Picking a career is such an important choice. Most of us spend a significant amount of our adult lives working. That’s 90,000 hours or one-third of your life, to be exact. And it’s not unheard of for someone to dislike their job, find it unfulfilling, or find it mundane.
This is why considering fun careers and unique jobs can be a helpful way to reignite your spark when it comes to working day-to-day. There are several jobs and career options that may allow you to fulfill your passions and even have fun in the process of making money. Many of those jobs can also be done from home.
If you’re looking for work that includes flexibility, creativity, or even extra income on the side, here are nine unique jobs that you can do remotely.
1. Video Game Designer
Playing video games can be more than just a hobby. If you’d like to get behind the scenes and work on how the game is created, the characters’ development, the rules, and the storyline, then becoming a video game designer can be rewarding for you. Video game designers do all of this and more, and their job usually involves creating the design, story, and layout of a video game.
You’ll need tech skills in programming, UX (user experience), and UI (user interface design), and many Video Game Designers have bachelor’s degrees in fields like Web Development, Computer Programming, and Video Game Production to get started. But you can earn six figures or more if you’re able to break into this unique, remote-friendly career.
2. Graphic Designer
Graphic designers use original ideas and creative concepts to make stunning graphics, logos, website designs, brochures, and more for different clients. You don’t need a formal education to get into this career, and the range is wide depending on what type of projects you want to take on. There are some online courses on sites like Coursera that can help you get started. Or you can even consider enrolling in classes at your local community college to gain more skills in this field.
Having graphic design skills can lead to high-paying jobs, such as a graphic artist, which pays anywhere from $127,000 to $152,000. Related fields, like marketing design, pay up to $90,000 and involve blending marketing expertise with artistic skills to create unique campaigns that clients can use to advertise and build brand awareness.
Since you’re doing the bulk of your work from a computer, it’s easy to work remotely as a graphic designer if you have the right technical skills. There are tons of work from home job ideas in this post.
3. Pinterest Manager
Love Pinterest? Many businesses and entrepreneurs use Pinterest to market their products and services and drive traffic to their websites. If you can learn how Pinterest works as a search engine, along with how to create stunning, eye-catching pins, you can work as a Pinterest manager and make money from home. This would be a great fit for stay-at-home parents, side hustlers, or even those looking to become more of a digital nomad.
To get started, you can create pins from scratch or even just customize templates on Canva. You can offer your services to bloggers and business owners with an online store, for example. There are websites and tools you can use to schedule pins, like Tailwind, and Pinterest managers can easily batch their work so they can schedule content once a week or once a month. From there, you’ll just need to work on reviewing your client’s account analytics and implementing different strategies.
4. Voiceover Artist
Voiceover artists often record their voices for entertainment projects, narration, character acting, or dubbing animated characters. Also known as voiceover acting, this could involve speaking in commercials, video games, animated films, and more. According to Indeed, average salaries for this role range from $41,319 to $91,919, depending on the types of projects you take on and how often you work.
Voice acting requires a lot of training and practice, but you can look for online courses. And if you want to work from home, you can even create a small home studio to work from.
5. Farmstand Owner
Farmstands are all the craze right now. If you have a passion for baking, gardening, and making food from scratch, you could always try your hand at starting a local farmstand business. From the outside looking in, this job idea looks pretty low-stress, but I know it requires a lot of planning and preparation.
You’ll need to come up with a list of items you want to sell, test out different recipes, and order proper packaging and even marketing materials. You’ll also need to either buy a farmstand or customize one. All in all, there are tons of stories on YouTube and social media about people finding success with their farmstands and offering advice for those looking to get started.
The best part is that you can promote your farmstand online and have people come right to you. A lot of people set up shop in their driveways or backyards, so you don’t even have to leave home if you don’t want to. If you’re interested in going this route, check out this book from Lisa Kivirist and John D. Ivanko:
- Homemade for Sale: How to Set Up and Market a Food Business from Your Home Kitchen
6. Registered Dietitian
With so many people looking to eat healthy and balanced diets, becoming a registered dietician (RD) can be a fun and profitable job you can do remotely. The path to becoming an RD includes earning a bachelor’s and master’s degree in nutrition or dietetics, completing 1,000 hours of supervised clinical practice, and passing an RD licensing exam.
