Then there are those other jobs, the jobs that make you say, “Wow, that is so cool. I wish I had that job.”

These are the Dream Jobs.

Take Rodrigo Ribeiro, of West Hollywood and Palm Springs, California. This 34-year-old airline pilot for Jet Blue knows he has one of these occupations.

“It’s a dream job because you get to see the world,” he told LifeZette. “And you get to do the most fun thing imaginable at work. Fly.”

Being a pilot is “a dream job because you get to see the world,” Ribeiro told LifeZette.

Or take Nabile Laloua, of Santa Monica, California, a professional inventor with nearly 200 inventions to his credit, mostly sports related. He can’t imagine a better occupation.

“My job is to think, to use a pen and paper to create magic, and then to make that magic into reality,” he told LifeZette. “I am able to do whatever I want, whenever I want.”  

These two professions are among the 10 great dream jobs we describe here. What do they have in common? In a word: fun. As historian Arnold Toynbee once said, “The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.”

Inventor
You can’t apply for this job. It’s a matter of coming up with a great idea whose time has come and then finding a smart way to fund and market it. If it’s really good, investors may even come to you (if it’s patented, that is). Remember the phrase, “Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door”? Ralph Waldo Emerson didn’t actually say that, but the misquote has been taken literally, apparently: The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has so far issued 4,400 patents for mousetraps.

Last year there were 2.6 million guitars sold in the U.S., while only a handful of those players emerged as “stars.”

Rock Star
What kid has not picked up a guitar with dreams of fame and fortune in his (or her) eyes? And forget the money (though it’s pretty good; Bon Jovi makes $3 million per city on a tour, for example). Rock stars get to play music, dance on stage, date good-looking women and tear up their hotel rooms. But the odds are rough, and the numbers tell the tale. According to Music Trades Magazine, last year there were 2.6 million guitars sold in the U.S., while only a handful of those players emerged as “stars.”

Food Critic
You get to go to restaurants, order anything you want from the menu, and your publication pays for the meal. More often than not, you’ll want to bring friends so you can order more dishes and not reveal yourself as a gourmand. Then you get to be catty with a write-up, alternately skewering or slathering with praise the vittles you just consumed. 

Study after study shows that spending time outdoors reduces blood pressure, elevates good hormones and makes us feel happier. The annual median pay of $59,000 isn’t too bad, either.

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Park Ranger
For fans of the TV show “Parks & Recreation,” few scenes are better than the closing episode when Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) gives Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) his ultimate fantasy job: park ranger. Ron, ennobled by his task of protecting Mother Nature, blissfully paddles away into the wilderness. No wonder! Study after study shows that spending time outdoors reduces blood pressure, elevates good hormones and makes us feel happier. The annual median pay of $59,000 isn’t too bad, either.

Related: No Walk in the Park

Chocolatier
As you’d expect, this job involves making everything chocolate, from cakes and cookies to pastries and candies, dipping them, decorating them and molding them into delicious works of art. The downside is that most of the top schools for this are in France or Canada, where a good chocolatier can set up shop and do well. Here, you have to work in a large restaurant, hotel, or on a cruise ship.

Airline Pilot
OK, gone are the days when an international commercial airline pilot pulled down $300,000 a year and flew his wide-body jet a couple of times a month. It’s more like half that, though you’ll make $200,000-plus if you fly for UPS or FedEx. And by law, you can’t fly more than 20 hours a week on average, so there is some time to enjoy the places you go. You won’t earn as much if you’re a bush pilot or flying a cargo prop in the Caribbean, but it might be more adventurous.

Video Game Tester
About the only thing more self-indulgently childish and fun than a video game tester is a toy tester, but that’s so 20th century. We’re not talking about a video game designer, mind you. That takes way too much coding. We’re talking about the job of playing the games, working out the quirks, seeing which scenarios are the most entertaining. The down side is the salary, which usually starts at close to minimum wage and tops out at around $55,000. Still, it beats flipping burgers.

Related: Video Games Get Social

Marine Biologist
Yes, sometimes it means taking algae samples on a cold morning in the waters outside a nuclear power plant. Other times, it means swimming with the dolphins, checking out a coral reef, or frolicking in the deep sea to check on a humpbacked whale. Salaries are also good — the average is about $77,000 a year — but you do need a degree in biology, chemistry, or natural resources management.

Archeologist
Imagine uncovering a hidden chamber in a Mayan pyramid in Guatemala. Or discovering the remains of a buried city on a Greek island. Or digging up the jewel-encrusted tomb of an Egyptian pharaoh. Maybe you won’t run into quite the same adventures as Indiana Jones, but then you’ll probably be thankful for that. You will, however, enter worlds of ancient mystery, and uncover artifacts from a different world.

Race Car Driver
“I feel the need for speed,” blurted Will Farrell as race car driver Ricky Bobby in the movie “Talladega Nights.” And don’t we all. The profession of race car driver is sexy, glamorous, and beats the pay scale of any other drivers — like those at the helm of a bus or UPS truck. Full-time NASCAR drivers earn from $1 million to $20 million a year from salary, winnings and endorsements. Plus they get to spray champagne over each other when they win.

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