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Many side hustles and jobs you’ve read over and over again in various places. They’re not just great jobs, but it gets redundant and maybe you just want something completely different, or just have different “skills”.
Whatever your reasoning for not going for a typical job or standard side hustle, these 20 unique jobs that are in demand may just be for you:
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1. Medical Services Driver
Did you know Medicaid provides non-emergency transportation to appointments for Medicaid patients? Because of this service, drivers and companies offering this service are in high demand.
You can either find a local company offering this service and apply to be a driver for them with your own vehicle, or start your own company. Working as a driver you could possibly earn about $34,000 a year working full-time. Having your own company can make you about $30,000 to $55,000 a year depending on the area.
2. Cartographer
Cartographers create and update maps and charts for printed, online and mobile mapping services and companies. They collect, measure, and interpret geographic information for regional planning, education, emergency response, and other purposes.
If you’re interested in computers, geography, mathematics and analyzing information, you may be interested in this job. Most cartographers need a Bachelor’s Degree, but their annual income averages about $62,000 per year. The demand is high for this job and the job growth is 29%!
3. Medical Equipment Repairer
You’re a handy mechanic or like repairing things, but there are already too many repair shops in your area. Specialize a bit and become a medical equipment repairer. With the senior population growing quickly, the need for working medical equipment will grow as well.
The job would be installing, maintaining, and repairing patient care equipment. There may be specialized repair skills required and can be done with an associate’s degree in biomedical equipment technology or engineering.
But working with less-complicated equipment (e.g., hospital beds and electric wheelchairs), meanwhile, can typically learn entirely on the job. The growth rate for this job is a surprisingly 30% and the salary is around $44,000 a year.
4. Blacksmith
Yes, you read that right, a blacksmith. Most blacksmiths these days are in the artisan trade, making knives, iron works, sculptures and so on. There’s still a need – ferries for horses, recreating historical artifacts for historical displays and re-enactments, or create iron fencing.
Blacksmiths can work for themselves, for a historical company and museum, for a fencing company, and a metal fabrication company and similar places that need specialized iron created.
The salary depends on their skill level and specialization – a metal fabricator specialty earns about $35,000 a year, farriers earn about $20,000 a year, while artisans earnings vary depending on their skill and the demand.
5. Support Service Provider
A Support Service Provider (SSP) is a guide for clients who have a combined vision and hearing loss in varying degrees.
SSPs provide visual information enabling people who are Deafblind to do their banking, shopping, essential chores and errands independently. They don’t “do” the work for them but are their “eyes and ears”.
You do not need specialized skills and training is provided by many State agencies and National agencies serving the Deaf, Blind, or Deafblind. This service isn’t available in every State but is being enacted frequently.
This is a high demand job with approximately 45,000 to 50,000 Deafblind adults in the United States. This number continues to climb with the growing senior population as well.
The salary varies depending on your skills, knowing sign language is a bonus and will get you more. Full time employment can see a salary about $49,000 a year, but many are an “as needed” case. In this instance, you are paid for: mileage driven, time spent with client, and any extra expenses (admission prices, etc.). For one agency, working for 5 hours with a Deafblind client may get you about $500 – $600.
6. Captioner
We’ve all seen closed captioning on televisions and DVDs all over. But did you know this is a great work from home job to have?
It’s not easy as it looks and you pretty much need training similar to stenographers and court reporters. But the salaries vary – for a live broadcast captioner at a station – $70,000 to $80,000 a year, a work from home “offline” (not live) captioner – $11.00 an hour.
7. Stand-Ins
If you’re lucky enough to live in a popular filming town and people have complimented that you look like a particular actor or actress – you can make a good living working as their stand in.
Stand-ins take the place of actors during the time-consuming technical set-up before a film shoot. The demand and the salary depend on who you are standing in for, but the average is about $33,000 a year. It’s also possible for long-term work working with one particular actor or actress through their career.
8. Personal Shopper
Want a job where you shop all the time? No, not for yourself, for your clients. Personal shoppers find the newest fashion or business wardrobes for their clients who are business executives, company owners, fashion magazines, and even celebrities.
You’ll need an eye for fashion, know your client’s style and taste. It’s possible to earn about $34,000 a year, but it’s possible for really talented workers to earn upwards of $300,000 a year!
9. Drone Pilot
Got a drone and are a proficient flyer? Rent the drone out to various people and business to take videos or photos for them. Work at weddings, for real estate agents, advertising companies and more.
You’ll need a Commercial FAA permit ($5.00), if you don’t know how to fly a drone, a $99 course is available as well. Earnings vary with the different fields but one pilot makes $175 an hour filming weddings.
10. Snuggler
Yeah, I did a double-take when I read that too. But you can actually get a job working as a “snuggler”. This is a professional who will snuggle with you for how long you are willing to pay.
You keep your clothes on and snuggle with a stranger and make $80 an hour or $400 a night. If you can get over the weirdness of it and feel safe enough to do this – it’s good money.
11. Professional Friend
If snuggling is a bit much, you can work as a professional friend. RentAFriend claims you can make $2,000 a week by being a friend to go have coffee with, visit attractions, the movies and other platonic activities.
This isn’t a bad job and would be great if you’re all alone in a big city yourself, why not go do things with another person and get paid for it.