As a dietitian, you help people achieve optimal health outcomes, whether they have diabetes, an eating disorder, food allergies, kidney or heart disease, or are managing weight or intense sports training.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, RDs earn an average of $73,850 annually, with an annual growth rate of 3% (which is faster than average). Dietitians can work remotely for hospitals, clinics, insurance companies, and specialized practices like Cecelia Health, Nourish, and Health Loft.
7. Resume and LinkedIn Profile Writer
Resume writing is an excellent way to use your writing skills to make money from home. People are always looking for jobs, and a fresh, professional resume remains one of the most important tools. You can also take it a step further and use your creative writing skills to become a LinkedIn profile writer, too.
LinkedIn is still a must-have tool for most people who are in the job market or those who just want to keep up with their professional connections. You’ll want to stay on top of all the latest career trends, resume-writing techniques, and what recruiters are actually looking for to help others improve their resumes. You can market your services to professionals in all stages of their careers and even host workshops to educate job-seekers and help them land their dream roles.
Becoming a resume and LinkedIn profile writer doesn’t require a special degree, however, you should have excellent writing skills, in depth knowledge of resumes, LinkedIn, SEO, and personal branding. Some resume writers, enter the field by obtaining a career coach cerrtification, other take an online course, and others have worked in HR, recruiting, or a writing field.
How much can you earn writing resumes and LinkedIn profiles? According to Glassdoor, resume writers earn between $52,000 and $88,000 annually. One woman who was interviewed here on The Work at Home Woman, Day Merrill, started her career as an English teacher, and eventually launched her own resume business, earning six figures annually.
8. Virtual Mystery Shopper
Mystery shopping is a fun and easy way to make some extra money by visiting local restaurants, businesses, and stores and reporting on your experience. Companies hire mystery shoppers or secret shoppers to engage with employees, (usually) make a purchase, and share their honest feedback and observations in a detailed report following the experience.
Mystery shopping doesn’t always pay a ton, but it’s flexible, and you can pick up odd jobs whenever you want. There are also a few quick virtual mystery shopping gigs available if you’d rather not leave the house. These may involve making phone calls to a business and reporting on your conversation with an employee, or placing an online order and tracking the process. Mystery shopping gigs usually reimburse you for expenses incurred while completing the shop (up to a pre-approved limit).
Join legitimate mystery shopping social media groups like Mystery Shopping – Shopper, Scheduler & Editor Connect! and Mystery Shop Resources for tips and leads on paid opportunities. You can also check out mystery shop websites like Ipsos and MarketForce to find virtual mystery shopping jobs.
9. Art Therapist
An art therapist is a trained mental health professional who uses art and creative expression to help people reduce stress, explore their emotions, process trauma, and more. Art therapists can work in a variety of places, including schools, hospitals, rehab centers, community centers, or within their own private practice.
If you prefer to work from home, you could launch your own private practice and meet with clients virtually. This career path is pretty flexible, but you will need a good amount of education and clinical training, such as a master’s degree in art therapy or counseling and human behavior.
While this can be a rewarding, interesting, and fun career, you’ll need to consider the pros and cons, including pay, growth rate, and job availability. If you want to explore this career, conducting informational interviews can be an excellent way to get the inside scoop.
Unique Jobs Wrapup
Fun jobs and unique careers can change your entire lifestyle since you may start actually looking forward to working each day and enjoy the tasks you’re doing. If you’re looking to make a career change to work that’s more fulfilling and enjoyable, start by narrowing down your hobbies and interests.
Explore the types of work you’d do for fun or free, then match that to a paying career or business idea. Then, gain the experience, training, and any credentials you’ll need to get started. You can always start with one of these job options on the side to see how you’ll like it and how much you can earn.
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