Ten Jobs You Didn’t Know You Wanted

Enhancing Life and the Bottom Line

Carbon coach

Reducing contributions to greenhouse gas emissions, or the carbon footprint, is one huge step toward sustainability, but few guidelines exist for how companies gunning to be green should proceed. Carbon coaches offer this essential information. In addition to calculating carbon footprints and offering advice for offsetting them, carbon coaches help companies fit sustainability into their overall mission. Their services range from providing branding strategy for "green" product launches to advising companies on their relationships with NGOs.

Already prevalent in Europe, carbon consulting is steadily catching on stateside. "Getting corporate culture to change is challenging and frustrating, but companies are really starting to change," says Michael Gillenwater, Dean of GHG Management Institute. "It's enormously exciting." The quickly changing nature of the field and the frequent opportunities to compare notes with colleagues worldwide only adds to the excitement.

Most carbon coaches work at consulting firms, where they command salaries ranging from $40,000 to $60,000 for entry-level positions and $60,000 to $100,000 for mid-level positions, according to Gillenwater. Non-profit organization salaries aren't as high; an entry-level carbon coach with a master's degree can expect a salary of $30,000 to $50,000.

Sleep instructor

Sleep instructors help the overworked catch their zzz's with mind-body exercises for the bedroom and beyond. With corporate clients, they focus on productivity, alertness, and cognitive performance during the day -- key factors in achieving restful nights, according to Michael Krugman, inventor of the Sounder Sleep System. Sleep consultants also advise managers on how to create a "sleep-supportive" environment, including limiting work hours and helping employees avoid stressful commutes.

Sleep instructors can sometimes escape the workplace altogether, leading retreats in calm and often exotic locations. But customer satisfaction brings Krugman his biggest reward. "These are people that are really in trouble," says Krugman of his most sleep-deprived clients. "Once they start to feel more rested, they really come alive."

Because sleep instructors do not receive regular salaries, their earnings potential widely varies. "It's a freelance profession, so it depends on how much you work," says Krugman. "For a corporate client, you could charge up to $1250 per day." Based on earnings in similar fitness and wellness training fields, sleep consultants can earn between $25,000 and $60,000 a year.

Metaverse evangelist

As Second Life and other virtual worlds, called metaverses, have grown in popularity, they've transformed from a gaming novelty into a communications boon for job-hunters as well as corporate leaders. Ian Hughes, an IT specialist at IBM Hursley in Hampshire County, England, has taken on a new title -- metaverse evangelist -- to advise how these virtual worlds can benefit individuals and companies. Hughes also joined a team of specialists at IBM to develop a metaverse on the company's intranet so that employees could have a more private place to discuss their work.

While technically, Hughes, along with his colleagues, works a standard forty-hour week, as an evangelist, he continuously promotes the technology, which means plenty of hours spent in Second Life. But for the metaverse enthusiast, that's definitely a perk, along with "freedom to operate and explore," says Hughes.

Regarding salary, Hughes only comments, "Probably not as much as you would think," though the standard salary range of $60,000 to $80,000 for a computer developer is far from shabby.

Interaction designer

Interaction designers work at all stages of product development to design innovative and user-friendly products. In addition to wearing the traditional hat of a designer, they work with executives to define goals for products and systems in development. They also investigate how people actually engage with new products and systems by creating "personas," hypothetical users with constructed life stories, to predict their reactions.

Although many interaction designers have advanced degrees in design, such a background isn't a prerequisite, says David Fore, head of consulting services at Cooper, a pioneering interaction design firm. Fore previously worked as a reporter for industry publications -- valuable experience, given that interaction designers' research requires "the skills of a reporter and an anthropologist," according to him.