Job Jealousy - Really Cool Jobs That Almost Anyone Can Get

I've always thought tech writing would be cool. I've written a few manuals for LED sign install and software use back when I was in the sign business. It takes a certain mindset to get into it.

Actually, the sign business is pretty cool and takes a few basic talents to get involved in, but not too much. It doesn't pay all that well in most places, but it's interesting work, creative, and changes on a regular basis. I got in to some interesting places doing it. I even went to China to FA testing on some LED signs, but that's probably way outside the norm. 

I really enjoyed my years selling surplus electronics. I was my own boss, at a very young age, and making way more money than my friends that were going to college or working an hourly job. I started by buying some cheap used stuff for myself, sold some of it for what seemed like massive money to 16 year old me, and it gradually built from there. I would still be doing it if what I'm doing now hadn't come up. (Commercial landlord.) Doing surplus requires a lot of leg work and some niche knowledge but nothing you can't learn from experience. Doing it as a sole proprietor can make you a ton of money if you're motivated and can keep moving. It can net you nothing if you're the kind to wait for things to fall in your lap or have trouble getting off the couch. I was somewhere inbetween, always making enough money and sometimes a bunch but never really raking it in because I would make a big sale and coast for a bit.

The upside was I got to go to all sorts of interesting places to look at and buy surplus like military bases, government computer installations, state and private office buildings, research facilities, etc. I got to handle and work on and use electronics of all kinds from a basic desktop PC to an ultrasonic cell disruptor to military grade cable crimpers to aircraft components to vintage mainframes to telephone switching equipment to industrial video projectors to all manner of things ranging from the bizarre to the pedestrian that people make to do work. I got to try my hand at repairing things that had original prices in the $100,000+ range. It was very interesting to me and to this day few things get me more excited than a box of random electronics with a couple wires spilling out.

Getting started in it nowadays is harder in some ways - security is way tighter at all the government facilities I used to buy from. It's way easier in other ways - digital photography is super easy, the selling tools are way better than they've ever been, buyers are used to looking online for stuff way more than back then, and the shipping utilities are also way better and tied into the selling tools better. Gone are the days of filling out shipping manifests by hand. Other stuff is just as much of a pain - you still need a bunch of room for storage, you still need a pile of boxes, and you still need to follow up right away on sales and any issues.

A motivated person could go from zero to a hundred grand a year pretty easily. But there will be a lot of hard lessons along the way and you need to bring a lot of skills together to make it work.

I'm a tech writer. I enjoy the work. I don't have a degree, just happened into the job. I got turned on to a supplier of Ford that had been hiring technical writers (degreed folks) and couldn't teach them about cars, or 'hands on skills'. So they decided to go the other route. Hire an ASE certified tech and teach him/her about writing. I picked it up quickly. That was almost 20 years ago. My current job is killing me, the idea of writing for software is interesting. 

I worked on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill cleanup in LA. Two weeks on, two weeks off and the company paid for everything except booze. Flights from Southern California to New Orleans, food, housing, and the rental car. Made decent money hanging out on a boat in the Gulf of Mexico with some pretty cool locals and then had two weeks vacation afterwards. I had just graduated college and didn't have any ties to where I was living so it was perfect. 

In reply to thatsnowinnebago :

What was your position title? 

I really should keep open the idea of applying as a Technical Writer.

In every job I've had someone has always mentioned I have a good way of writing things so that laypeople can understand them. 

My only worry is that I perceive technical writing as a lot of time at the desk, versus tearing something apart yourself to better understand how to explain doing so.  Is that the case in reality? 

Genuine "Can do" people can pretty much do whatever is required. As someone who employs such people. I can tell you that it is as rare a trait as "common" sense.

I have covered a pretty broad swath of careers and, as has been mentioned, after a while they all become just the day-to-day.

pheller said:

In reply to thatsnowinnebago :

What was your position title? 

Oh gosh, I forget now. Some kind of technician?

Edit: just checked my resume and I put "Field Technician" down as my title. It was with Cardno ENTRIX if that helps. 

pheller said:

My only worry is that I perceive technical writing as a lot of time at the desk, versus tearing something apart yourself to better understand how to explain doing so.  Is that the case in reality? 

100% percent. That's why it's technical writer and not forensic technician  And having an education that teaches you how to write will help.

Keith Tanner said:

pheller said:

My only worry is that I perceive technical writing as a lot of time at the desk, versus tearing something apart yourself to better understand how to explain doing so.  Is that the case in reality? 

100% percent. That's why it's technical writer and not forensic technician  And having an education that teaches you how to write will help.

It depends. 

