Does Your Character Need a Job?

Are you a writer? Are you looking for an interesting occupation to give a major or minor character? I asked folks on Facebook what they or their family members/partners did, and I got over 300 ideas:
  • 9-1-1 dispatcher 
  • Abortion clinic worker
  • Actor
  • Aeronautical engineer brother (once tested fighter jet windshields by shooting dead turkeys at them which had to be sanctioned by PETA)
  • Airplane mechanic
  • Amusement park worker
  • Answering service employee
  • Apartment maintenance. (And it's kind of a cool job cause people leave things behind all the time when they move.)
  • App developer
  • Appliance store sales clerk
  • Architect
  • Architectural lighting designer
  • Army criminal investigator
  • Art professor
  • Artist
  • Attorney
  • Auto parts clerk
  • B&B owner
  • Bakery worker
  • Ballet dancer
  • Banker,
  • Barrista
  • Bartender
  • Bead store clerk/stocker
  • Bee Keeper
  • Bicycle shop employee
  • Biofeedback therapist
  • Biogas plant builder
  • Biomedical engineer (Interesting side note, you can kill an entire surgical suite of medical professionals with a faulty anesthesia machine. Quite the murder weapon.)
  • Black Jack dealer
  • Blackhawk pilot
  • Boat canvases maker
  • Book collator (assembling books page by page)
  • Bookstore clerk
  • Border patrol
  • Bridge painter
  • Bus driver
  • Business/Financial News network reporter/producer/anchor
  • College baseball director of operations
  • Cabinet maker
  • Cake decorator
  • Cannery worker
  • Car wash attendant
  • Carpenter
  • Carpet layer
  • Cartoonist 
  • Caterer’s assistant
  • Cello maker 
  • CEO of a high tech company
  • Chain restaurant pre-employment/set-up team (they travel from town to town to help 'set-up', stock and hire the employees that will ultimately work there. After a month of two, they go onto the next franchisee location and get THAT restaurant set-up, etc.)
  • Charter/private airline flight attendant.
  • Chef 
  • Chemical engineer (does research on paper recycling, bioenergy, and fungi that digest wood)
  • Chemical scientist
  • Childcare worker
  • Chimney sweep
  • Chinook Helicopter Mechanic US Army
  • Chiropractor
  • Christmas Around the World sales person
  • Civil/structural engineer.
  • Clerk at candy store
  • Closet organizer
  • Coat check girl
  • College admissions counselor 
  • College professor
  • Computer guy for a wine company
  • Computer programmer
  • Computer repair person
  • Consumer columnist. 
  • Contract analyst 
  • Cook
  • Copywriter
  • Counselor in the Juvenile Detention Center
  • Couture cat collar maker sold through Internet boutique
  • Crab shaker/crab cooker
  • Custom hat embroidery business owner
  • Custom racing bicycles designer and airbrusher. 
  • Cytogenetic technologist 
  • Dairy farmer
  • Dam operator
  • Data analyst
  • Deli worker
  • Dental assistant
  • Dental office practice manager
  • Development work for an art and history museum
  • Dialysis technician
  • Dietary aide at a nursing home,
  • Director of study abroad program
  • Disc jockey
  • Dishwasher
  • DJ
  • DMV clerk
  • Dog breeder/trainer
  • Dog walker
  • Drafting work for architecture firms
  • Egg farm worker
  • EMT
  • ESL teacher
  • Event specialist (sets up events at hotels) 
  • Excavator bulldozer & crane operator
  • Executive assistant
  • Exterminator
  • Extreme sports videographer
  • FAA tower controller.
  • Factory assembly line
  • Field biologist specializing in insectivores. (Shrews are insane.)
  • Financial advisor
  • Fire chaplain
  • Firefighter
  • Fish physiologist
  • Fisheries biologist
  • Flight attendant 
  • Florist
  • Foreclosure/default analyst/investigator.
  • Freelance wedding/event/aerial photographer/videographer
  • Funeral director
  • Game creator
  • Geek squad
  • General contractor
  • General counsel for a phone company
  • Geologist
  • Geophysicist
  • Glass blower
  • Golf pro shop employee
  • Grant writer
  • Graphic designer
  • Graphic novelist
  • Green building consultant
  • Grocery store cashier
  • Groundskeeper at a major league ball park
  • Group home worker
  • Guard at an art museum 
  • Guy who cleans out the vacuum tubes once a year at the bank/hospital/Costco. 
  • Hair stylist
  • Handyman
  • Head Start Teacher.
  • Heath care aide
  • Herbarium archivist
  • High school history teacher
  • High school teacher at an alternative school for near-dropouts. 
  • Highway flag person
  • Historical remodeler (carpenter) 
  • Home help for families with special needs children. (help out around the house, help out with the kids, babysit when the parents need time to themselves.
  • Horse groomer (in the competitive horse world the equivalent of a golfer's caddy)
  • Horticulturist
  • Hostess at a café. 
  • Hot tub sales person 
  • Hotel employee
  • House inspector.
  • House painter
  • Housekeeper. 
