Collection of Insane and Fun Facts
One of the most sought-after jobs in Venice is that of gondolier. There are only 425 licenses issued, and applicants must be Venetian by birth. Apprenticeships involve over 400 hours of training, and when a gondolier dies the license passes to the beneficiary, who then decides the replacement.
Pet food tasters (humans) serve as professional quality control for pet food. They make up to $120k/year.
In 2006, Guy Goma showed up at the BBC for a job interview as a computer technician. He was mistaken for Guy Kewney, a computer expert, and put on live TV to discuss a judicial verdict. Despite his amazing performance faking his way through the segment, he did not get the job.
In 1950, several store owners independently realized that they could draw big crowds by having a woman sleeping in a bed as a window display.
Sanitation workers in Karachi, Pakistan are often completely submerged in raw sewage as they work, using their bare hands and feet to move sludge.
An estimated 80% of available jobs in the U.S. never get posted or advertised.
Legendary daredevil Evel Knievel was fired from his first job with a mining company after attempting to wheelie a bulldozer but ending up careening into power lines and knocking out the local town’s electricity supply.
New Jersey lifeguards can retire when they’re 45 years old with a lifelong pension of up to $61,000.00/year. And when they die, the payments continue on to their dependents.
Instead of handouts, panhandlers in Albuquerque, NM are offered a job making $9/hr cash paid at end of workday for doing work for the city’s Solid Waste Dept. A 16-seat van run by a homeless shelter cruises the streets to offer jobs to panhandlers. Homeless can also call 311 to receive help.
Lighthouse keepers constantly went nuts due to mercury poisoning from the fresnel lens lamps they used combined with isolation. It was a major issue for the USCG until a doctor took a look at the huge pool of mercury sitting under the lens.