We all know the old line: “If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.” A lovely sentiment—though anyone whose job requires a pep talk just to graduate from the fetal position to the office chair might find it a touch aspirational. For most of us, the idea of getting paid to do something we’d gladly pay for feels like the stuff of fairytales. It’s easy to romanticize these dream gigs as all delight and no drudgery—but even the coolest careers come with their share of unglamorous tasks. Still, some nine-to-fives really are unfairly fabulous. Meet a handful of locals whose day jobs might make you reconsider your career choices.
Hannah Comstock
Animal care supervisor of primates, Hogle Zoo
The Gig
Hannah’s lifelong obsession with animals now takes the shape of fussing over Hogle Zoo’s Great Apes and monkeys with the same care as a doting mother, especially with the birth of Bornean Orangutan, Weila, last June. When Weila’s mother wouldn’t nurture or nurse, Hannah’s team was charged with round-the-clock hand-rearing until the newborn could be fostered by another orangutan. That meant midnight bottle feedings in a furry vest and properly mimicking certain maternal behaviors learned through extensive training.
A Day in the Life
Hannah’s most important job is socializing and building trust with the animals, so she never passes up a chance to chat with her beloved friends. Because primates are complex and intelligent, they need constant stimulation and enrichment—keeping Hannah and her team on their toes. “They are always watching, they know everything that’s going on in the building, and they love a challenge.”
Best Part of the Job
“The first time an orangutan looks you in the eyes takes your breath away,” she says. “Being able to work with them every day is an honor, and something I am constantly aware of.” Hannah says she recognizes that not everyone gets to watch a baby ape grow up or have a spider monkey run over to say “Hi” when you call his name.
Reality Check
Keeping the primate enclosures in top condition may be a less exciting part of the job, but Hannah welcomes the normalcy after a year of newborn care. “It has been such a wild experience and a whirlwind of emotions,” she says. “Excitement to be holding a baby orangutan, nervousness to give it a bottle, sadness it wasn’t her mother feeding her, guilt at wanting to have time to myself, fear I was doing it wrong.” Hannah also says she’s heartbroken at the critical endangerment of these animals in the wild, calling the Great Apes at Hogle Zoo ‘ambassadors’ for their species. “If a guest walks away loving the primates and wanting to see them thrive, then I’ve had a good day.”
Mimi Davis-Taylor
Film Scout
The gig
Exploring and photographing Utah’s diverse and vast landscape, Mimi hunts down unique locations in every neighborhood and on every city block. From spooky historic homes in the Avenues (with plenty of dark corners for supernatural visitors) to sandstone hoodoos in the Red Rock country (pictureperfect for Mars landings), she promises to find the perfect location for a film director’s every need.
A day in the life
“I learn the script backwards and forwards so I can capture what a director envisions for each scene,” says Mimi. “Then I begin the hunt.” An opening scene in New York City? Mimi’s photos convince a director that it’s easy to morph our downtown’s Exchange Place into a busy Manhattan street. A post-apocalyptic battlefield? The endless white wasteland of the Salt Flats will likely be a homerun.
Best part of the job
“I’m not originally from here, but I’m fairly confident I know the nooks and crannies of this state better than most born-andraised Utahns,” she jokes. “I spend my days literally exploring. It’s very lifeaffirming to be out on the open road with my map on, heading to a place I’ve never been before, like Garland or Orderville.
Reality check
“Sometimes I’ll show a director 10 different location ideas for a single scene and, still, it’s just not quite right for one reason or another. I’ve learned the value of patience—it’s an absolute necessity in this line of work.”
Marque Denmon
Arena Announcer, Utah Jazz
The Gig
There are only 30 NBA PA announcers in the world—so saying Marque Denmon landed his dream gig after three decades of pure hustle is no exaggeration. His low baritone is the vocal equivalent of a thrumming bass line: warm, melodic and effortlessly easy on the ears. But that’s only half of what makes him stand out. Calling Utah Jazz games in an arena packed with 19,000 electrified fans demands more than great pipes—it requires encyclopedic knowledge of the game, lightning-fast improvisation and the ability to entertain while keeping the crowd in sync.
