5 unusual job titles in South Africa

Jobs website Adzuna says that South Africa’ top job sectors in demand are engineering, IT, and finance.

Strong demand for a limited supply of skilled professionals in IT and engineering reflects in the salaries for these roles too, with the average salaries for these jobs being three times as much as the average national salary per year.

The recruitment specialist has also noted several unusual posts that  lie outside of the norm when it comes to job types.

Adzuna rounded up some of the weirdest South African job titles currently on offer, “which might just be what you’ve been looking for all along as an alternative job seeker”.

Here’s a look at 5 of the most unusual jobs on offer in South Africa right now:

Guillotine Operator

Although it might sound like it, this job has nothing to do with beheadings, although there is some slicing involved in the role.

But, instead of chopping off heads, guillotine operators slice their way through materials like paper and metal sheets, Adzuna said.

The average machine operator salary is around R12,000 per month.

Phlebotomist

This title might sound very foreign to you, and it’s probably because it’s a very specialized job.

Working as a phlebotomist means you’re employed in the medical field and your daily tasks include drawing blood from patients for clinical or medical testing, research, transfusions and more, Adzuna said.

An experienced phlebotomist can expect to earn a salary of around R15,000 per month.

Excellence Consultant

Today’s customers demand the highest standard of quality and won’t settle for products and services that are merely “good enough”, and that’s where excellence consultants come in, Adzuna said.

“These professionals work hard at maintaining the best kind of customer service and can be seen as the quality police of the industry, ensuring companies adhere to the gold standards of service delivery.”

Data Wrangler

We live in a digital world where big data is big news. Data wranglers are responsible for ensuring business managers understand the ins and outs of their data, Adzuna said.

“After a wrangler organises a company’s data into a spreadsheet (that’s understandable on a human level), the business has all the tools it needs to make smart decisions that’ll help them gain a competitive advantage.

“Perhaps these guys are better known as data scientists for now, but the name makes even the most draining job sound super exciting,” the jobs firm said.

Salaries for data specialists vary greatly, between R13,000 and R35,000 per month.

Brand Evangelist

Brand evangelists are also known as marketing brand managers, Adzuna pointed out.

“These guys believe in a product or service so fervently that they aggressively promote it to others.

“Think about it this way: customers buy things a and brand evangelists are the preachers that give prospective customers an in-depth review of products they bought, telling buyers exactly why they need to invest in the product or service too.”

Most of us know these men and women and brand ambassadors, but adding the term “evangelist” to the title just makes it sound a little more extraordinary, Adzuna said.

The average salary for a marketing brand manager ranges between R30,000 and R35,000 per month.

Read: The best place to find a job in South Africa – and the people who are hiring