12. Water Slide Tester
If you’re the adventurous type and love travelling. You can travel around the world (all expenses paid) testing out new water slides.
You mainly test for how much adrenaline there is and how big the splashes were. You ride the new rides, fill out surveys and give suggestions, dry off and off to the next ride.
This is a $30,000 a year position and you probably should insist on good health insurance…. just in case.
13. Rent out your Stuff
You can make a little money by renting out stuff you have stored away in your home? People need things for a short while and sometimes it’s easier to rent it out than buy it.
For example, you have family visiting for a while with a baby, you can rent a crib for about $12 a day instead of buying a new one (which can cost a few hundred dollars).
If you have the space for it, why not turn it into a side hustle or full-time job? Attend estate sales and auctions and collect party supplies, wedding decorations, tables, and many different items desired by others.
Some items found on Loanables include:
- Dishware – Wine glasses rents for $5.00 a week EACH
- Catering Equipment – Chafing dish rents for $15.00 a week
- Tables & Chairs – 2×4 plastic folding table $10.00 a week
- Tents – 10’x10’ white tent $50.00 a week
- Inflatables – Giant Bounce Castle $380 a day
- And more
14. Netflix Tagger
Want to stay at home and watch Netflix all day? You can work as a Netflix tagger – watch movies and then enter descriptive tags to help viewers find these movies.
You do have to follow a set of guidelines for each category on how to select a certain tag and such. You’re given weekly assignments with different time commitments from a few hours to about eight movies a week.
It’s a pretty hard job to grab and it is offered as a part-time job only, but keep watching Netflix’s employment page and you might just be lucky to grab this laid back job.
It was hard to find a specific salary (due to the disclosure agreements taggers must sign), but it’s about “several hundred dollars a week”, which is great for lounging in PJs and binging movies.
15. Movie Theater Rater
Spend many of your Friday and Saturday nights in movie lines rather than clubbing? Why not get paid for your movie theater visits? Working at MarketForce can earn you about $30 or more per movie, plus refund of your ticket and concessions..
Your work involves checking various things around the movie theater such as:
- Record trailers playing
- Count patrons
- Check advertisement and their placements
- Quality checks (sound, visual, etc.)
- And other minor assignments
16. Website Flipper
We’ve pretty much heard of flipping houses – buying foreclosed, cheap houses, fixing them up and selling them again for a profit. Did you know you can work from home doing that with websites?
Website flipping can be a great passive income and you can turn a small investment (about $100) into a few thousand.
The earnings depend on how much time and effort you put into it really. One person does it full-time and made about $27,000 in a year. There’s no experience required but good computer technical skills and the more you study up on it, the more you can make off it.
17. Bush Pilot
Already know how to fly a plane, or always wanted to? But being a commercial pilot doesn’t exactly appeal to you – being tied down to a strict, busy schedule. Consider being a bush pilot and you don’t even need to live in Alaska either.
You can work piloting rich people to their private islands in the Caribbean, flying fishermen and hunters to remote lodges, and more.
It’s an adventurous job with it’s thrills and dangers and a large investment to get started (plane, commercial license, etc.) but if you’re up for it, you can possibly make about $2,500 a month in the beginning. Grow your business and it’s possible to make $6,000 to $8,000 a month.
18. Instagrammer
Yep, you can earn a living with Instagram! If you already have an account and a large number of followers and have a good smartphone with different lenses you can approach different brands and work for them.
Instagrammers can work for Apple, Gap, Ford Motors, and any other company out there. It’s possible to earn about $5,000 to $10,000 a month for full time work for doing what you love and promoting brands.
19. Professional Mourner
Here’s another crazy job – be a professional mourner and attend funerals and cry for deceased people you’ve never heard of. The family or friends of the deceased seek out the services of a professional mourner for a variety of reasons.
Typically, they want to increase the appearance of the deceased’s popularity.
You cry during service, mingle with mourners and share stories about the deceased (you’ll learn these beforehand)? This isn’t a full-time job but more of an “on call” job but can still make about $30 to $120 per funeral which is about 2 or 3 hours of work.
20. Wilderness Therapist
Want a job helping people with behavioral, psychological or medical issues but the confines of an office makes you uncomfortable? Did you know you can do therapy out in the wilderness?
Hiking, canoeing, camping, and the great outdoors can be your office to help children, teenagers, adults, couples and others with various issues.
You’ll need an education and license in Psychology, Social Work, Behavioral Therapy and similar fields, a love and experience in the outdoors and then the sky’s the limit here. Earnings can be anywhere from $36,000 to $50,000 a year.
If you take your current job or side hustle and think of different possible ways to adapt it into a different work area, into a different job field, or even a different media platform, it’s possible to make your job unique for yourself.
For example:
- Work as an exercise trainer? Switch to an outdoor gym, go to people’s houses instead, make into an online course to sell for a passive income.
- Work as a computer programmer for a company? Switch to teaching it instead, either in a classroom or online, create Apps instead, or switch the type of company instead (change to architecture programming instead).
- Work in construction? Switch to being a Building inspector, flip houses, or restore and refinish furniture.
All in all, you’ll find your best job ever by thinking outside the box and you’ll find a unique job that you’ll enjoy for a long time.
