Ten great jobs for men

Fancy being a spy or eating curry for a living? Welcome to our rundown of dream jobs for men.
If you were the kind of little boy who would hide under the table to overhear a private parental conversation, or Sellotape a cassette recorder to the underside of your big sister’s bed when her boyfriend was over to collect bribery material for later, you’re in luck.
GCHQ are looking for spies!
The other day the foreign minister, William Hague, launched a new scheme to attract budding James Bonds to Britain’s intelligence service. There are even plans to employ part-time civilian staff, mostly to combat the growing threat from computer hacking.
So if you want to be a spy, get applying. And if not, which of these dream jobs for men would you prefer instead?
Professional curry taster
Yep, such a ‘job’ really does exist, or at least it will soon. Curry makers Pataks have launched a nationwide hunt for Britain’s biggest curry lover, who will become the company’s official curry taster.
The lucky winner will attend Patak’s innovation kitchen to sample proposed new products and give feedback to the company. They will also be sent samples of curry to try at home.
The one catch is that you can’t give up your old job. No salary comes with being Patak’s Official Curry Taster 2012, just loads of poppadoms, kormas, bhunas and bhajis.
Caretaker
Being a caretaker isn't many people’s idea of a dream job, unless you’re taking care of a paradise island off Australia's east coast for a year.
That’s the job Ben Southall of Petersfield got in 2009, beating nearly 35,000 applicants from around the world. His duties? Swim, explore and relax on Hamilton Island on the Great Barrier Reef - oh, and write a blog to promote the area in his free time.
Waterslide tester
Yes, there are people whose sole task is to test holiday park water slides, and they even get paid for the privilege.
A few years ago the newspapers reported that Tommy Lynch of holiday company First Choice was one such employee. Lynch travelled the globe testing the height, speed, water quantity and landing of water flumes, to make sure they were all up to scratch. There was a serious element to the job too, because Lynch also had to check the slides were safe, but he was honest enough to admit that he did indeed have the “best job in the world”.
Games testers
Video games tester sounds like a fantasy job for the nerdy but it’s actually quite commonplace in the huge and growing games industry. As the name suggests, testers play new video games - a lot - and report any bugs or playability problems they come across. Testers might be hired to work on one game until its release or employed by a software company to work on several games at the same time.
Oh, and this dream position is also paid.
Condom tester
Durex Australia recently advertised for 200 condom testers. Like curry testing, there’s no salary involved but every successful applicant receives a wide selection of Durex products.
And their job is to lie back and think of England (or Australia). Or to put it another way, to try out the condoms and give feedback on their performance. The best tester is also in line for a A$1,000 bonus.
Pilot
Research by search engine Bing earlier this year found that most British people’s idea of a dream job is....drum roll....pilot.
OK, planes might be nothing more than buses in the sky but pilots earn upwards of £70,000 a year to travel the world and stay in glamorous locations. It’s not nine-to-five, and it’s not too shabby either.
Top Gear presenter
Another recent survey of nearly 2,000 British men and their dream jobs found that most of them wanted to be a Top Gear presenter. That’s hardly a practical or useful result, however: only three men in the entire world hold a similar position, so your odds of joining them aren’t great.
But you could become an automotive test driver, testing new cars as they roll off production lines. Unfortunately you can’t study for a qualification in test driving, but a degree in something relevant - like mechanical engineering - along with an in depth knowledge of what goes on under the bonnet, will help.
Brewer
Being a brewer isn't easy. Making good beer is an art, but one that can also get a bit dirty and smelly. Then there’s the competitive element. Thinking up new brews and staying one step ahead of the competition can pile on the pressure.
But then your current job is probably a bit like that too, with one obvious difference being that your boss doesn't insist you taste beer all day.
Taste tester
If beer isn't your thing, you could become a professional food tester. And there may well be a position going, because according to reports the bloke who tested sweet treats for the likes of Mars and Nestle retired just a couple of months ago.
Angus Kennedy would sometimes have to chomp through the equivalent of 20 bars of Dairy Milk, or 25 Creme Eggs, in one working day. He would also be asked to taste as-yet-unmarketed treats, which could mean anything from chocolate covered ants to aphrodisiac lollipops. There’s one obvious downside to this sweet, sweet life, however. Kennedy retired because he had unfortunately piled on the wrong kind of pounds and his cholesterol levels had rocketed.
Charity worker
Dream jobs aren’t just about food, fast cars and other versions of the fun life, mind. According to the Bing research mentioned earlier, the second most fancied job of all is charity work. Which is great. Many of us may consider a dream job to be a job which consists of as little actual work as possible, but plenty of others want to get out there and help those less fortunate than themselves.
And the great thing is that this is one dream job that, unlike curry tester or Top Gear presenter, we’ve all got a chance of getting.
So there you have it, 10 dream jobs for men that range from the ridiculous to the realistic. Of course, everyone’s different, and your dream job might be something else entirely