Top 10 Weirdest Jobs in Britain

You may have heard that the Queen owns all the swans in Britain. In fact, she actually holds ownership over all of the muteswans. And she only actually exercises this right over some of the swans on the Thames. But to do that, she hires one person – the Swan Marker – to watch over them all. The Swan Marker arranges the annual Swan Upping, which gathers together all the swans on the river as a means of tracking them. They also help to raise awareness of the birds across the country. All in, it sounds like a pretty wholesome career choice!

If you like a lie in, this could be your kinda gig. Because some hotels willingly hire bed warmers. And yes, they are exactly what they sound like. Wearing a special suit, the ‘warmer’ gets into the bed in question, to ensure it’s toasty in time for the person staying there. So yes, you really are getting paid to lay around in bed all day! Although it may seem a little odd to invite a stranger into your hotel room to awkwardly test out your duvet, it’s worth it to achieve the optimum temperature. Apparently.

Legend says that if the ravens ever leave the Tower of London, the whole kingdom will fall. So, to make sure the birds are happy and well looked after, the Tower appoints a Ravenmaster. Not only is it perhaps one of the coolest job titles you could possibly come up with, it also sounds like a great job. It’s not easy by any means. More than two decades experience in the military is needed to become a Yeoman Warder, the rank from which the Ravenmaster is selected. And the chap who’s currently in the role trained for five further years to become the dedicated raven-watcher that he is today.

As arguably one of the most British jobs on our list, professional tea tasters have to train for five years to become the best in the business. But once you’re fully trained you will’ve tried every variation of tea you could possibly think of and you’ll have traveled around the world to do so. So, there are plenty of perks! Some tea tasters even have their taste buds insured for absurd amounts of money – such is their importance. If you’re the kind of person who drinks tea every day, multiple times a day, this just might be your ideal role.

You’d probably be pretty surprised at how much you can get paid doing a job that essentially involves you just waiting around all day. You could wind up looking after an empty office as an official Empty Office Sitter, or you could take this position and cultivate the art of waiting in line as a professional queuer. There are people that will hire you, for pretty good pay as well, to queue for the latest tech, tickets, trainers, anything so that they don’t have to. It sounds like a pretty sweet deal, but it takes plenty of patience. That said, if the cultural cliché rings true, we British are used to queueing anyway.

If you can play the bagpipes, you could get paid a tidy salary to play the pipes at the Queen’s request. Since 1843, when Queen Victoria decided she wanted her own personal bagpipe player, the Royal Family has hired someone for the sole purpose of playing the iconic instrument. You do need to have been a Pipe Major in a Scottish or Irish regiment to be considered for the job… But, if you fit that particular criteria, you could have a very extravagant career waiting for you.

Another contender for one of the best job titles out there, this one’s perfect for people who just love life on the internet. Companies are always striving to stay relevant to modern consumers and, to do that, they often hire people to simply check social media for customer feedback – or you can be hired as a Cool Hunter. In this job, you are responsible for keeping on top of the latest trends and feeding that information back to your bosses to make sure they’re putting out popular products. It’s fashions, fads and staying one step ahead of what’s stylish.

A relatively new job compared to some of the others featured today, dog yoga, or doga, has grown and grown in popularity. There are different types of doga to contend with, too. Whether the pooch acts as a partner to their human, or the yoga is meant as method of achieving calmness in the animal itself, there are lots of ways to get involved. As for the instructor? Their role is to oversee the entire process, and to ensure that pet and owner are having a perfectly relaxing experience. If you’re an animal lover, there are surely few finer jobs out there!

Staying within the realms of animal-inspired oddness… No, this isn’t a job for your pet, but a potential paid position for you. Some luxury dog food brands actually go out of their way to make sure their food is not only safe for animal consumption but is also safe for humans. And to do this, they hire tasters so they can receive feedback from a consumer who can actually speak. If you’re in no way a fussy eater, you could make a pretty penny doing this job - and if you have a pet, they’ll appreciate the freebies.

From the PGA Tour to the local pitch-n-putt, golfers are unerringly good at hitting their balls into the water – but we rarely see them even try to retrieve their wayward shots. That’s because someone is hired to do it for them. If you’ve ever wondered what happens to those poor lost golf balls, there are people whose job is to dive into the water and collect them. It’s certainly a niche role and it doesn’t sound too taxing… But without the golf ball divers, the UK’s water hazards would’ve overflowed a long time ago!