A Day in the Life
Joining the production team this season, Marque’s gameday prep starts with studying the opposing roster and the officiating crew, followed by a string of production meetings. “There are tons of activations—I’m part of a whole symphony—so we’ve got to work out the kinks,” he says. “I’m not a court jester yelling into a mic. I pick my moments to raise the energy. It’s showbiz with responsibility: entertaining the best fans in the league while giving our players an edge by making the Delta Center the toughest place to play.” Right before tipoff, Marque fine-tunes his million-dollar vocal cords with ginger tea, vocal warmups, tongue twisters and scales.
Best Part of the Job
“I love bringing the team out on the floor,” he says. “It’s my job to announce each player clearly—but with punch. And there’s nothing like having a front-row seat to all the big plays. I try to do my part, be the ‘secret sauce’—I want to run the pick-and-roll with the team all night long.”
Reality Check
This job was years in the making—PA announcers for the NBA tend to have long and storied careers as voice actors and announcers, so obtaining a role takes time, patience and institutional knowledge. “I took jobs in PA announcing that no one else would take, like high school ball,” Marque says. “You have to train and put in the time to be irreplaceable.”
Amy Eldredge
VP of Menu, Crumbl Cookies
The Gig
Leading the dream team behind every cookie that lands in Crumbl’s iconic pink box, Amy’s job is equal parts mad scientist, social media sleuth/trend forecaster (think the Dubai chocolate blowing up on TikTok) and dessert diplomat— ensuring every new flavor is as craveable as it is camera-ready. Brainstorming out-of-the-box recipe ideas, Amy leads a team of dessert testers in Crumbl’s secret labs.
A Day in the Life
“Most days start early, tasting between eight and 20 dessert concepts,” Amy says of working at Crumbl’s Lindon headquarters. Maintaining a weekly rotating dessert menu for nearly 1,200 locations keeps everyone on their toes, from the culinary and supply teams to operations folks, all of whom she oversees. Crumbl’s weekly “Brand Splash” dessert takes the most ingenuity—each one must be bold and Instagram-worthy. Crumbl’s biggest success? “ e Dubai Chocolate Brownie,” she says. “It went viral within hours of launch and more than doubled projections.” Biggest fail? “Probably a tie between our Everything But the Bagel Cookie and our Bubblegum Cookie,” adding, “ ere is a small cult following for the Bagel cookie, though.”
Best Part of the Job
“Seeing joy happen in real time,” says Amy. “We get to turn nostalgia, trends and imagination into something tangible—and then watch people light up over it.” When the Sunday Menu drops, Crumbl’s social media blows up as followers debate which flavor they’re most excited to try that week. “I love knowing our talented team made that moment possible.”
Reality Check
Here’s the truth: innovation is messy. “Behind every successful dessert are dozens of versions that didn’t make the cut—that we launched and failed,” Amy says, reminding us that even in the dessert lab, there are spreadsheets, data dashboards and late nights. There’s pressure to keep the lineup feeling fresh and surprising every single week. But when you finally nail a weekly line-up that makes millions of people smile—“it’s all worth it.”
Chris Reid
Stunt Performer/Coordinator
Hollywood heartthrobs like Jake Gyllenhaal, Ewan McGregor, Rob Lowe and Brad Pitt. Photo by Bryan Mccoy
The Gig
When Chris isn’t fighting, falling, being torched or hanging from a helicopter, he posts up in Eden—close enough to snowboard Powder Mountain whenever the mood hits. A former competitive gymnast, Chris says he trains in as many disciplines as possible to keep his options open. “Some stunt performers specialize in one thing, like driving or martial arts,” he says. “I consider myself a jack of all trades and I love the variety. One day I’m riding a horse, the next day I’m snowboarding and the day after that I’m falling into a pool.”
