Jobs so fun, they’ll tempt you out of retirement

Maybe your New Years’ resolution was to find a new, fun job. How would you like to get paid for taste-testing bourbon, chocolate or various beers? Would training to be a wine steward and earning the title sommelier appeal to you?

Or maybe you’d rather don your cool shades and earn a paycheck by test driving for companies like Ferrari, Maserati or Lamborghini. The website www.cooljobs.com shares information about how to apply for some of the coolest jobs ever. It might just make it the easiest resolution you’ve ever kept.

I’d first heard about the site when I’d asked a 20-year-old whitewater rafting guide about her job. “I wanted to do something fun and different,” she told me. “I searched ‘cool jobs’ on the internet and I found this!”

If taste-testing, driving super-fast cars or the intense responsibility of being a whitewater rafting guide doesn’t appeal to you, how about exploring one of the more unconventional jobs? You could apply to be a “ghost hunter.” Yes, you could get paid to work as a professional paranormal investigator or volunteer to work with a research group and use high-tech tools such as spectrum analyzers.

Not for you? Instead, consider becoming a “professional cuddler.” The site says that in our stressful world, there’s a need for spooning, bear-hugging and tickling sessions. It specifies that clothes stay on at all times.

Or how about spending several months working at an exotic resort or a national park? A married couple I know has done this. The entry for a resort in the Tetons says, “Work Hard, Play Hard” and mentions endless recreational options for employees such as hiking and biking.

If your dream job involves sedentary activities, consider being paid to watch Netflix, which is looking for people to analyze and categorize television series.

Maybe travel and exploring other cultures is your jam. Why not try teaching English as a foreign language in another country?

Or how about getting paid to dress up and attend fancy events? You could apply to be a seat filler at an awards show. These “fillers” are simply responsible for making it look like the house is packed.

I’d like to apply to be a handler for the cute Echidna, also nicknamed a puggle. Cooljobs.com shows a video of a handler feeding the young, orphaned puggle which it describes as basically a mini-hippo mixed with an anteater. Too bad the job is at the Taronga Zoo and my plane ticket to Australia would more than offset any earnings I plan to make.

The site also lists volunteer jobs such as caring for the 300 homeless dogs and cats in Guatemala. The animals need socializing, training, walking, bathing, brushing, spaying/neutering and rabies vaccinations.

My research revealed a second site, www.coolworks.com, which includes openings on various cruise lines and an “Older and Bolder” category specifically for senior applicants.

Even though I spent hours researching, I never found an opening for one of my dream jobs: to be a goose trainer.

After experiencing the thrill of having our pet goose fly alongside our speed boat, I’d love to be responsible for training geese to star in films such as “Fly Away Home,” the story of a father and daughter who fly an ultralight aircraft and attempt to lead a flock of orphaned Canada geese south. I’ll keep looking; in this crazy, cool world, who knows, I just might find it.

Need more job ideas? Check out Post-COVID jobs for seniors