People Are Actually Getting Paid to Do These Cool Jobs

Are you ready for a career change? Are you totally not ready for a career change, but prolonged unemployment is making you think that maybe you need to get ready?

Don't despair. While most of us transition from one traditional job to another one, there are some interesting gigs out there that are far from the daily grind.

Here are a few of our favorites from this roundup from CNBC.

1. Bed Tester. Many of us have done unpaid internships in bed testing, especially when unemployed, but a few lucky souls actually get paid to see how comfy beds are, usually in hotels. Natalie Thomas, who works for a U.K. hotel chain, works with a team whose job it is to test 46,000 beds a year. She must be good at it, too, because she reportedly had her rear end insured for $6.3 million dollars in 2011. 

2. Field Test Analyst for Recreational Equipment. Someone has to make sure that if you fall off your bike, it's your fault, and not the bike's. That person is Adam Hockey, a field test analyst for sporting goods retailer Recreational Equipment Inc., or R.E.I.

3. Water Slide Tester. Tommy Lynch works for a British travel company called First Choice, and he has the job you dreamed of getting when you were 8 years old and never wanted to leave the water park. He tests water slides "for stress factors and aerodynamics" (eek!) and says his job is the best job in the world.

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