What makes a job fun? There’s no universal answer to that question, but in general, the most enjoyable jobs should enable you to incorporate your interests or passions into the position and, as a result, experience some degree of fulfillment and enjoyment by completing various tasks and projects. Jobs that might seem like an absolute joy to one person could be incredibly boring or unpleasant to someone else. So, it’s not easy to create a list of ‘fun’ jobs that will appeal to everyone. Still, we wanted to take a stab at finding some jobs that a good number of people might just find interesting and enjoyable. Let us know what you think of these!
Film or TV Critic
For people who enjoy watching movies or TV shows (streaming shows?) one job that might be really enjoyable and fun is being a film or TV critic. First off, there’s just the concept of getting paid to watch new movies or TV shows. Sound pretty fun! Additionally, you get to share your opinion of the film or show with other people and influence whether they want to take the time to watch it or not. Who doesn’t enjoy providing a review of the latest show they watched on Netflix or flick they saw in a movie theater? Even if it’s just for friends or family, most of us enjoy letting people know what we thought of the content.
One thing to keep in mind though. Serious critics watch movies and shows a little differently than the casual viewer. You have to pay close attention and maybe even take notes on things like the plot, cinematography, directing, acting, dialog, special effects, etc. Because all of those things go into a professional review. So, you want to be careful not to take the enjoyment out of watching the show because you’re so focused on the review you need to write.
Specialist in Sleep
As a sleep specialist, you are paid to use a particular sort of tester’s bed while they conduct a study or write an evaluation of it. You literally get paid to sleep. Now maybe ‘fun’ isn’t exactly the right term for this job, but who doesn’t enjoy getting some sleep? As adults, most of us never get enough of it. So, if sleeping itself is something you get paid for? Well, that sounds pretty relaxing if not truly fun.
This job is typically freelance because a client who might be a manufacturer, entrepreneur, doctor, or scientist could recruit you. Also, this probably isn’t an easy job to find and probably isn’t going to provide a full-time role. But, I can think of a lot of less enjoyable side jobs to have than being a sleep specialist.
Novelist
For people who truly have a passion for writing, there may be no better job than writing books for a living. You have the ability to decide what you want to write about and then set your own schedule and write from wherever you want. Like writing from a lounge chair on a beach? No reason you can’t write your novel from somewhere tropical.
Novelists also literally create an entire reality within their books. Whether the setting is the ‘real world’ or some fully-imagined alternate reality (think fantasy or sci-fi), you’re still creating a different reality for your characters to exist in and interact with. That sort of creative freedom sound pretty fun to me! Admittedly, I am a writer, so I may be a bit biased.
Food Taster
To be clear, we’re not talking about medieval food taster for a monarch who was basically tasting food to be sure it wasn’t poisoned. That does NOT sound like fun. In the modern world, a food taster’s primary responsibility is to assess the food’s physical and chemical characteristics and whether it complies with quality requirements.
The downside is you may need to taste food that you don’t actually enjoy eating. But, if you love food of all kinds, the idea of being paid to eat isn’t too bad. A few related jobs that also might be fun include being a food critic (which would deliver a lot of the same benefits as a film critic), a competitive eating contestant, or a judge in food competitions.
Seat Filler
Here’s another pretty specific role that may not be easy to get, but if you do, it’s certainly pretty easy. You just sit in a seat and look like part of an audience. Seat fillers are used at award events and various TV events where the audience is likely to be shown on camera. Empty seats send a bad message to the audience, so people are hired to fill any empty seats. Think about those crowd shots at the Academy Awards. Do you ever see an empty seat? Even if someone leaves to use the restroom, their seat is quickly filled by a seat filler until they return. This work requires no prior expertise, is not demanding, and frequently allows you to interact with famous people.
So, you might end up sitting next to a movie star or other celebrity. That’s a pretty fun side benefit!
