If you regularly browse sites with titles like I Hate My Cubicle, and Desk Jobs Suck, maybe it’s time to consider a career change. Here’s our pick for top jobs that don’t require a chair:
What could be better than being paid to find the dirt others want to keep hidden? Often working unusual hours in various locations, private investigators follow spouses accused of cheating, dig up confidential business memos, and track down missing persons.
Career Outlook: Due to heightening security demands, employment of private detectives and investigators is expected to grow 22 percent during the 2008-18 decade—much faster than average.
Average Income: $32,140–$57,910
Rarely found in a traditional office, Museum Collection Managers are responsible for the care and keeping of a museum’s artifacts. On any given day, you could be solving a storage dilemma (how exactly should you archive a stuffed ostrich?), cataloguing hundred-year-old objects, or developing culturally appropriate practices for handling special objects like sacred artifacts.
Point of Interest: Zoos are technically considered museums. Which means some Museum Collection Managers are in charge of some fairly lively, fuzzy, or scaly “artifacts.”
Average Income: $28,480–$49,280
Healthcare careers aren’t just appealing because you’ve watched too much Grey’s Anatomy: The US Bureau of Labor Statistics has indicated that nursing is one of the fastest growing (i.e., in demand) jobs in the country. With a quick paced and unpredictable work environment, emergency room nurse positions are not for the faint of heart or body…but you’ll never be bored.
Fun Fact: The U.S. News & World Report listed Nurse as one of the 50 Best Careers of 2011.
Average Income: $52,520–$77,970
There won’t be a cubicle in sight when you’re standing in a vineyard. Viticulturists specialize in all things grape: how to plant them, nurture them, and keep them free of disease and pests. Whether overseeing the watering in summer, or the vine pruning in wintertime, you’re working under the big blue sky all day, every day.
In Vino Veritas: Drinking fabulous wine is practically a requirement of the job.
Average Income: $45,070–$78,590
Whether working in a studio space, out in the wilderness, or on the streets of a major city, you can’t sit down when you’re taking pictures. You will have to take a seat when editing the images, but the rest of the time photographers are on the move, running, squatting, and bending their bodies in strange ways to capture that perfect shot.
Major advantage: The vast majority of photographers work as freelancers, which means you get to be the boss.
Average Income: $21,150–$44,230
Okay, okay, you might have to sit down to do this job, but at least you can make a living from the comfort of your own home. However, it’s not all pajamas and leisurely typing: you’ll need serious motivation and drive to successfully carve out your own niche in the cyber space world.
Best perk: Can you say “flexible schedule”?
Average Income: $38,760–$75,740
This professional field is a real jungle. Literally. As a zoologist, you study animals (not zoos) in captivity or the wild to better understand their behaviors, diseases, biology, and environments. While around half the job is spent in a lab, the rest of your working hours will be out in the field as a permanent guest of the animal kingdom.
Job Benefits: Zoologists can be the life of the party with their random facts on the birds and beasts (did you know that elephants are the only mammal that can’t jump?)
Average Income: $44,830–$71,990
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