Careers that you didn't know existed

[bronxgirl]

What are some careers that you didn't know existed until you were an adult? There are probably a lot more than I can think of, but off the top of my head I didn't know about actuaries, child life specialists, nuclear medicine technologists and creative arts therapists.

[Deleted]

I can't say that I knew until I read this post that child life specialists and creative arts therapists exist.

I'm sure there are a ton I didn't know about, but also there are a ton of job categories that didn't exist when I was a child. Anything having to do with the internet or cell phones, for example. And I suspect that things like life coaches and building concierges and such either didn't exist back then or are much more common now.

I knew a bunch of art conservation majors in college -- that was one that I knew I hadn't really thought about as a career until college. My best friend's boyfriend is a sculpture restorer -- not one I think about much. And my best friend does research on and then writes brochures about antique jewelry pieces that are sold by the antique ring dealer she works for. That's another one I wouldn't have thought of.

[heygrey]

museum curator.

grant writer. (i always assumed this was rolled into other positions as a side thing, but i have a co-worker who writes full time. it actually sounds fun, in a geeky sort of way.)

there are tons of jobs i knew existed, but i'm more amazed that it's a viable full time career. piano tuner, for instance. i met a guy this week and that is all he does, no side gigs in the music world- and he's always busy! we live in a small-ish city. i did not expect there to be enough pianos to keep him hopping indefinitely, but there certainly is.

[bronxgirl]

Sept 9, 2012 10:21:25 GMT -5 v said:

I can't say that I knew until I read this post that child life specialists and creative arts therapists exist.

I'm sure there are a ton I didn't know about, but also there are a ton of job categories that didn't exist when I was a child. Anything having to do with the internet or cell phones, for example. And I suspect that things like life coaches and building concierges and such either didn't exist back then or are much more common now.

I knew a bunch of art conservation majors in college -- that was one that I knew I hadn't really thought about as a career until college. My best friend's boyfriend is a sculpture restorer -- not one I think about much. And my best friend does research on and then writes brochures about antique jewelry pieces that are sold by the antique ring dealer she works for. That's another one I wouldn't have thought of.

That's a good point- that could be a whole other discuccion- jobs that didn't exist 30 yrs ago, as well as ones that did and are no longer around- Encyclopedia salesman, anyone?

[Brie]

My friend is a blender in the gas industry. I'm not exactly sure what it does, but it involves the stock market and buying different components of gas and making sure they get blended correctly to make fuel. She makes a crapton of money but the fact that her job title is "blender" always makes me giggle a little.

[heygrey]

Sept 9, 2012 10:26:36 GMT -5 bronxgirl said:

Encyclopedia salesman, anyone?

lol. that has become my job at the thrift store.

[noodleoo]

Myth buster. That has got to be the best job ever!

[schrodinger]

Sept 9, 2012 10:26:41 GMT -5 Brie said:

My friend is a blender in the gas industry. I'm not exactly sure what it does, but it involves the stock market and buying different components of gas and making sure they get blended correctly to make fuel. She makes a crapton of money but the fact that her job title is "blender" always makes me giggle a little.

I wonder if we're friends IRL, this is my job description.

[pumpkin]

actuaries, speech therapists

I feel like there are lots of things I would have been really fascinated by if I really knew about them. I have no idea how, but have always thought that high schools should introduce more options so kids have some ideas of what is really out there.

[megalicious]

I didn't know what a speech therapist was until I was a senior in college... now I am one.

[sporklemotion]

I didn't realize you could be an event coordinator/party planner until one of my friends chose it as a career in college. I also never realized that human resources was a separate job because I'd never worked in a place that was big enough to have its own division for that.

[marriedfilingjoint]

Public relations.

[rubytue]

I didn't know my field (human factors engineering) existed until I had been working for a few years. Long story short - once I saw what they did I said I was getting that credential and applied for grad school within a month.

There are tons of careers I never knew existed, but I'm also surprised at careers I knew about but never realized how you get there or that people wanted to do them. Mortician, for example. Airline pilot is another. Obviously I knew it existed, but it was just never on my radar as an option. Strangely, pharmacist is another one. Until MM, I never knew anyone who was a pharmacist or wanted to be one. Never knew there were schools. Knew nothing about it. And now I have a friend from college in pharmacy school. There are just careers that had never been on my radar.

