dream of traveling off the beaten career path, there are many special—and specialized—jobs that may ignite a creative spark. Con- sider these unique options: Mystery shopper. Mystery shoppers are hired to pose as everyday people in order to assess the quality of the company or service they are examining. Mystery shoppers attend events, shop in stores, ask questions, file complaints and talk with employees, all under the guise of being a regular, everyday person—then report back with an evaluation of their experience. Foley artist. On a film crew, the foley artist is the person who creates many of the natural, everyday sound effects—most of which are added during postpro- duction to dialogue and realeffects that were picked up by the microphones on set. Many foley artists take pride in devising their own sound effects, often using simple, commonly found materials. e Fingerprint examiner. In addition to recovering latent fingerprints from evidence and asso- ciated debris (think “CSI”), these specialists examine, identify and evaluate latent fingerprint evi- dence utilizing physical, chemical, microscopic, photographic, computer database, comparative and classification techniques. Ice cream taster. The person who lands this dream job ends up providing the final word on what new ice cream flavors are scooped up in the freezer aisle each year. For example, John Harrison, the “Official Taster” for Dreyer’s/Edy’s Grand Ice Cream, has dipped his golden spoon into more than 200 million gallons of America’s favorite frozen snack during his sweet career. As an ice cream taster, John Harrison gets to sample plenty of America’s favorite snack. Harrison, who works to make sure the company’s ice cream meets the highest quality standard, is also credited with the cool creation of Cookies ’N Cream. It’s one of the most popular ice cream flavors he has developed sofar. In 1997, Harrison received the Master Taster of the Year award from the American Tasting Institute. Today, his taste buds are considered such a cool asset that they are insured for $1 million. Harrison does admit, however, that there are some drawbacks to the job. Similar to wine tasting, he rarely swallows the ice cream—he takes a cool spoonful, swirls it around his mouth, cover- ing all taste buds, smackshislips to aerate the product, brings the aroma back through his nose, then unceremoniously spits it out. To learn Harrison’s tasting technique andfind out more about the coolest job in the world, visit www.icecream.com.
