Halloween is the spookiest day of the year for many of us–but ghosts and witches aren’t any creepier than the things some professionals deal with at work on a daily basis.
“Some jobs require you to overcome a phobia to succeed,” said CareerCast.com's publisher, Tony Lee, in a press release. “If you are unable to overcome a fear of heights, confined spaces or the dark, [for example], the job of a miner or transmission tower worker is not for you.”
If dead animals give you the heebie-jeebies and blood makes you queasy, you might want to avoid these professions. Here are the 13 spookiest jobs:
Blood Technician (Hemodialysis Technician)
Like to dabble in blood? Try your hand as a hemodialysis technician. Have an eerie obsession for human anatomy? Roll up your sleeves for this job. You’ll help a variety of souls by working closely with their blood. The squeamish need not apply.
Coroner
Examining the dead for a living might seem like an oxymoron--but that’s what coroners do. Determining cause of death is a typical job duty.
Butcher
If you go mad over slicing and dicing anything in sight, then you might want to arm yourself with a sharp knife and take on the role of a meat cutter. These employees chop up the meat of dead animals for your dining pleasure. (Note: they personally don’t harm any living animals.)
Herpetologist
Hate snakes and other scaly, cold-blooded animals? You’ll probably want to avoid a career in herpetology, which is the study of reptiles and amphibians.
Night Walker (Nocturnist)
Do you get the chills thinking of someone who walks the halls of hospitals at all hours of the night? You shouldn’t. Nocturnists work the graveyard shift at hospitals to help people in pain.
Miner
Miners spend long hours confined to small spaces and working in darkness. It’s a dangerous job that taps into numerous common fears.
Mortician
This creepy career deals with death from dawn to dusk. Morticians are often charged with planning all facets of a funeral with no mayhem. (Embalmer--one of the oldest-known professions--is another spooky job. Embalming entails preserving human remains and getting bodies ready for interment, based on legal requirements.)
Arachnologist and Entomologist
Spider webs are one of the ubiquitous signs of the Halloween season for a reason: Spiders spook people. But they don’t scare arachnologists--whose job is to study these eight-legged creatures. Along with entomologists, who study insects, this is a field of zoology sure to make the hair on many people’s necks stand on end.
Entomologist is also a job for those who love the creepy and the crawly. This career works closely with scorpions, tarantulas, centipedes, roaches and even maggots, among other creatures.
Shark Feeder (Aquarist)
If hungry sharks or other creatures under the sea make you scream, don’t dive into this career. Aquarists are known for feeding and caring for marine animals. Watch those fingers and toes.
Transmission Tower Worker
Don’t look down. People spooked by heights would not enjoy working at the altitude transmission tower workers must when operating on equipment for power lines and cellular towers.
Cement Mixer (Construction Manager)
Are you dying to know what’s really behind that cement wall? Don’t anger one of these employees. They have the skill set to build cement walls around you while you’re still alive. Screaming won’t help.
Forensic Scientist Technician
Sometimes called crime scene investigators, forensic scientist technicians collect and analyze physical evidence. The work is often gruesome, especially at accident scenes.
Taxidermist
Think it’s eerie to bring the dead back to life? While that’s not exactly what taxidermists do, they do get great pleasure by mounting or reproducing dead animals for display.
Source: Forbes.com
