Getting a paycheck is arguably one of the best parts of having a job, and it's even better when you love what you do. So when Reddit user yonBonbonbon asked, "What jobs pay surprisingly high that no one knows about?" a bunch of people chimed in with all sorts of careers. Here's what they had to say:
1. "The traveling version of anything. If you have any skill that you are willing to drop everything and go do at a moment’s notice in some random place you can get paid quite well."
2. "Stilt walking. I make $450 an hour."
3. "Braiding horses for hunter shows. It's been a while since I did it, but at the top shows I was getting around $100–150 per horse. On a good day, I could do 10 horses."
4. "Legal videographers. If you watched Tiger King or Making a Murderer, [when] the deposition videos played, there was someone behind the camera getting paid anywhere from $60-125 an hour to film that. Filming depositions is a very common practice in the legal field and it's a very easy field to get into. You only need about $3K worth of camera equipment and no certifications are required."
5. "Little league umpiring. You literally get paid $20 an hour to go yell at kids [ages] 8 to 18. It's awesome. The training for it is three-hour classes on four Sundays then a test you take as a group."
6. "Crime scene cleaning in the US."
7. "I'm a mobile detailer and on average I make between $20–30 an hour. People don't want to clean their own cars nor drop them off at a shop for days at a time, and I actually enjoy cleaning cars so it's a win for everybody."
8. "Medical waste disposal."
9. "Event bartending. You can make $100 an hour or more."
10. "Underwater welders. A lot of people don't even think about the need for them, but they're really important and have a dangerous job, so they get paid pretty well."
11. "Alarm technicians. I get paid a lot of money to fix your alarm systems and cameras. I have to travel out of town and out of state as well because of how few there are."
12. "Market research. It really goes under the radar but its vital to most large businesses so they are willing to pay for it."
13. "Court reporter. There's a huge shortage. Have to spend a bit of money on the front end to get started, but the training runway is relatively short. Not a bad gig if you can put up with attorneys."
14. "I'm a nurse anesthetist. We can make anywhere between $80–100 an hour to put people to sleep. We treat you for pain and nausea. We typically have great outcomes for every case. Tons of options for overtime and you can possibly make $400K a year with enough experience. Best job ever!"
15. "I build elevators, fairly niche industry. I earn just about double of all my friends who have university degrees. I have an electrician trade, scaffolding license, rigging license, and forklift license. All of them have personally told me they wish they did a trade."
16. "Hand models. It's exactly what it sounds like."
17. "Conflict checks for law firms. We just run names through a massive database and report the findings. That's it. $29 an hour."
18. "Agricultural equipment sales. I laughed when my boss told me he would fire me if I couldn't make $100K a year. I was making $60K at my previous job. Banged out $125–200K a year for 10 years. Nobody believes selling tractors is that lucrative if you are good at it of course."
19. "Contract commercial fitness equipment repair and maintenance. Each gym pays me a retainer of $500 a month for monthly preventive maintenance on equipment. $125 an hour for repairs to broken equipment. I've got seven locations under contract and it takes me four days to do preventive maintenance. I do this as a side hustle but have made up to $9K in my best month, $3.5K in my slowest."
20. "Vacation ownership consultant: $600–800K per year."
21. "Translating documents. A friend of mine does this. He knows German and English fluently. He says it's a few hours work and he gets paid well."
22. "Hawkers at stadiums. One of the girls that works for my husband has a freaking doctorate but does this for game days because they clear thousands in a single day. You get a percentage of what you sell, keep cash tip, tip pool, and then an hourly rate which varies stadium to stadium. It is labor intensive but it's like a six-hour day that you can make what a lot of people make in a week."
What other jobs belong on this list? Drop your suggestion in the comments!
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.