Guillemots are sea birds that nest in colonies on very high cliff ledges. Workers are needed to climb over the edge of cliffs and make their way down to the ledges to collect guillemot eggs. As well as the danger of falling from a huge height into raging seas and being crushed by jagged rocks, you will be under threat of attack from marauding guillemot birds. Chances of death are high and the pay is extremely low.
Tasks & duties

• Climbing extremely dangerous cliffs.
• Making your way down to nesting colonies.
• Collecting guillemot eggs in a bucket.
• Fighting off guillemot assaults.

Personal requirements

• Physical fitness.
• Good balance and abseiling skills.
• A sense of adventure and disregard for personal safety.
• Your own rope and bucket

Running a lime kiln requires you to supervise the heating of chalk – or, near the coast, oyster shells – until they start producing incredibly toxic carbon monoxide. This can easily make you drowsy or even paralyse you before you suffocate. Don't worry though – you only have to sit with the kiln for 48 hours at a time.

If you really like a risky challenge, the next process could be for you. The hard cake of quicklime (calcium oxide) is taken from the kiln and added to water. It immediately reacts, producing intense heat and a shower of caustic, agony-inducing specks of slaked lime (calcium hydroxide). These crumbly grains are then crushed into lime powder, which will be added to sand to make mortar. You obviously don't need safety goggles because they haven't
Tasks & duties

• Supervising the chalk-heating process.
• Mixing quicklime and water.
• Cleaning the kiln (if you survive the production process).

Personal requirements

• An interest in scientific processes.
• An ability to concentrate in uncomfortable conditions.
• Chemical-handling skills.

A number of vacancies are available for this position. It involves extremely long hours in terribly cramped conditions, in the middle of nowhere, up to 25 metres (82 feet) below ground. While underground you will extract gold using a tiny iron pick that showers you with razor-sharp splinters that will almost certainly blind you. Fires are regularly set to speed up the gold extraction, and if you're not burnt or choked by the fire, you may be maimed or killed by the subsequent explosion as water hits the hot rock. You have to carry huge amounts of mined spoil on your back through low, narrow tunnels to the surface. You may be crushed by falling rocks at any time. Only slaves, prisoners and non-asthmatics need apply.
Tasks & duties

• Working in Caesar’s mine to extract gold.
• Using an iron pick.
• Carting mined spoil to the surface.

Personal requirements

• Ability to work sitting down.
• Good physical fitness.
• Ability to work well in a team.
• Ability to work in cramped conditions.
• Low life expectancy.

This job will blow you away – literally. Imagine the excitement of defusing bombs, covered head to toe in high-tech protective clothing, with years of intensive training, risking your life to go in behind police lines and fiddle with complicated fuses and explosives to stop a detonation in time and save the world. Well, this job is nothing like that – in fact, it's the exact opposite. Picture yourself in flimsy clothes, blind drunk, carrying a bell-shaped, gunpowder-filled container of brass or iron fixed to a wooden board – the petard. Imagine yourself being shot at by musketeers while you try to reach the enemy's castle gate. You attach the petard to the gate, fiddle with your taper, light the fuse and start to run away from the blast very, very fast, though probably not fast enough. Now imagine yourself, blown into a thousand bloody bits, flying through the air… New vacancies are constantly arising. Superannuation not included in package.
Tasks & duties

• Filling containers with gunpowder.
• Dodging musketeers’ shots.
• Fixing petards to enemy castle gates.
• Lighting the petards.
• Running!

Personal requirements

• Smaller workers are often preferred for this job (as they make harder targets).
• Good physical fitness and strength (ideal but not essential).
• An ability to (blindly) follow instructions.
• A sense of adventure.

Do you enjoy the outdoors and physical activity? Well this position could be right for you. Children and small adults are required to fill the position of hunt helper for the royal family. Regular hunting trips for foxes, turkeys and hares are a popular pastime for the king, his family and friends, and the day’s highest catch ensures bragging rights for the rest of the week. The hunt helper’s job is to help the royal family practise their hunting skills. To be more specific, they will hunt you. Imagine the thrill of the chase as the hunting posse, their thundering horses and ferocious dogs determinedly chase down their prey – you. You will need to be fast, cunning and nimble to avoid dog bites and/or being shot. Don’t worry though – you won’t be shot with real bullets – only an early type of blank cartridge that at worst will leave a painful burn and long-lasting scars.
Tasks & duties

• Assisting the royal family with their hunting practice.
• Running (hopefully very fast) through bush, forest and swamps.
• Hiding from the hunt group.

Personal requirements

• Ability to work sitting down.
• Small physical build.
• Good running and jumping skills.
• An ability to think on your feet.
• Previous experience in hide and seek would be advantageous.