unusual jobs

Professional hotel test sleeper

“No need to punch in for work, often visit various hotels, vacation is also work, there

are even a big group of fans on the internet, and every month there can be an easy ten

thousand yuan income.” This is the true portrayal of a hotel “test sleeper”, called

“history’s most comfortable job”. Zhang Yumo is Beijing’s first hotel tester and so far

there are only 6 in all of China. This past March, she was selected by the [travel

website] Qunar out of over 7000 applicants, and now has been certified by the China

Hotel Association as a “Professional Hotel Test Sleeper” [professional hotel reviewer]

The reason why Zhang Yumo was selected out of the thousands was because of her

past work experience was related to: art college graduate, has a foundation in

illustration, has worked as a television director, is good at both writing and

photography, her previous occupation was a freelancer for a handicraft brand, and

these will be especially helpful for her work as a hotel test sleeper.

A hotel test sleeper, as the name suggests, is to test staying at hotels, to experience the

hotel’s service, environment, cleanliness, price, dining, and other aspects, such as the

mattresses’ hardness, the air conditioner’s temperature, internet speed, the piping

drainage, the shower water pressure, etc. All of these she must write reports of her

experience/impressions after investigating them to be published on the internet after

delivering them to the company as a reference for netizens.

“Our work is not nearly as easy as everyone thinks. Writing comments/evaluations is

just one aspect of the many the job entails. In fact, there is still a lot of work stress. It

requires a lot of attention to detail, patience, and responsibility.” Zhang Yumo says,

“Because there are tasks, within the one day you are staying [in the hotel], you need to

be highly concentrated, observe every detail, and also use a camera or digital video

recorder to record everything you see and think, and using microblogs, video, etc. and

netizen comments, in the end you must complete a very detailed experience report.”

Because the entire testing process is conducted unannounced/secretly, her fair and

objective comments is also a reason why she has many fans.

This post-80s generation Northeastern girl reveals how she is different from most

everywhere. Fashionable dressed, seeks freedom in her work, everything revolving

around fun, firmly believing that “life is about ‘change'”. She feels that if life

becomes like still water, then it is finished. Her dream is to open a Mediterranean

style art hotel [boutique hotel?], the hotel having a private library, allowing pets, with

everything designed according to her own aesthetic, with all of the artwork made by

herself.

Pet Food Testers

Make sure pet food is not only nutritious but also tasty

Quick Statistics

Salary Range $34,000 – $117,000 Data from U.S. Department of Labor

What do Pet Food Testers do?

Not ones to let pets suffer from unhealthy, tasteless food, Pet Food Testers evaluate

the nutritional value of pet food and, yes, taste-test it. Pet Food Testers don’t spend

every day sampling a cuisine fit for a pampered pooch, though (don’t worry, most Pet

Food Testers spit it out instead of swallowing it). Most days, they’re writing reports

and thinking up new ideas on how to put a nutritional spin on a new line of food.

Taste is important, but nutrition is the key to healthy pets.

Though dogs will eat anything, that doesn’t mean they should. Pet owners want

flavorful, immune-boosting pet foods. Smell is also important when choosing the best

options. No homeowner wants a house that stinks of fish.

After you’ve narrowed down the selection to the best vitamin-packed foods in the

bunch, what in the world do you look for in the taste test? Pets can’t talk, after all, so

you need to develop a sense of what animals like. Animal knowledge comes in handy

here.

Once you’ve popped a small bite in your mouth, you check for flavor (if you’re

saying, “Yuck!” then pets probably are, too), texture, and consistency. Then you spit it

out and move on to the next flavor.

Pets the world over would give you a big hug if they could. Only the finest in pet

dining makes it to store shelves, and you can consider yourself a connoisseur in pet

delicacies. Bon appetit!

Should I be a Pet Food Tester?

You should have a doctoral degree or higher and share these traits:

Logical Thinker: You take a step-by-step approach to analyze information and solve

problems.

Detail Oriented: You pay close attention to all the little details.

Outside the Box Thinker: Your creative brainpower gets a workout as you come up

with innovative ideas.

Chick sexers

"Chick sexers" are paid ￡40,000 a year to spend their days with tens of thousands of

fluffy chicks.

But despite the seemingly attractive offer, Britain's poultry industry is struggling to

recruit and is now facing a staff shortage that is threatening exports.

The problem, according to one industry chief, lies in the nature of the job: sexers

spend 12 hours a day 'staring at the backside of a chick'. And each new recruit must

spend three years learning how to do it.

Andrew Large, chief executive of the British Poultry Council, added that another part

of the problem is that the awareness of the role is not as high as it could be.

Each future 'chick sexer' receives years in training in how to spot 'minuscule

differences' in the size and shape of a newly-hatched chick's genitalia to determine

whether it will be a rooster or a hen.

They are expected to be able to sort between 800 and 1,200 day-old old chicks an

hour - between three and five seconds a chick - with an accuracy of 97 or 98 per cent.

This must be done for as long as it takes to fill an order, which can be up to 13 hours.

And each chick must have its genitalia - known as its 'vent' - checked without being

harmed, Mr Large told The Times.