10 Odd Jobs That Pay Well

Crab Fisherman

If you managed to make it through college without catching crabs, well done. But if you want a little excitement in your daily work, you should try catching some. While shows like "Deadliest Catch" may have glorified the profession a bit, it’s still one that will keep you on your toes on a regular basis. It’s definitely not a glamorous job, but there is potential to earn around $60,000 in just a few months if all goes well on an outing. 

Crime Scene Cleaner

If you spent a good amount of time in a fraternity, then cleaning up a crime scene should be a piece of cake. Really though, if you have a strong stomach and don’t mind blood or decomposing bodies, then look into becoming a crime scene cleaner. After a violent crime occurs, it’s the job of the crime-scene cleaner to come in and remove any sign of what happened and any biohazards that may have resulted from the incident. You can expect to make around $37,000 in your first year, but up to six figures as you move up the ranks.

Embalmer

While we're discussing dead bodies: if you don’t mind being around them, then consider embalming as a potential future occupation. This job requires sanitizing dead bodies and then injecting them with embalming chemicals to keep them from decomposing long enough for any necessary public display. The average embalmer makes close to $45,000 per year, which is pretty good considering you don’t have to spend any of that money on clothes to impress people at work.

Luxury Housesitter

Maybe you want to live like the rich and famous do right out of the gate, but you don’t exactly have the means to do so. Look into the wonderful world of luxury house sitting. Ridiculously rich people can’t always be at home when they have all that money to travel the world. That’s where you come in. A luxury house sitter stays in the home while the owners are away and maintains its upkeep. Once you build up a respectable reputation as a luxury house sitter, you can earn as much as $200 a week, which isn’t all that much on its own, but you get free room and board in an incredible home. Not a bad tradeoff. 

Technical Writer

Think about how many companies need instruction manuals for their products. If you half-assed your way through college, but for some reason always excelled in writing, this might be a cool way for you to work from home. While creating instruction manuals isn’t exactly the most thrilling job in the world, if you can freelance for a number of companies, it will pay off. Technical writing is one of the only jobs other than stripping that you can do in your underwear and make an average of $65,000.

TV Watcher 

You managed to get a degree even though 76 percent of your college experience involved watching reruns of "Family Guy." Well, why stop watching all that television when you can become a professional TV watcher? Although competitive, certain production-assistant jobs for clip shows require a serious amount of channel surfing. If your typing skills are above average, you can caption television shows for the hearing impaired. Salaries start around $25,000 and go up from there.

Voice Actor

If people told you in school that you had a voice for radio, it either meant you’re ugly or you actually do have a voice for radio. Voice acting can be as competitive as on-camera acting, but if you can get work regularly, it can really pay off. A lot of voice acting only requires a few hours of work a week and salaries can get into six figures easily. People who do voiceovers for movie trailers regularly can earn over a million dollars. And if you end up voice acting on a hit cartoon like "The Simpsons," your salary can approach seven or eight figures.

Waterslide Tester

If you knew as a kid that you could someday grow up and test waterslides for a living, would you have even bothered with school? A man named Tommy Lynch gets to live every kid’s dream. Lynch works for First Choice, the U.K.’s leading leisure travel company. His job is to travel all over the world to test waterslides at various locations height, speed, water quantity, and safety. He has traveled and tested waterslides in Greece, Ibiza, Florida, Turkey, and a number of other locations. How’s that desk job treating you right about now?