When I worked for a L3 Communications, there were times to be out in the shop to make sure you understand how something goes together. I pulled OT more than once helping build testing units. At Tulsa Winch Group and Ramsey Winch, I sometimes got to help with testing, or pulled a prototype to see if it really pulled apart and back together like the models make it seem. But still more time than not you are at desk writing, organizing the book, creating images and screenshots. At TWG, I also handled the paperwork for Engineering Change Notices and did most of the small drawing changes for the mechanical and electrical guys.

Software...........100% at the desk. Dealing with building and troubleshooting ScrumVMs for testing new features and core releases. Writing, taking screenshots.

Something we are starting to put a lot of time into now is doing short 4-6 minute videos that accompany a Help Topic. So you write a Help Topic, write a script, then use a video program to make a demonstration. We currently use Camtasia, but I haven't done any of those. I'm working on my particularly area and learning all the developer/API stuff that goes on in the background to make the Site Management Tools Interface work.

Oh but one important thing about Software being 100% at the desk? Since most software companies allow some work from home/remote (I'm in the office 2-3 days per week), it doesn't dictate where the office is when you're working remote. 

More than once that has meant working at the local pub in the afternoon whilst hooked up the WiFi and having a burger and a beer.

In reply to EastCoastMojo :

Same here.

A guy I knew from high school wound up working for the health department.  Part of his job was visiting strip clubs to encourage the employees to practice safe sex and to get tested.  Not that they were doing any of that as part of their income stream, mind you.  Just because they might know someone ...

Not exactly a career, but when I was in college I installed toilet paper dispensers (and soap and towel dispensers).   in the Late 90's I was a subcontractor for a major paper company.  Whenever they'd convert a big account (hospitals, schools, nursing homes, gas station chains, supermarkets, etc) I'd get paid per-dispenser to take down the old ones and install new ones.  In the right facility the dollars-per-hour rate was really good for a college kid.

I worked ridiculous hours and drove a lot, but it paid a lot better than anything else I could find.  I'd show up as early as I was allowed and stayed as late as they'd let me to finish a job quickly.  I never knew when the next job would be, so I worked whenever there was a dollar to make.

I saw a lot of bathrooms.  I drilled into a lot of concrete, steerl cyder block, and drywall.  Statistically, you'd think I would have hit a pipe at some point...but I didn't (that I know of).  I did get to visit gas stations in just about every single town in New England, which was kind of neat.  This was before the days of GPS, so I also got pretty adept at reading a map and navigation in general.  

Having worked Operations at two different nuclear plants I'll second the recommendation for joining the traveling carnys that go plant to plant for maintenance shutdowns.  Once you get through the initial radiation worker training and past the background checks you can pretty much pick and choose which outages at which plants you want to work. 

And if you are a good worker and you keep out of trouble then you are going to be working 60-80 hours per week during the outage, but you get paid the overtime to go with it.  The challenge is to not drink away your paychecks and to come up with a cheap way to live. 

I knew a few guys who bought cheap houses near a couple of plants and rented out rooms during the outages too. They always had waiting lists for tenants and paid the mortgages with rooms that were empty 8 months out of the year. 

There are a lot of jobs that don't get done often that you can get into as well. Someone has to install home elevators, stair lifts, hand rails, ramps, etc... things you only have done once.  Security systems, door openers, gate openers, septic systems, heated driveways and sidewalks, skylights, radio antennas, etc... things that a regular contractor could do but doesn't do often or well enough to be competent or competitive.  

Also consider bundling and vertical integration: one of the local powersports dealers up my my inlaws started selling docks. Then he started installing the docks. Then his crew that installed his docks started offering it as a service to install and remove docks for residents in the spring and fall. Then they started doing the same for boat lifts. Then his dock fabricator got a mobile truck and when they were moving docks and lifts around they could offer on site repairs and upgrades at the same time.  Then they figured out that they could go much quicker working off a platform boat, one lake at a time. Then the platform boat became the perfect rig for teaching scuba off of in the summer. Then, since he had a great crew of strong guys, he started offering yard services in the summer and snow removal in the winter. Then they started offering up irrigation and cabin winterization.

The guy has customers who he bills monthly for essentially the annual service of doing the stuff around their cabins that they aren't able to keep up with themselves.  The elderly,  those who live too far away to be able to get there reliably on a given day,  and to some extent the rich or lazy, they all just send him $x a month for piece of mind. I don't know if he even sells anything anymore, but he has 10 guys working full time year round and he pays them well enough to keep them. 

 You could inject yourself into that sort of thing anywhere: learn how to repair chipped windshields and get your local quick lube or car wash to let you set up out back on Saturdays, buy a pressure washer and partner with a lawn mowing company to offer gutter cleaning and deck staining to their customers, learn to clean chimneys and (after you swing by my place) tie your services to a roofer and/or fireplace installation company.  There are lots of gaps around the edges of what even professionals do that you can fill.

