraga, he might just punch you in the nose.  Because of an umpiring mistake, a player that should have been out was called “safe”.  It cost the pitcher a perfect game, and a chance to be put in the sports history books as pitching the 21^st MLB perfect game.

Although the umpire later acknowledged his mistake and apologized, there are no take-backs in baseball.  The call stands.  It doesn’t seem fair.  In football, there are instant replays and the referees can confer on a call that may be questionable.