A Day in the Life
“Fitness and diet are a big part of my work,” says Chris, who eats as clean as possible and spends time every day at the gym, snowboarding, trail running or mountain biking. “I mix it up so I can be ready for anything.” And by anything—he means anything. Moving vehicles carry the highest risk—whether he’s grabbing onto a moving semi-truck or riding the skid of a helicopter. “I’m not an adrenaline junkie—more of an adrenaline hobbyist,” he insists. In other words, Hollywood’s strict safety standards suit him just fine and keep him coming back for more. A typical day on set starts with rehearsals alongside the stunt coordinator, director and specialeffects team before he’s magically transformed into a Brad Pitt or George Clooney clone. (You can spot him in Babylon, F1 or Wolfs.)
Best Part of the Job
“As a film lover, I can’t get enough of being on set,” Chris says, listing time with the actors and executing fight scenes among his favorite tasks. “Every drive home, I’ve got this ridiculous grin. I still can’t believe I get to work with such talented people and watch the impossible happen as all these moving parts come together.”
Reality Check
Working with so many different types of talent, Chris says he runs into his fair share of egos. “Everyone wants their moment in the creative process, and navigating that can get tricky,” he says. Also, stunt work is unpredictable. Chris admits the uncertainty can be exciting, but it’s also a little unnerving to live in the daily limbo of “Am I getting a call today?” And here we thought that by “uncertainty” he meant, “Will these straps actually hold when I jump o this building?” Our bad.
Suzy Eaton
Food stylist, Suzy Eaton Designs
glue into cold brew for a picture-perfect latte. Photo by Sara Bateman
The Gig
“My job is to make food do its job,” says Suzy. “Whether it has to be the life of the party on a table, look so tasty up close you can’t resist eating it, or maybe the job that day is to make a hot dog perform slow-motion acrobatics and strategically land in a bun for a movie scene, I’m ready for it.”
A Day in the Life
From commercials and films to print ads, menus and food art, Suzy has worked in just about every setting imaginable: homes, sets, tents, parking lots, hotels, casinos—even a yurt on a mountaintop. Some shoots require heavy cooking to feed an army, while others, like menu styling, require a single portion but loads of attention to the tiniest detail. You might find Suzy making fake ice cream (frosting/powdered sugar/Karo) for one shoot and pouring gallons of caramel over a 4-foot-tall stack of apples for another. “Never a dull moment,” she says with a laugh.
Best Part of the Job
“I get to have a job that lets me be creative,” says the artist-turned-stylist. “I have to have that.” With an arsenal of homemade hacks for getting food ready for its close-up, she pours cold syrup over Scotch Guard-sprayed pancakes to keep everything looking scrumptious, pushes pins through perfectly stacked sandwiches, uses Elmer’s glue to give the appearance of creamy milk and spraytorches raw Thanksgiving turkeys bathed in soy sauce for that perfectly plump ovenroasted effect. “We’ve worked on fun commercials with puppeteers and stunt drivers and one time we grilled enough brats to ll an oil tanker,” says Suzy. “We’ve built a chocolate river and traveled all over the country. Every day is an art project.”
Reality Check
“It is a messy job, always a lot to clean up,” she says. “It’s a ‘MacGyver’ job—we’re always rigging something. We have to be able to make food behave in a way that it doesn’t want to.” Overnight shoots are common, but she wouldn’t trade the work. “I’m still surprised by the fun projects and the great people I get to meet.”
Weirdest jobs out there.
(Yes. These are real jobs.)
Professional Sleeper: Gets paid to nap like it’s a superpower.
Paranormal Tour Guide: Leads crowds through the city’s darkest ghost stories.
Dark Sky Defender: Fights light pollution to protect the stars.
Professional Cuddler: Offers platonic comfort for hire.
Odor Judge: Sniffs the un-sniffable to keep products pleasant.
Professional Mourner: Brings grief and gravitas to strangers’ funerals.
Pet Food Taster: Samples kibble to ensure Fido-approved flavor.
Snake Milker: Extracts venom drop by drop for lifesaving research.
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