America's Scariest Jobs 2010

Jobs today can be stressful,low paying, monotonous or downright unsatisfying,but most people would prefer those situations to a job that scares them.

Certain careers can be scary for many reasons and touch upon a variety of phobias, from the fear of death to the fear of performing in front of large crowds. Although these careers may not be scary to the people who do them on a daily basis, the general public certainly would not feel the same way.

To get a sense of the jobs that push the limit for fright, CareerCast.com,a national job portal, identified the 10 scariest jobs of 2010. The list was produced by comparing phobia rankings associated with each job to see which ones would strike the most fear into the hearts of workers.

Click ahead for the scariest jobs of 2010.

By Paul Toscano
Posted 21 Oct 2010

Although normally considered an entertaining and hilarious profession, one of the biggest hurdles to becoming a comedian is the fear involved with getting up on stage. Almost every stand-up comedy workshop teaches students how to deal with their fears of being unsuccessful, being unknown or performing in front of a large and potentially critical crowd.

Most successful comedians manage to conquer their fears - or never have any fear to begin with - and confidence is basically required if you were to make comedy your profession. However, if you have Geliophobia (fear of laughter), Gelotophobia (fear of being laughed at) or Kakorrhaphiophobia (fear of failure) you may be overcome with fear even before the first punch line.

More on the “creepy” side of scary, Cryonics deals with the low-temperature preservation of humans and animals with the hope that yet-to-be-developed technology will be able to resuscitate them at some point in the future. First proposed in 1962, about 200 people have undergone the procedure, which in the U.S. can only be performed on humans after they have been pronounced legally dead.

Cryonics technicians are responsible for handling the bodies of individuals who have been frozen or carrying out the Cryonics procedures on a newly deceased individual. Technicians, usually employed by non-profits or other foundations, also research the prospects of reanimation, conduct family casework and educate the public on Cryonics.

If you have Necrophobia (fear of death or dead things), Pagophobia (fear of ice or frost) or Cryophobia (fear of extreme cold), this job would certainly chill you to the core.

Being a pilot is already one of the deadliest jobs out there, but bush pilots have chosen one of the most dangerous ways to fly. Bush flying requires landing in remote, inhospitable regions of the world, often where runways or landing strips do not exist. Generally, bush pilots fly over the Canadian or Alaskan tundra, the Australian Outback or portions of Africa, using planes that are specially designed for landing in dense undergrowth or on water.

There are numerous reasons why someone would be scared of being a bush pilot. The fear of flying and fear of heights (Aviophobia and Acrophobia) could easily scare people away from this job, but also the idea of flying in remote areas with little help of rescue if something goes wrong.

Some people may not think of this as an viable job, but there are people out there who make a good living as a pharmaceutical trial subject, although some of these subjects refer to the experience as making them a “human lab rat.”

The job involves being subjected to research studies of pharmaceutical products and procedures that have yet to be approved by the FDA or other regulatory agencies. For those who listen astutely to drug commercials on TV, generally the side effects listed during the commercial have been experienced by a pharmaceutical trial subject. Experiencing severe side effects is always a possibility, and the prospect of these unknown effects, or even death, is enough to scare anyone.

For all the risk (and fear) involved, long-term medical trials can pay in the range of $100-$300 per day and websites such as GPGPhave popped up to list available trials. If you have Trypanophobia (fear of needles) you may want to think twice about trying out this job.

Crime and Trauma Scene Decontamination technicians are faced with cleaning up potentially bio-hazardous situations, violent crime scenes or fatal accidents.

Often dealing with the aftermath of a tragic situation or potentially hazardous materials, there are a range of reasons why someone would be scared of this job. Many CTS Decon services are called in to clean up the scene of a suicide or accidental death, which would conjure up a range of fears and uneasiness for most people.

Epidemiology is the study of disease in populations with the intent to understand, cure, and prevent infectious disease as they occur. Field Epidemiology, the application of epidemiological methods in non-clinical settings, is generally more risky than working in a traditional medical setting.

Often putting themselves in close proximity to communicable and little understood diseases, doctors working as field epidemiologists certainly put themselves at risk, which would scare anyone with Mysophobia (fear of germs, contamination or dirt) or Nosophobia (fear of contracting a disease).

Although scary for some, the work of field epidemiologists directly serves the greater good, working to build data on diseases in order to treat the cause and prevent outbreaks, which can happen both in urban areas and in poverty-stricken countries.

Bomb squad technicians are tasked with controlling hazardous explosive devices - often in populated areas - and rendering them safe. Since even a small error could prove fatal and the job itself places workers in immediate danger, it’s no wonder that bomb squad technicians are among the scariest jobs in America.

The profession was given center stage in the 2009 film "The Hurt Locker", but bomb squad technicians are not only confined to conflict zones. The LAPD, which employs 28 full-time bomb technicians on call 24 hours per day, responds to about 1,000 service calls each year, using special tools such as bomb suits, x-ray devices and bomb blankets. According to their website, approximately 22% of the calls they handle are live explosive devices, a scary prospect for even the most highly trained technicians.

The closest major phobias are Nucleomitiphobia (fear of nuclear bombs) and Thanatophobia (fear of dying), although you would also expect most people to have a general fear of explosions.

The job of Broadcast Tower Technician is far scarier than other high-flying jobs such as sky scraper window washers. Recently, when a video of a technician free climbing the top portion of a 1763 foot broadcast tower (30 feet taller than the Willis Tower, formerly the Sears Tower) went viral online, many people got a taste of just how scary this job can be.

Broadcast towers, the tallest of which is the KVLY-TV tower in North Dakota at 2,063 feet, require manual maintenance, and technicians must physically climb to the top of the tower. Often, the only safety mechanism is a harness that can be connected to the tower’s structure only when the technician is not ascending or descending.

The main phobias associated with this job are Acrophobia (fear of heights) and Astraphobia (fear of thunder and lightning), which are real fears for Broadcast Tower Technicians.

Miners are tasked with extracting ore or minerals from the earth, which requires work in an often dangerous subterranean environment.

With the recent rescue of 33 Chilean miners and several highly publicized fatal mine collapses and explosions, it’s no mystery why miners have a scary job. The use of underground explosives, heavy machinery and the prospect of poor ventilation in some mines give potential workers numerous reasons to fear.

Claustrophobia (the fear of small spaces), Achluophobia (fear of darkness) and Mysophobia (fear of germs or dirt) are all fears associated with the mining profession.

Forensic entomology uses the study of insect and arthropod biology to criminal investigations, from death investigations to detecting drugs and poisons. Forensic entomologists can also be called in for “urban entomology,” where pest infestations are the basis of litigation, or the scale of pesticide treatments can be understood.

“It’s no surprise that Forensic Entomologist came out on top,” says Tony Lee, publisher, CareerCast.com. “Forensic Entomologists carve up cadavers in search of crime scene clues, but with a unique twist – their specialty is not the bodies themselves, but the insects living inside the bodies. Forensic Entomologists can determine the time or place a crime occurred based on the type of beetles, flies or maggots living inside the victim.”

Phobias include Necrophobia (fear of dead bodies), Entomophobia (fear of insects) and Hemophobia (fear of blood). Forensic entomologists get the top spot as scariest job, not for the danger associated with the profession, but for the intense, creepy-crawly nature of the work that would surely scare off most people.