Four jobs you probably didn’t know existed

Jun 08, 2024

Everyone’s favourite party conversation starter! It’s fair to say most of us will at least have heard of the jobs mentioned by our fellow party guests. As part of our Bitesize world of work series, we interviewed four people whose answer, we imagine, is probably met with wide-eyed amazement.

Have you ever looked at footage of an erupting volcano and thought: “How I would love to explore that!”? Nope? Meet Chris, a twenty-five-year-old volcano guide and vlogger. Among other things, his job involves climbing inside volcanoes, documenting his experiences and helping film crews access volcanoes safely.

“It’s amazing to stand next to a lava lake, look around you and see all the different layers of volcanic activity,” says Chris.

“What I’m seeing in front of me is a boiling pot of molten magma, and around me is its solid form.”

At school, Chris had a passion for Geography and Science. He then started travelling and I went to more and more extreme places, which led him to a volcano in the South Pacific. The rest, as they say, is history.

Chris absolutely loves his job, and says it’s “probably one of the best jobs in the world. But it is a risky job.”

“The extremely corrosive environment we face up there destroys our equipment in matter of days.”

So you’ve heard it from the expert: don’t try this at home!

I’m Chris, I’m 25 and I’m a volcano guide.

Anywhere there is a volcano with a massive lava lake, I climb inside there and take film crews into some of the most difficult places on this planet.

The volcanoes we operate on have got huge lava lakes and these pump out huge volumes of SO2, so that's sulphur dioxide and the extremely corrosive environment that we face up there destroys our equipment in a matter of days.

It's amazing to stand next to a lava lake and then look around you and see all the different layers of volcanic activity.

I mean what I’m seeing in front of me is a boiling pot of molten magma and around me is its solid form.

It's constantly changing and it's a really amazing place to study.

At school I had a real interest in Science, Geography and also Maths. I apply the skills and knowledge that I learnt in school into the world of volcanoes.

Currently I’m using drones to map these volcanoes, so we can analyse the depth of the lava lake, its height and proximity to the top of the crater, and also measure if there's been any significant collapses that could signify a new eruption.

I started travelling and I went to more and more extreme places picking up a camera along the way, I started with photography until that led me to a volcano in the South Pacific.

I’m so grateful to share that experience with other people and hopefully push people more into this crazy world of volcanology.

If just the thought of being near an erupting volcano terrifies you, you might find the next job a bit more soothing. Eddy, 25, is a globe maker at a company making globes completely by hand from start to finish. Eddy found his current employer on social media, while looking for creative career inspiration.

“I spend my days cutting segments of map, which we call gores, and then applying them onto a sphere, making sure that it's nice and smooth and that everything aligns,” explains Eddy, who trained for six months to make his first globe.

Many people work together to make a globe, from the cartographers who make the map to the woodworkers who create the bases the globe will sit on.

“Working on such a small version of the world demonstrates how truly large it really is,” reflects Eddy.

Eddy:\Hello. I'm Eddy. I'm 25 years old and I'm a globemaker.\\When I was a child, my father always insisted that I looked at maps and looked at globes to learn about the world. I discovered Bellaby & Co, the company I work for, whilst I was searching online for more creative opportunities. I applied for an apprenticeship and I spent six months learning how to make a globe. We are one of the only company that creates handcrafted globes from start to finish and we create a representation of the world in three dimensional space.\\The globe can change from a terrestrial, so the world we live in, and the celestial, which shows all the stars in the sky. In this job, I get to combine my passion for travel as well as my passion for creativity. I spend my days cutting segments of map, which we call gores, and then applying them onto a sphere, making sure that it's nice and smooth and that everything aligns. Working on such a small version of the world demonstrates how truly large it really is.\\So the subjects that have come in very useful in my career are Maths, because as globemakers we need to calculate the circumference of a sphere, and of course Geography, for understanding where everything in the world is. There are many people involved in the process of making globes such as the cartographers who make the map, the globemakers who apply the map onto a sphere, the painters who colour it in and, of course, the woodworkers, who create the bases the globe will go on.\\Eddy's boss:\Eddy is an amazing employee. He's really committed. He's got an incredible attention to detail. We have quite a small team here and it's really important that everyone gets on really well and Eddy is definitely one of the people that keeps everyone with a smile on their face.\\Eddy:\I really love my work because, not only do I make the world, but also I get to hold the whole world in my hands.

And now, from globes representing planets to space itself. At university, aerospace engineering student Ben got involved in a project to launch a rocket into space. That, in itself, is pretty cool, but the story goes on.

Ben wondered whether the knowledge of launching big rockets could be applied to launching smaller-scale rockets from balloons, which led him to co-found a business looking at just that. His company aims to use small rockets thrust by balloons to carry small satellites out of the atmosphere – sort of like a delivery service, but in space!

"At first people don’t believe me – they think I’m joking," says Ben. But once he's had a chance to show them his company's website and pictures of the engineering he does, they "suddenly start to switch on and they think I’m a brainiac from The Big Bang Theory and that we do a lot of rocket science."

Ben mentions meeting people who do similar things, as well as getting to speak to the relevant agencies like the UK Space and European Space Agencies, as some of his favourite parts of the job. But the real thing?

"When experiments work and the rocket comes back."

If space deliveries sound a bit too sci-fi, here's something a bit more old-school. Twenty-year-old Zoe is an apprentice heritage paper maker, specialising in watercolour paper for artists.

While industrial paper makers typically use wood pulp, Zoe works in a mill where paper is made by hand, using cotton pulp. This involves beating cotton and linen flax, as well as other fibres, in water from the mill’s own well, for up to four hours. The paper goes through a series of processes, after which each individual sheet is hung to dry.

Cotton paper is very strong, which is why many artists prefer it, as it makes their work more durable.

Reviews from happy customers mean a lot to Zoe: “Just hearing that about things that I make with my own hands and send off to other people, it is so rewarding.”

“From a very young age we tend to make things with our own hands … but when we grow up, it really tends to be the case that we get pushed out of that,” says Zoe, who is delighted to be able to do something like this for a living.

“I haven’t been any happier in my entire life.”

Zoe:\Hi, I'm Zoe I'm 20 years old and I'm a heritage paper maker. I make handmade artists' paper at a mill that is over 400 years old. We are unique, not only because we are the only handmade paper mill in the country, but also because we use the power of water as a source of energy. \\The majority of industrial paper mills, they actually use wood pulp. In our mill, we actually use cotton pulp due to its durability and its quality. So the first step is we take five and a half kilos of cotton pulp sheets into the mill ready for the paper making process. \\Once the cotton is brought into the mill, it is then fed into a hydrapulper which is essentially a really big food processor. After that it is then sent downstairs into the Hollander beater. After a number of processes, the paper is then dry and then we are left with the finished product which is then ready to be painted on. \\After I finished college, I was very arts and craftsy so I wanted to find a job that would coincide with that. I discovered Two Rivers Paper from a fellow craftsperson and so I wanted to follow through with an apprenticeship. I managed to get numerous bursaries from charities that were in support of my craft. \\Zoe's boss:\The largest impact that Zoe's had on the business is by raising the amount of paper that we make and of course the amount that we sell. We've doubled our production in the year since Zoe's been here. \\I'm coming up to 72, so I guess I'm coming towards the end of my working life and, at that stage, I'll be handing over the business to Zoe and the other two guys who are working for me to run the business on into the future. \\Zoe:\I've already completed one year in my three-year apprenticeship and I truly believe that this is something I'll be doing for the rest of my life.

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