DURBAN - With the ever-changing job market, people have become inventive and quite clearly innovative in creating new jobs and new job titles for themselves.
Some are taking it even further by building companies around these new jobs like Cuddlist which is a company that provides the service of professional cuddling.
Here is a list of the most unusual jobs in the world:
Mystery shopper
Mystery shoppers assess a company's goods, services and compliance levels to provide brand experience observations from a customer experience.
According to BusinessTech, there were over 100 mystery shopper positions listed that had an average salary of R93 000 annually.
In order to be a great mystery shopper, you need to have the following skills.
A mystery shopper should:
1. Enjoy shopping
2. Like working with people
3. Do well on flexible hours and non-traditional workspaces.
4. Be impartial
5. Be comfortable in presenting themselves as a normal everyday customer.
Professional Cuddler
Professional cuddling is an occupation that can be used to help a person who is feeling lonely, depressed, or just in need an extra cuddle from a stranger.
According to the Cuddlist, a company that trains professional cuddlers, our society wants to feel close to one's self and others in healthy and cuddling is a tool that can be used to do this.
Some cuddle sessions can go up to six hours but it all depends on the client. This company Cuddlist charges £80 (R1345,60) per hour.
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Netflix Tagger
According to Memeburn, Netflix taggers is a group of people across the globe who are well versed in screenwriting or critiquing movies and that watch 40 hours of content weekly. They have to pick up and write down nuances, moods, features, and traits that are rooted in the content.
Then the Netflix taggers will tag them with the matching metadata. The Netflix algorithm then works in combination with the tagger's input.
Mike Hastings, the Director of Enhanced Content for Netflix said that a tagger provides 'the human voice to the algorithm, or the ghost in the machine, that’s basically providing the sense to what the algorithms is trying to determine".
Professional bridesmaid
Jen Glantz, is a New Yorker who went from being a copywriter to a professional bridesmaid. Glantz got asked to be a bridesmaid twice in one day and her roommate made the comment that she was like a professional bridesmaid.
She then posted an ad on Craigslist offering her expertise and the next day Glantz had more than 250 emails in her inbox. Glantz launched her own company called Bridesmaid for Hire and left copywriting after a layoff.
She has a client list of 65 brides.
The most expensive package that Glantz does is called Behind-the-Scenes for $1500 (R18150) which includes pre-wedding consultations, coordinating with vendors and complete assistance on the day of the wedding. For an extra $500 (R6 050), Glantz will actually be a bridesmaid but the bride has to pay for the dress.