Random Job Generator

The Random Job Generator picks one occupation from a list of 292 and shows three things: the job title, the field it belongs to, and a rounded average salary in the United States. One press might give you Radiologist (Healthcare and Radiology, $300,000), the next Kite Maker (Art and Design, $30,000). It is a career randomizer for people who need an occupation assigned rather than chosen: writers building a character, game masters filling a town with NPCs, teachers running a careers lesson, and anyone playing a "what would you do if" game.

How it works

There are no filters. Every press shuffles the whole list and shows the first result, so any of the 292 jobs is equally likely, from Waiter/Waitress at the bottom of the pay range to Surgeon and Radiologist at the top. You cannot ask for only tech jobs or only creative ones; if you want a specific field, keep pressing until one comes up, which rarely takes more than a few tries because the list leans toward skilled and creative work rather than a hundred variations of the same office role.

What the result shows

• Job title – a plain occupation name such as Urban Planner, Acupuncturist, Earthquake Engineer or Tattoo Artist.
• Field – a short category label. There are around 190 of these, and they are specific: "Healthcare and Dentistry" and "Healthcare and Radiology" are separate, as are "Art and Design" and "Art and Entertainment."
• Average salary in the US – a round figure between $25,000 and $300,000 a year. These are ballpark numbers we assigned when we wrote the list, rounded to the nearest $5,000, not live figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They are close enough to tell a character's lifestyle apart (a $30,000 florist versus a $120,000 lawyer) but should not be quoted in a salary negotiation.

What is in the list

We wrote the list to cover the spread of jobs you would actually meet in a mid-sized city rather than only the ones that appear on career-day posters. The biggest groups are art and entertainment (pianist, actor, musician), art and design (industrial designer, illustrator), beauty and fashion (hairdresser, nail technician, tattoo artist), science and research, food and beverage, construction, and sports and recreation. Technology is split into software, cybersecurity, networking, web development and AI. Healthcare is split by specialty, which is why the top of the salary range is all doctors: Radiologist, Surgeon, Urologist, Neurologist, Orthodontist, Dermatologist and Ophthalmologist all sit between $210,000 and $300,000.

At the other end are the jobs that keep a town running: Barista, Cashier, Lifeguard and Waiter/Waitress at $25,000, then Janitor, Window Cleaner, Taxi Driver, Security Guard, Baker and Florist at $30,000. Between the two are a few hundred trades and professions: Zookeeper, Urban Farmer, YouTuber, Detective, Social Worker, Backend Developer, Material Science Engineer, Biomedical Engineer and so on.

Ways people use it

• Character building – a random occupation is one of the quickest ways to make a fictional person feel real, because a job implies a schedule, an income and a social circle. Combine it with the Likes and Dislikes Generator and the Random Emotion Generator for a full sketch.
• Tabletop NPCs – roll a job for every shopkeeper and bystander in a modern-setting campaign. The salary tells the GM how the character dresses and where they live.
• Careers lessons – have each student draw a job, then research what training it needs and whether the salary shown matches what they find. The gaps make for a good discussion.
• Party games – "job generator" games where each player gets a random career and has to pitch why they would be good at it, or act it out charades-style.
• Breaking a career rut – if you are stuck on what to do next, pressing the button a dozen times is a low-pressure way to surface fields you had not considered. It will not tell you how to get into the job, only that it exists and roughly what it pays.

Sample results

If a job is only one line in a bigger character sheet, the site has the rest of the sheet too: Random Height Generator, Random Hair Color Generator and, for less realistic characters, the Random Superpower Generator. See all people and character generators for the full set.