Exploration
12 extreme jobs for you to apply for this year
Bored of the cubicle life? Get outside your skin with these high-intensity career moves.
Office life wrecking your flow? Homo Sapien was never built for the computer cubicle. With the robots set to take over, consider returning to a more primal (and excited) state via an adrenaline-fuelled, high intensity career move.
Forget I.T and the latest start-up – today’s hot jobs are found out in the great, wide wild. From skydiving instructor to professional people pusher, we’ve shortlisted the best paid and most hair-raising.
01
Skydiving instructor
So you’re looking for a change, but don’t necessarily want to ‘up’ the risk to balls-out extremity. Some might say hurtling from the sky day in day out is exactly the latter, yet for today’s run-of-the-mill skydiving instructor, stratospheric free-falling is all in a day’s work. With an average death for every 142,000 jumps, the gig’s not without risk, but it could be worse (and it’s a hell of way to make a crust).
Perks: Free flights; swell views; that tingly feeling down south.
Pay: Usually hourly, by jump, or salaried (averaging $35,000 per year).
02
Scuba diver
If your happy place lurks in the mysterious depths of the ocean – even more so if that ocean happens to girt an idyllic cluster of islands and atolls – then look no further. More than simply instructing interloping fish and reef oglers, scuba divers stand to earn both job diversity and a righteous packet with the range of gigs available, from stealth infiltration military frogperson, underwater archaeologist, to mine and ordnance diffuser and beyond.
Perks: Frog suit; fresh seafood.
Wage: Average $50,000 per year
Torey Pudwill: the consumate professional
© Red Bull Content Pool
03
Professional skateboarder
On the up side, a career change to pro skateboarding lets you stay on solid ground, look cool and keep fit unintentionally. On the downer, you’re the most likely of any comparable practitioner to suffer serous head and neck injuries, and most probably a skull fracture at that (see: Sharma, et al: 2015).
Perks: Sleep ins; looking cool; free stuff.
Pay: Mid-level skaters – $50 to $100K a year; turbo pros – between $500K and $1 million.
04
Commercial fisherman
An old school, and perhaps less glamorous extremity, commercial fishing remains the bane of any Australian workplace insurer. Life on the hull of a crab boat, for example, is not for the weak of constitution – expect backbreaking work, occasional torrential rain, and extreme danger, which, depending on your territory, could include pirates, lightning strike and a vast array of things in the sea that would happily eat you for tea.
Perks: Fresh fish; get to be called ‘old salty’.
Wage: Around $55,000 per year.
05
Pro surfer
If you happen to substitute your decks and grinds for a life of big wave backwash carving, you’ll need to add a 38 time higher risk of neck fracture on top of that bona fide ‘all time’ career satisfaction. But would this have stopped Leroy the Masochist? The waves, sun and endless summer are calling your name.
Perks: Natural highs; sweet tan.
Wage: top 20-30 pros are earning somewhere between $250-400,000
Bradley Cox is really good at his job
© Red Bull Content Pool
06
Motocross rider
Add 450CCs of soup to the mix and expect the risk (so too, the purse) to find itself beefed up. That’s the work-a-day case for the world’s top motocross riders, who risk it all each dirt circuit with propensity for neck fracture and occasional death. Still, the thrill, chill ‘n spill factor matches the risk here in spades.
Perks: Neat gear; respect and awe.
Wage: Top 2-3 earn around $5+ million in salary &and endorsements. Top 10, between $500K and a few million. Average pro MX salary around $90K.
07
Professional snowboarder
Endless powder highs, higher concussion rates, and a risk-per-hour spent riding that's triple that of skiers. Yes folks, snowboarders know how to up the ante down the diamond runs. While the industry has seen some decline in recent years, if you’re good, you’ll get paid – and likely via novelty, oversized cheque.
Perks: High altitude shenanigans, free stuff from sponsors.
Wage: The top 5 make 7 figures plus.
Everest: top of the career ladder
© Red Bull Content Pool
08
Everest guide
Ok, so not as much of a deal for Australians, or at least, mountaineers living and working Downunder, but when it comes to next level career moves, a guide on Mt Everest pretty much tops the summit. Mountain guiding makes for an epic professional life in general, but the stakes are upped handsomely if you happen to be employed in the Himalayas. Hectic, potentially perilous and unpredictable conditions meets extreme fitness and life or death decisions in what has to be one of most intense and extreme gigs on earth.
Perks: Top o’ the world, Ma.
Wage: base salary of around $40,000 per year plus tips; the more epic the peak, the higher the packet: Western guides on Everest generally take home between $45,000 and $65,000 per expedition.
09
Wingsuit pilot
Perhaps your old job was so dire that you simply had to swing the pendulum to the complete polar opposite. Whatever the case, wingsuit flying will serve up some of the most invigorating shifts possible within the confines of a loosely sheened and artificially winged human bodice; so too, a seriously elevated risk of straight up death. As one of the deadliest forms of Base-jumping, proponents have a 72% chance of either perishing, or enduring serious injury.
Perks: Get to feel like superman/woman.
Wage: Varies
Could you be a wingsuit pilot?
© Red Bull Content Pool
10
Professional pusher
No Yakuza action here friends, just old school pushing – actual pushing – of humans, millions of them, into very fast and space-constricted subway trains. For those who haven’t been to Tokyo, the city transport network relies on these folks to sardine as many commuters as possible into their carriages in order to get folks to and fro. What better way to alleviate daily angst than a little people packing as a peak hour 旅客整理係 / ryokaku seiri gakari?
Perks: Risk-free, legal manhandling; respectable attire; sweet gloves.
Wage: Roughly $USD 96K per year.
11
Professional deodorant tester
Potent gig, particularly the armpit deodorant variety. As well as having a bachelor’s degree up your sleeve, the world’s best odour testers need to display a range of attributes, including being trustworthy, detail-oriented, and a logical mind. Stinky and lucrative.
Perks: Smell good.
Wage: $39,000 – $116,000
12
Bicycle fisherman
The most bicycle friendly capital city of the world, Amsterdam is equally home to 15,000 submerged two wheelers, which end up in its canal depths each and every year (just .07 per cent of the city’s total). As a fully employed bicycle fisher, it’s your job to yank ‘em out with a great big hydraulic claw. Perhaps the sweetest gig of all.
Perks: Hidden treasure; get to operate a huge, metallic claw.
Wage: Unknown.
There you have it, 12 extreme and sometimes obscure jobs that sit well and truly outside of the norm.
Main event
Luke Aikins and Andy Farrington attempted to become the first pilots to swap planes.