  • Human resources
  • Human resources for the research and marketing arm of a pet food company
  • Information (411) operator
  • Instructor at a college
  • Insurance adjuster
  • Insurance salesman
  • Interior designer
  • Investigate allegations of abuse and neglect of people with disabilities
  • IRS worker
  • Jail Commander
  • Jewelry design/repair
  • Journalist
  • Judo instructor
  • Juvenile Detention worker
  • Kindergarten teacher
  • Landscape architect
  • Lawn service/snowplow operator
  • Librarian
  • Life guard
  • Logger
  • Magazine editor
  • Mail carrier (mail carriers know A LOT about the people on their streets.)
  • Management consultant
  • Map editor/producer for a navigation systems company.
  • Marine biologist
  • Math professor
  • Mechanic
  • Mechanic
  • Mechanical designer
  • Mechanical engineer
  • Mediator
  • Medical examiner
  • Medical information sales
  • Medical records scanner
  • Medical social worker 
  • Mental health therapist
  • Microbiologist
  • Mill worker
  • Model
  • Montessori teacher
  • Morgue attendant
  • Motel clerk
  • Movie critic
  • Nail technician
  • Nanny
  • Neon sign repair in the LED age
  • Night club worker "working door" 
  • Nighttime office maintenance/property manager (which gives access to all kinds of offices!)
  • Nonprofit administrator
  • Nurse
  • Nursery owner
  • Nursing home worker
  • Occupational therapist
  • Office building cleaner
  • Office Manager/Bookkeeper 
  • Oncology nurse
  • Organic farmer
  • Otter tech for the Department of Conservation
  • Pastor
  • Patient finances at hospital
  • Personal trainer business owner
  • Pet shop worker
  • Pet transport business (takes puppies to and from the vet or groomers, or gets rescue dogs to new families across the country.)
  • Pharmaceutical salesman (we affectionately say "drug dealer" haha),
  • Phone banker
  • Phone nurse 
  • Photographer
  • Physicist
  • Pizza chef
  • Planer operator at a mill
  • Police Academy cadet trainer
  • Police dispatcher
  • Pool maintenance person
  • Preloader for long haul trucks
  • Preschool dance teacher
  • Preschool teacher
  • Printers
  • Prison guard
  • Professional genealogist
  • Proofreader
  • Psychiatric nurse
  • Psychic
  • Psychologist
  • Public radio producer
  • Quality control inspector for commercial construction
  • Ranch hand, 
  • Real estate agenT
  • Real estate management.
  • Receptionist at a naturopathic (or any) clinic
  • Recycling equipment engineer.
  • Reporter
  • Research assistant
  • Retired radio on-air personality. 
  • Road crew supervisor
  • Roofer
  • Sales person who travels and sells: pharmaceuticals, books, copiers, servers, film, hydraulics, software, foodstuffs like pudding/peanuts, sewing machines, ladies wear, audio books, oil drilling equipment, class rings, medical supplies, garbage bins, knives, cake ornaments, plumbing, high end software, orthodontic equipment, appliances, decking materials, tires, household cleaners, sweeteners, coffins, Bibles, paper manufacturing equipment, agricultural supplies, security systems, 
  • Sand pit owner/operator
  • Sandblaster
  • School secretary
  • Scientists that work on lab animals
  • Seamstress
  • Security officer
  • Senior Theatre materials publisher 
  • Shelving assembler (assembling and disassembling shelves in a warehouse as stock changed)
  • Shoe store employee
  • Sides of beef and other freezer meat seller
  • Singer in small clubs
  • Ski lift repair tech
  • Social worker
  • Software analyst 
  • Software engineer
  • Soldier
  • Songwriter
  • Spanish teacher
  • Speech language pathologist
  • Spider researcher (extracts venom from deadly spiders) 
  • State safety radio network monitor
  • Stock market trader
  • Stock photographer
  • Storage facility owner
  • Submarine engineer
  • Substitute teacher
  • Summer camp counselor
  • Surgeon
  • Systems programmer
  • Tattoo artist
  • Tea shop owner
  • Teach art to very senior citizens at a residential retirement home. (fascinating mix of humor and pathos)
  • Teach teachers how to use technology in their classrooms
  • Tech writer
  • Teflon coater
  • Telephony installer
  • Therapist
  • Tie-dye artist.
  • Tile setter
  • Time share seller
  • Tour director
  • Toy inventor
  • Translator
  • Trouble shooter for a college
  • Truck driver
  • TV weatherman
  • Urban planner
  • Usher for the Opera
  • Varsity soccer coach
  • Veterinarian assistant,
  • Volunteer reader for SMART
  • Warehouse worker
  • Warehouse worker (forklift operator)
  • Water therapy swimming for injured dogs.
  • Waterfront engineer who also does wind power
  • Web designer
  • Weight Watchers Weigher
  • Welder in residential home construction (does design work, like railings and structural pieces for houses built into rocks on a mountain.)
  • Wildlife photographer
  • Window trimmer (designed windows for shoe stores) 
  • Women’s clothes sales person
  • Wood worker
  • Yoga instructor
  • Browse for other interesting jobs on the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook. http://www.bls.gov/ooh/home.htm


More ideas (from a solicitation for people who might have had asbestos exposure)