Ever wonder how pet food companies know their turkey and cranberry dinner for cats truly tastes like a turkey and cranberry dinner? Do you know what the professions of setting up oilrigs or making artificial eyes are called? Below, find out about these and other odd occupations you may not be familiar with.

Pet Food Tester
How do pet food companies know what their products taste like and if dogs and cats will like them? They hire food technologists who specialize in pet foods. Generally, food technologists taste foods to develop consistent flavors, create new product concepts and check for food quality. The same goes for pet foods.

"Dogs enjoy all food universally, while cats can be very choosy about what they will eat," Simon Allison, senior pet food technologist for Marks & Spencer, told the UK Daily Mail last year. "They respond more to aroma than seasoning flavours that you would recognise."

Pet food testers also gauge food texture and look for materials that may not be pleasing to pet owners, such as tripe. "The more we can make the pet food like the owner's food, the more comfortable we think customers will be serving it," Allison explained.

Food technologists also address pet food safety and quality, and they ensure that foodstuffs follow evolving pet food regulations, to help prevent incidents like the Chinese pet food debacle.

Carnival Barker (aka Carny)
If you like travel and don't mind hard work and long hours, a carnival barker — or carny — may be the job for you. There are approximately 350 carnivals that tour the U.S. every year, and an estimated 350 million people visit them. All of them need ride operators, entertainers, games facilitators and more. According to Simply Hired, carnival workers earn an average $26,000 annually.

Light Bender
Bars, diners, even Las Vegas would not be the same without bright neon signs. From ordinary "open" signs to fantastic designs like the balloon at the Paris Las Vegas, neon lights don't bend themselves into shapes on their own. That's where light benders step in.

Light benders require precision and electrical know-how to shape and light glass neon tubes. Using flames that burn at 3,000°F, light benders heat the glass and bend it by hand into the desired shape. Moisture is sucked out of the tube and replaced by neon and mercury, which are activated by an electrical charge. Different gases, such as argon, are used to make different colors. Light benders earn an average annual salary of $26,000.

Smokejumpers
Smokejumpers are the brave men and women who combat wild fires in rough environments such as mountainous terrains. Smokejumpers are required to have a high level of physical fitness, mental stability, and extensive safety and technical training. The average income for these firefighters is $40,000. (Go HERE for a brief history on smokejumping.)

Snake Milker
There are more than 2,900 species of snakes worldwide, 600 of which are known to be venomous. There are three types of venom: neurotoxic, hemotoxic and myotoxic. People who are bitten by poisonous snakes only have a small window of time for receiving the antivenins (anti-venom), or the bite could prove fatal.

To develop the antivenin, snake milkers obtain venom from live snakes by forcing the snake to bite a membrane that is stretched over a glass receptacle that collects the venom. Another method is via electric stimulation. Once the venom is collected, it is injected in mammals such as horses, whose immune system responds by creating antibodies. These are then freeze-dried or preserved via cold chain storage. Some snake venoms can fetch up to $2,000 per gram.

Oil Patch Roughneck
Perhaps not all that strange of an occupation, but the lowest on the oilrig totem pole is the oil patch roughneck. Tasked with connecting pipes and fixing rigs, the job is dirty, loud and requires long hours. Roughnecks can make approximately $47,000 annually, and room and board is often included.

Ocularist
Rob Spence, a filmmaker trying to implant a video-recording prosthetic eye (fourth item), would not get very far in his project without an ocularist. Ocularists are technicians who fit, shape and paint custom ocular prostheses. They also instruct the patient on how to handle and care for their prosthetic eyes, as well as conduct periodic examinations on the artificial eye. Prosthetic eyes cost from $1,000 to $2,800.

Foley Artist
In contrast to the sound of exploding buildings or spacecrafts whizzing through space, foley sounds are natural, everyday sound effects like footsteps or the rustling of clothes that Foley artists create. Using many different shoes and props, the Foley artist either replaces the original sound or augments existing sounds to create a richer sound track.

According to the Art of Foley, creating footsteps is one of the most important and most difficult sounds to produce. Foley artists must match the sync of the steps, the surface on which the actor is walking and the feeling the footsteps must convey.

Most of these professions are less than ideal for people looking for a career based solely on salary. But if toiling away in a cubicle is the very last way you'd want to make a living, maybe one of these jobs is for you.

Resources

Pedigrees' Chum. Meet the Man from M&S Who Tests Your Pets' Ready Meals
The Daily Mail, Feb. 15, 2008

Most Venomous Snakes in the World
by Reshma Jirage
Buzzle.com, June 25, 2008

Snake Milking
Everything2, June 5, 2003

Snake Antivenom
by C.M.Shorter
TigerHomes.org

Outdoor Amusement Business Association

Carnival Workers Salaries
Simply Hired, March 23, 2009

37 Weird Jobs That You Can Actually Make a Living At
Job Profiles, March 12, 2007

On the Job Training: Chuck Lights Up While Making Neon Signs
by Chuck Yarborough
Wednesday August 20, 2008

Light Bender Salaries
Simply Hired, March 23, 2009

Nine Extremely Odd Jobs
by Brie Cadman
Divine Caroline, Aug. 12, 2008

American Society of Ocularists