Bump? 

I need something to fix. 

thatsnowinnebago, What boat company? Or, what was the hull color and superstructure color? I was in the OSV gig at that time.

I like my job and think it’s cool.  I prepare construction plans to remediate landslides.  I did go to school for 6 years, passed two 8-hour tests, and froze/sweat my ass off for 10-years gaining the required field experience.  But hey, if I can do it, anyone can. We’re always looking for more people. 

There is a serious need for techs to service and install high efficiency tankless water heaters snd boilers. Factory certification is as easy as showing up at a training seminar. The supply houses that sell the equipment set up the seminars. Show up. Eat some free pizza. Leave a factory certified tech. Name goes on a list and you start getting calls. Certified techs around here charge 140 an hour.  Most plumbers want nothing to do with service work, drain cleaning etc. you need to have basic mechanical skills, knowledge of electrical systems, and be able to calmly work thru a problem without freaking out. Do you want to get paid for solving problems?

Any job that’s not repetitive. 

tr8todd said:

There is a serious need for techs to service and install high efficiency tankless water heaters snd boilers. Factory certification is as easy as showing up at a training seminar. The supply houses that sell the equipment set up the seminars. Show up. Eat some free pizza. Leave a factory certified tech. Name goes on a list and you start getting calls. Certified techs around here charge 140 an hour.  Most plumbers want nothing to do with service work, drain cleaning etc. you need to have basic mechanical skills, knowledge of electrical systems, and be able to calmly work thru a problem without freaking out. Do you want to get paid for solving problems?

8-\    That's almost 2x my hourly rate

I worked in the material handling industry for a while, the video above is representative of the type of equipment I marketed.  I always thought our service and installation teams had a pretty cool gig.  The systems are installed in a huge variety of industries, so you get to travel the country seeing a lot of different facilities.  All of these are made by German or Swiss companies, so you get to go overseas from time to time for training. The skills needed to install and troubleshoot are not insignificant because they combine mechanical, electrical and computer stuff, but it can be learned. Our guys also set these up for tradeshows, so you get to do that too, lots of eating out in nice places.  There are TONS of conveyors, robots, forklifts and other mechanical systems in the industry, so job opportunities are decent as well. 

AngryCorvair said:

tr8todd said:

There is a serious need for techs to service and install high efficiency tankless water heaters snd boilers. Factory certification is as easy as showing up at a training seminar. The supply houses that sell the equipment set up the seminars. Show up. Eat some free pizza. Leave a factory certified tech. Name goes on a list and you start getting calls. Certified techs around here charge 140 an hour.  Most plumbers want nothing to do with service work, drain cleaning etc. you need to have basic mechanical skills, knowledge of electrical systems, and be able to calmly work thru a problem without freaking out. Do you want to get paid for solving problems?

8-\    That's almost 2x my hourly rate

"Charge"≠ "Make"

My hourly pay as an electrician is right at $50 per hour.   Time and a half after 8 hours and Saturdays, double time on sundays.

However, my wage and benefit package is over $80 per hour.  My employer charges over $150 per hour for my services during straight time.





There is too much apples vs oranges when comparing pay.

From my experience with the structural steel industry...  There are bajillions of mediocre/decent welders in the world.  Working in a shop environment around here (midwest), the pay tops out around $25/hr.  There aren't a whole lot of welders who are good enough to make big paychecks, and those who are need to be willing to travel, and work whatever hours are required.  Many of those guys are running their own equipment/truck too, which is a pretty sizable barrier to entry.  There are some cool welding gigs that don't require travel, but there not terribly common, and you will have to pass some tests to get hired.

I've given hundreds of weld tests, and the guys who impress me the most (from a quality and speed perspective) are the ones who have done heavy equipment repair.

I hired a locksmith last week, and we got to talking. 

Im bringing that profession back up because in the context of this thread, it’s a darned good option. 

This guy had been doing it 23 years. Mobile locksmith.   He drove a high top van that was beautifully equipped. He spent 30 minutes at my job and charged me $90, which I was glad to pay for his expertise.  I was one of the smallest jobs he would ever be called to (he had just come from a high rise- changing locks when employees changed roles)  

His actual work at my place was less than 5 minutes. He picked my truck lock in seconds (faster that I could have used a key), and made a new key and copy in less than a minute or 2. 

This guy was a nice guy, but he was no rocket scientist. 

His rig and equipment was easily $80K, but that’s fully equipped with all the best. It could be done cheaper, but it’s a basic business expense.  Finance it, make payments on the loan, and deduct them as expenses.