Beach Bum or Shark Suit Tester?

This is a guest post from The Money For College Project as part of the Yakezie blog swap. The Money for College Project was started with one goal in mind: to help people find ways to pay for college. At MfCP you can find easy to understand explanations of financial aid awards, creative ways to make money for college students and working adults, and also sound financial literacy principles.

 

How would you like to live on a paradise island in the middle of the Australian Barrier Reef for 6 months? You would get a fancy house to live in for free, modern amenities, amazing beach front scenery, oh and $110,000.

That’s right. You get paid $110,000 for 6 months of living in paradise. The catch? You are being paid to promote what tourists will experience if they were to visit. So you must subject yourself to daily massages, swimming in the coral reef, sun bathing, sailing, diving, and exploring in the bush, then write about it. All paid for by the Australian Tourism Bureau.

This specific job no longer exists unfortunately. It was a contest held over a year ago, and the one lucky person has already fulfilled his duties. However, just hearing about this job makes me wonder if others like it exist.

The Australian Tourism Bureau was willing to pay an extravagant amount of money and give someone a dream job, to promote tourism in their area. I would say they acomplished that. This story made headlines around the world when it broke. Top news anchors around the world, including Diane Sawyer, covered this story and if nothing else, they brought the Australian Barrier Reef to the forefront of the world for a brief time.

How do I get a job like that?

 

I’ll be honest, I don’t think many jobs like that exist. It was so newsworthy because it was something you don’t hear about every day. But it has me wondering, “Can you create your own dream job being a promoter?”

I think this is very probable. Companies are always willing to pay, and pay well, to promote and advertise their products and services. As a college student, recent graduate, or experienced adult, you already have the necessary skills to get paid by a company to promote their products.

People get paid to test drive super sport cars and give honest feedback to their manufacturers.

People get paid to wear lavish jewelry to parties where other people will see it.

People get paid to attend parties, just so they will draw a crowd.

People get paid to eat at nice restaurants to rate their service and food quality.

People get paid to stay in 5 star hotels to rate their service and amenities.

You can also profit from this trend and create your own dream job of getting paid to live the high life. Your first step towards creating this dream job will be to understand what these companies are willing to pay for. They want true publicity. They want a good return on their investment. They won’t pay you a dime unless they think that they will get more in return in terms of sales, or brand awareness.

This is where you come in. You need to think through the eyes of the company, and decide what you think they will pay you for. You will also need to be creative. There is a company (I Will Wear Your Shirt) that gets paid, very well, to well, wear a t-shirt from one company every day out of the year. They have a small team of marketers who wear the shirt, promote it through social media, and drive traffic to the company website for sales. Companies are lining up to pay for this service. And yes, they are just wearing t-shirts around all day with a company logo on them. You can do this too, if you are creative in your approach!

The Other End of the Spectrum

 

While you work hard at creating your own dream job, here is some motivation to work even harder.

I like the show Dirty Jobs, on the Discovery Channel. Mike Rowe is very funny, and it’s just a really fascinating show. His show has provided some excellent content for the worst job in America, and above all of the rest, I would have to say that the worst job I have ever heard of is a shark suit tester.

Basically like a modern version of a suit of armor, this steel mesh suit is designed to protect researchers from shark bites as they swim among sharks.

A shark suit tester however, needs to verify that the suit actually performs as designed. This means that they hop in the water with a bunch of sharks, get the water all stirred up with bloody chum, and wait for the sharks to start biting the suit. If you are not hurt then the suit is a success, if the suit does not work, well…

You can easily see how this is one of the worst jobs in the world. Not only does it have an incredibly high risk factor, it is on a remote location, so you would be away from friends and family, and I doubt you could get a very good life insurance policy!

I only share this worst job with you, to encourage you to focus more on creating your own dream job. I think that promoting products in unique ways while setting your own schedule could be one of the best jobs in the world.

I could be wrong however. What do you think?