We’re all familiar with Craigslist, the useful online platform where you can find everything from kitchen appliances to cars and even romantic company if you’re feeling really lonely. Despite being one of the oldest buying and selling website in online history, Craigslist is pretty advanced when it comes to its job offerings.
The website is filled with examples of how people are willing to pay for the most basic of tasks that require absolutely no skill or experience. We rummaged through the website to find the strangest jobs that have ever been posted by users, so you’ll know where to turn once robots take over your current job.
Scaring A Child
Parents love their children – well, at least most of them do. The rest post ridiculous ads on craigslist, looking for volunteers to scare their kids. The job post was too weird for us to not inquire, and when we asked the user for more details, the answer was just as good as we expected.
Apparently, the user who posted the ad was a father who wanted someone to scare his 9-year-old son. The young victim was allegedly underperforming in school and his dad was out of ideas to get him to study harder. When all else failed, the dad was left with a final course of action: hiring a total stranger to scare his child.
Getaway Driver
Craigslist is a public platform that is open to all sorts of people, whether it’s simple people like you and me, or criminals who need a getaway driver to drive them to safety after doing something illegal. One such guy posted on Craigslist that he was willing to pay $40 to a person who would wait for him on a residential street with a car.
Although he assured that he wasn’t doing anything illegal, why would he pay $40 for a job that he can get for a lot less from a ride-sharing app? His reason for not using Uber was that he would need the car immediately and he couldn’t risk wasting any time – if that isn’t an obvious red flag, we don’t know what is.
Paid Dating
Umm, well this one’s a bit awkward. One female Craigslist user posted an ad looking for a guy who could go out on a date with her. While most men would be willing to date a gorgeous woman for free, this one user specifically mentioned that she would pay the guy who would agree to have dinner with her.
In order to qualify for the job, candidates were required to send in their photos along with their likes and dislikes. Whoever earned the position wouldn’t just be treated to a free meal, but also get a handsome wage for wooing the female client. The woman explained that she only needed someone to connect on an emotional level, which only highlights the loneliness crisis we’re facing in today’s digital age.
A Human Book Reader
This might sound like the most practical Craigslist post on this list, but it starts getting weirder as you get into the job description. Apparently, a user put out an ad looking for a human text-to-speech book reader – not because he was blind and couldn’t read, but actually because he just preferred listening to a book instead of reading it.
The user explained that he was studying for a big test but he didn’t want to read the textbooks. Instead, he was willing to pay $200 for a single chapter! Now that’s a LOT of money for a simple task that anyone can perform.
One Craigslist user put out an ad looking for a human text-to-speech book reader
Cleaning Dog Poo
Craigslist is a place where you can find a bargain on most gadgets and household items, but it’s also a place for lazy people to post simple jobs that they could easily do themselves. We spotted many ads on the website from dog owners who were looking for people to do one of the most disgusting jobs in the world: cleaning stinky dog poo scattered in the backyard. For a job like this, you might want to invest in a professional poop scooper because things could get messy otherwise.