[orangeblossom]

Sept 9, 2012 12:55:28 GMT -5 rubytue said:

I didn't know my field (human factors engineering) existed until I had been working for a few years. Long story short - once I saw what they did I said I was getting that credential and applied for grad school within a month.

There are tons of careers I never knew existed, but I'm also surprised at careers I knew about but never realized how you get there or that people wanted to do them. Mortician, for example. Airline pilot is another. Obviously I knew it existed, but it was just never on my radar as an option. Strangely, pharmacist is another one. Until MM, I never knew anyone who was a pharmacist or wanted to be one. Never knew there were schools. Knew nothing about it. And now I have a friend from college in pharmacy school. There are just careers that had never been on my radar.

I'm fascinated by the human factors engineering. I've sen a few presentations on it for work. It's really neat.

[gt7301b]

Ice skate sharpener/mounter.

[Deleted]

I think I learned about PR literally 2 days before I decided to major in it my junior year of college.

I work for a contract pharmaceutical research company. Half the people I interview for jobs don't know what we do.

[tardyfortheparty]

MH is an actuary and nobody ever knows what he does. I hadn't heard of actuaries until he told me about them, either.

[geek96]

Dh is a sandhog. We had no idea what that was until he was recruited for this job. He reinforces beams 500 feet below manhattan to build subways. They excavate and blow holes daily and most people above ground have no clue what's going on until recently when 72nd street blew up top.

[Willis Jackson]

I listened to an interview on the BBC with a medical historian and my reaction was, "Oh yeah. I guess that is a thing."

[anna7602]

Celebrity handler at a big non-profit. It never occurred to me that when you see a big public event full of movie stars or an ad campaign with them, that there's someone at the non-profit said celebrities are promoting whose full time job it is to manage the talent.

[RoxMonster]

I don't think it's a paid job, but more something people who want to go to these events want to do, but until I was in high school or college, I didn't realize big award shows had seat-fillers. Like I said, it's probably more people who volunteer to do it so they can attend the show and sit near celebrities, but I just thought it was funny they had people specifically do that so a bunch of empty seats wouldn't show.

[Deleted]

Ice Road Trucker

[Deleted]

Oh, and another friend works in an insurance broker's fine art department, but she is involved in helping their clients find new acquisitions. That's something I didn't know about until she started doing it maybe 2 years ago.

Before my best friend was in her current position, she worked at a large, old jewelry company doing research in their archives department (something I didn't realize existed). She'd do research on old pieces that the company got their hands on, and would write the copy that would appear next to the displays of archive pieces in their stores, but also, if you found an old piece in your grandma's attic or whatever, you could ask the company to research its history and they'd write back with an essay about how old it is, what the design means, etc. Definitely didn't realize that service existed.

In sum, I know a lot of people in the art field who have way cooler jobs than I do.

[Myrrhine]

Actuary was the first one I thought of. The most recent one I have learned about is soap butler.

Sent from my PC36100 using proboards

[WOT?*]

Video game tester. My son really needs to apply. It's a real job.

[gwynnetx]

Fluffer

Selling diplomatic appointments/passports and honorary consulships

[megalicious]

Sept 9, 2012 12:55:28 GMT -5 rubytue said:

I didn't know my field (human factors engineering[/b]) existed until I had been working for a few years. Long story short - once I saw what they did I said I was getting that credential and applied for grad school within a month.

I still have no idea what that is.

[rt2008]

I'm a respiratory therapist. I didn't know of that career until my dad got really sick when I was in high school and he needed one.

[rosiedozie]

I wish I had known about forensic accounting before picking a school/major.

[purplecow0206]

Sept 9, 2012 15:27:42 GMT -5 RoxMonster said:

I don't think it's a paid job, but more something people who want to go to these events want to do, but until I was in high school or college, I didn't realize big award shows had seat-fillers. Like I said, it's probably more people who volunteer to do it so they can attend the show and sit near celebrities, but I just thought it was funny they had people specifically do that so a bunch of empty seats wouldn't show.

DH did this when he worked at the Kennedy Center, he worked with Development. He sat in Christine Baranski's seat when she was on stage during the Kennedy Center Honors. With that job, he also wound up having a conversation with Clair Danes about the weather while holding an umbrella for her. That was the cool parts of the job, he didn't really enjoy a lot of the other stuff he did there, namely asking people for money.