In the following article, I will try to cite the top 10 careers that very few people choose but are easy to study with fairly good pay and benefits. These benefits not only include the health care benefits but also lots of free time, less stress and hassle.

Landscape Architect

This job is for those great outdoors people with a deep appreciation for nature, beauty and symmetry. It is essential to have good writing and research skills and a positive attitude to work with other professionals such as architects, engineers and contractors to make sure your landscaping designs are compatible with the project or building being build. The starting salary is usually around 36K but after 5 years it goes up to 48K and within 10 years, you will be making a easy 80,000 US dollars. You can get more information at the American Society of Landscape Architects here.

Close Protection Officer or a Bodyguard

Bodyguards work with politicians, celebrities, millionaires and other great public figures wherever they go and face long hours of continuous work and become involved in bizarre situations. However, this career is not for the faint of heart. It requires nerves of steel, quick reaction and gut instincts. Your main objective is to ensure the safety of your client at all cost and most bodyguards tend to become almost like a member of their client’s family or their shadow. The starting salary is usually around 34K and within 5 years, you will be making 60K and anywhere over 10 years will get you over 187K US dollars. You can sign up with either the US secret services or The International Bodyguard Association. A few websites you can visit is secretservice.gov or ibabodyguards.com or 1adsi.com

Customs Agent

Anything that comes across the US borders need to clear customs and as such, this organization deals with anything from child pornography to drugs to guns and money laundering. This job is very much “by the book” because an agent will have to follow tons of protocol and ensure that the 500 or so custom laws are enforced. You are also expected to keep tabs on criminals, talk to informants, checking evidence and attending briefing meetings with prosecutors and the court. Your starting salary will range from 40K to 50K and within 5 years, you can be making up to 80K. If you stick around to over 10-15 years, you can easily make 112K US Dollars. More information can be received at the US Federal Government Jobs website at usajobs.opm.gov

FBI Agent

The FBI specializes in crime investigating, prevention, counter terrorism, and counter intelligence work and domestic & international information monitoring. The role of the FBI has drastically increased since 911, giving it powers that can even match the CIA with regards to the domestic policy. An agent interacts with local law enforcement agencies, meeting with bosses or informants, conducting investigations or filing reports. Starting salary is around 50K, and within 5 years it goes up to 77K and by 10 years, you will be making 106K US Dollars. You can join the FBI or get more information at fbijobs.gov

Outside Sales Representative

An outside sales representative deals with marketing products and tools to the customers, either electronically or by phone or physically. Depending on what type of company, most representatives specialize in one aspect of the industry or in one area of the country. For the best results in your relationship with the customers, you must have indebt knowledge of your company and its products. Usually a undergraduate degree in this area is required for a success start for your career making 30K plus any bonuses or sales commission you receive. Within 5 years, a representative can make up to 65K with bonuses and sales commission and in 10 years, they can make 102K plus bonuses and commissions. This is a great lucrative field in an age where electronic information flow is the greatest asset to a company’s success. For more information, you can always visit nira.org or hira.org

Diplomat or Attaché or Foreign Service Officer

The foreign service officers represent the US or their country through the world in many international, national and local administrative offices, embassies and consulates. They handle the problems of Americans abroad including negotiating for multi-national corporations, fixing issues regarding legal documents, or providing public information to another nation’s government or its nationals. Diplomats work under the State Department and are send overseas anywhere from 2-4 years at a time. Much of this job requires making reports, collecting facts, writing speeches, proofreading, reading and staying up to date with information. Candidates for this job is encouraged to have strong writing and reading skills. Depending on the extend of your education and experience, you can either make a starting salary of 40K to 55K and within 10 years be making over 90K US Dollars. You can visit the State Department’s website for more information or the UN; State.gov/employment or un.org or fpa.org

Brewmaster

The brilliant people behind the beer you drink are called the brewmasters. That means they are in charge of product quality control, tasting beer to make sure the aroma, taste and color as well as other aspects of beer are in line with the company and safety policies. Brewmasters lead a team of brewers who are in charge of making their own recipes and making the best quality beer. For thing job you need to appreciate beer and have a good sense of smell and taste. Education degrees in this job is preferred by employers and some universities even offer a PhD in brewing biochemistry. A average starting salary will be around 30K and with hard work you can make up to 60K doing your favorite pastime of getting drunk. You can learn more at the brewer’s association at beertown.org

Veterinarian

Most people who want to deal with animals and want a medical career with good pay leans towards a career as a Veterinarian. A vet provides medical services for anime while giving advice to pet owners about proper methods of caring for their pets. Being a vet demands that you possess a sharp sense to diagnose the symptoms of animals and effectively treat them so the disease do not spread to human beings. Vets can also be seen in labs doing research or in the cattle industry inspecting on the conditions of the animals there. Meat packing industry also gets its fair share of vets and vets do autopsies on animals to determine how or what diseases killed a animal. The starting salary in around 47K and within 10-15 years, you can be making 86K. The website for American Veterinary Medical Association is avma.org

Stunt Guy or Body Double

These people are hired by a film crew to fill in for scenes in movies that are dangerous or has a extreme chance for injury. This means a stunt person could be jumping out of cars, fall off buildings or do a green-screen fight scene in a movie or any other stress filled job. This job requires a lot of patience, timing and ingenuity and with experience, these skills will the honed, as well as your salary. Stunt people also tend to resemble the actors or actresses they are filling in for, so it makes it easier for the video editing guys to do their job while the other incompatible stunt people make up the stunt crew that assist the person filling in for the actor. The average starting salary sucks with only a 15K payout rate but with experience and connections, you can be making over 100K in 10 years (5 years can earn you 46K). You can visit screen actor’s guild for more information, sag.org

Fisherman

Commercial fishing is a huge industry in America and in many countries worldwide and so is the demand for experienced fisherman. In this job, you will spend most of your day out there dragging mesh bags across the sea floors for clams, oysters or scallops or deploy traps to capture lobsters or crabs. The fishermen that stay on land deals with cleaning fish out and preparing them for restaurants or customers. The hours in this job are ridicules because of the enormous amount of work involved and the stress. You could be out in the sea for 2 to 14 days working around the clock for some good catch. Sleep is a commodity you rarely see here and most owners hire men for a specified amount of time or years. If you are in a crew, you pretty much have no privacy and you work together with others. All crew members are expected to take care of themselves, abide by safety rules and do their jobs even in adverse conditions. Even though it’s a tough life, the payout is great. The starting salary is 30K to 60K that commensurate with experience. The owners of the boat can make anywhere from 100K to 200K per year depending on the how large your operations are and how good the catch is. Some of the most dangerous working conditions are involved with fishing but the fun and the pay is good in this field of work. A good movie to watch is the Perfect Storm. You can learn more about fishing at nationalfisherman.com or mfu-upm.com