Top 10 Secluded Jobs
If you like to be alone, then these careers are exactly what you need. Join http://www.WatchMojo.com as we count down our picks for the Top 10 Secluded Jobs!
For this list, we've ranked the jobs and professions that demand the most isolation.
Special thanks to our user WordToTheWes for submitting the idea using our interactive suggestion tool at http://www.WatchMojo.comsuggest
#10: Writer / Novelist
It can prove difficult to strike a work/life balance as a writer, with many authors rarely seen away from their desks. While the rest of us are busy hustling and bustling ourselves through everyday routines, the writers are busy writing about our mannerisms. Typically surrounded by scrunched up bits of paper, used notebooks, and over-used coffee mugs, writers do occasionally venture outside of their front door, but often only for research reasons. The call of the keyboard is just too tempting to ignore.
#9: Long-Distance Runner
Anyone who’s really serious about his or her running inevitably spends vast amounts of time with no one but him or herself for company. You don’t get to be the best by sauntering along with your buddies in the slow lane, so you’re forced to ditch your friends for training, racing, even eating if you’re really dedicated. And even when there are people around, cheering you on from the sidelines, it’s still solely down to you and your mental toughness. The runner’s ‘wall’ wasn’t built for two.
#8: Nature Documentarian / Landscape Photographer
There are few places on planet Earth still untouched by human exploration, but the best documentary makers and photographers are headed to those exact areas. And even when they’re not at especially far-flung corners of the world, they are working in locations where human beings are rare. Sure, there’s sometimes a small crew, but there’s no one else in the surrounding wilderness, which can sometimes stretch for hundreds of miles. The isolation is worth it, though, if it means getting certain animals on film.
#7: Night Watchman
A night shift taken anywhere doesn’t usually boast the most social of workplace atmospheres, but there are some that seem particularly lonely. The museum is undoubtedly an interesting place to work, but once the lights are out the stuffed animals and statuettes can get a little creepy. The solitude is even greater, though, if you’re afterhours down a mineshaft. Those places are claustrophobic at the best of times, let alone when you’re on your own with just a hard hat and a reading light.
#6: Fire Lookout
A hugely important role, but hugely isolated as well, lookout posts for wild fires are scattered all over the world. In desert regions, heavy forest and generally inhospitable spots, people are employed to survey large areas of land, searching for signs of danger. But even with binoculars, there’s rarely sign of human life on the horizon. The existence is a little comparable to that of a Park Ranger, particularly in close season (when fishing and game hunting is forbidden). Both jobs bring you closer to nature, but cut you adrift from ordinary society.
#5: Prospector
We all know that the Earth is abundant in resources, minerals, and gemstones, but not many of us know exactly how to find anything of value beneath the ground. That’s where a geological prospector comes in, painstakingly searching for miles with the hope of landing on a literal goldmine. Before all the heavy machinery and efficient technology, there’s a person armed only with a metal detector, a pickaxe, and durable clothing designed for long treks. So spare a thought for the prospector next time you’re shopping for something sparkly.
#4: Truck Driver
We’re not talking about the ice-cream truck here. We’re talking truckers that are in for the long haul. Long distance driving is one of the loneliest jobs on the planet, especially if the driver is navigating along sparsely populated roads. Sometimes all you see is the inside of your cabin and unchanged scenery for hundreds of miles, and there’s always the risk of breaking down in the middle of nowhere. In the movies, truckers are often questionable characters. What’s not questionable, though, is how secluded their lives are.
#3: Outpost Researcher
Often deeply immersed in their work, scientists lead fairly removed lives even under normal circumstances. However, some researchers work in almost complete isolation in some of the most inaccessible regions of the planet. Remote laboratories are set up as workplaces for men and women intent on investigating the unknown, especially with regard to climate change. A secluded job especially synonymous with arctic regions, you have to be clever to take it, but you have to tolerate cold weather as well.
#2: Lighthouse Keeper
There are increasingly fewer lighthouse keepers working in the modern world, with technology taking over their duties. But for those that still man the maritime stations, life can be very lonely. Canada currently has around 35-staffed buildings in British Columbia, and Italy, as of 2011, has 62. The UK automated its last lighthouse in 1998, while the only keepers still working in the USA are volunteers. However, the US has recognized the importance of the job – a fleet of 14 ships built between 1996 and 2000 were named after famous lighthouse keepers.
Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
Oil Rigger
Archivist / Librarian
Train Conductor
#1: Astronaut
Appropriately positioned at the end of our countdown, no job’s more secluded than an astronaut’s. At least every other occupation takes place on the same planet as everybody else. If you’re an astronaut, then you’ve a choice of two views: in one direction there’s the curvature of a globe on which everything you’ve ever known exists, and in the other there’s endless black. Both views are enough to blow an everyday person’s mind. There’s no doubting that astronauts are awesome, but there’s surely no job more inherently isolating.
Do you agree with our list? Which secluded job did we skip? For more insular top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.
