Former Victoria College student Chris Dixon has become a YouTube sensation (see below) by filming himself playing the football video game Fifa 15. He uploads the clips onto the internet and has amassed 380,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel – more than pop superstar Rihanna and former footballer David Beckham combined.
As a result, companies are willing to pay huge sums to advertise their products on Chris’s channel.
But what other cool or unusual jobs do Islanders have? Here are a few examples.
Paul Hurley
Head brewer at Liberation Group
Best part of my job: ‘I have to say I am the luckiest guy in the world. I suppose the best part of my job is being able to experiment with the beer. No two days are the same – it’s a bit like being a chef.’
Worst part of my job: ‘Long hours. I start at 4.30 am and can be at work until 6 pm.
If I wasn’t doing this, I would be… ‘I would like to teach. I like interacting with people and sharing knowledge. The good thing about this job is that you meet people on the tours and you can talk about all the beers. Teaching is so important because if you grab people at the right age you can change their lives.’
How I got the job: ‘I studied for a degree in bio-chemistry and was going to return to do more studies in sport science, but I came back to the Island and applied for a job as a lab manager at Ann Street Brewery and as part of the interview they showed me round the brewery – and that was it for me.’
Daily routine: ‘On a brewing day I get in at 4.30 am. We mash up at 5 am and then run the brew for five hours, and then we might start kegging. In the afternoons we will do some tours.’
My dream job: ‘This!’
Gordon Hunt
Deputy head of the mammal department at Durrell who looks after the orang-utans
Best part of my job: ‘Looking after one of the world’s rarest primates and one of our closest relatives.’
Worst part of my job: ‘Watching the youngsters grow up and leave. They all have to go at around the age of eight to join other non-related individuals in groups all over the world. They become like family members when you care for them so closely for so long.’
If I wasn’t doing this, I would be… ‘Surfing, in Jersey or preferably Morocco, Indonesia or the Maldives.’
How I got the job: ‘It was advertised in 1998 in the JEP. It was to work in the bird department, which I did for four years. But then a French keeper went back to France and I was successful in filling the vacant position.’
Daily routine: ‘I start at 8 am checking all the orang-utans and the two gibbons as well as cleaning their enclosures.
I then make the lunchtime feeds before emptying the waste onto the compost heap at the organic farm. This is about five bin loads of straw, wood shavings and orang-utan poo! After that we prepare another feed before doing the admin stuff, dealing with emails and other departmental requests. At 4.30 pm we start preparing the last feeds of the day and shut all the apes in and go outside to clean up food remains from the various islands. We also check that no ropes have come loose or other parts of the climbing structures have been broken by the orang-utans. They like breaking things and are incredibly strong.’
My dream job: ‘To be paid £100,000 a year to do what I do now.’
Natalie Fox
Surf instructor at Jersey Surf School
Best part of my job: ‘Being in the water and being in the open air. There is something special about passing on the joys of surfing to other people. I have been surfing for ten years and coaching for five. I came to Jersey two years ago. I teach women and girls to surf and that is really my passion because I am afraid there is an imbalance in that a lot more men than women go surfing.’
Worst part of my job: ‘That’s when it gets colder, but it’s not that bad. I suppose the worst part is not being able to do it all year round.’
If I wasn’t doing this, I would be… ‘I teach yoga as well so I would probably be doing that as well as some environmental work.’
How I got the job: ‘The surfing community is quite small and while I was in Costa Rica I met a woman who mentioned that there was a vacancy at the surf school in Jersey.
Daily routine: ‘In the summer it can be something like getting up early, stuffing breakfast down, grabbing the boards and meeting the kids from the summer camps. We then go out onto the water for two hours then have some lunch before some afternoon activities. We finish about 4 pm and sometimes we will go out surfing ourselves or just fall asleep on the sofa.’
My dream job: ‘This, or teaching yoga and doing some environmental work.’
Richard Stevens
Owner of Jersey Seafaris, which offers trips around the Island and to the Ecréhous
Best part of the job: ‘Spotting dolphins and seeing the smiles on everybody’s faces when they see them. I love doing the north-coast trip in particular. We had one day when we saw so many dolphins and they were jumping out of the water, sometimes six at a time, like something from Sea World. The best days are when we have a lobster lunch on the Écréhous and then shoot off to France for a nice steak dinner.’
Worst part of my job: ‘Cancelling trips early in the morning because the weather is bad. It’s not nice waking people up to tell them their trip has been cancelled.’
If I wasn’t doing this, I would be… ‘In the mountains probably, or on a boat somewhere doing whatever I can. It would have to be something I enjoy.’
How I got the job: ‘I used to do this sort of thing for fun and then realised that other people would enjoy it, too, so I set up the company. We started taking customers in 2012. Before that, I was a teacher.’
Daily routine: ‘First I check the weather and the winds and then I clean the boat and fill it with fuel. After that we start the trips. We do three or four a day and they might involve going out to the Écréhous.’
My dream job: ‘This is my dream job.’
Stuart Elliott
Jersey’s bomb disposal officer
Best part of my job: ‘A deep personal satisfaction when a task is safely completed. And I know that another stray munition or other explosive item has been removed from the public domain.’
Worst part of my job: ‘Paperwork has been the bane of my life and continues to be the most unattractive aspect of my work, but in this day and age with the demand for method statements and assessment, it needs to be done.’
If I wasn’t doing this, I would be… ‘As a serving police officer, I would have no doubt followed another police discipline. I think I would have sought some other way to be useful to the Island, but also to pursue my passion for local military history.’
How I got the job: ‘In the early 1970s the then bomb disposal officer expressed a wish for an additional assistant. The police advertised internally for the role and I was selected to take part in a training course before being accepted for the post. At the time the thought of getting off the beat in the winter added to my motivation to apply, but I soon learned I could end up trekking up and down cliffs in hail or a thunderstorm.
Daily routine: ‘I check the latest security and bomb alerts that arrive every morning and answer everyday inquiries covering a variety of matters. I then check equipment and take part in various training scenarios. I am on call 24 hours a day.
‘Once a task comes in, the daily commitment changes dramatically, from visiting a private house to examining an item found in the loft, to a mine on the beach or a mortar bomb in a field. The time committed can be a couple of hours for general items to days or even weeks of work. There is little or no routine in this profession.’
My dream job: ‘I wake up every morning to my dream job. There are good days and bad days, and though it may be described as a job, I consider it a privilege to be in the profession.’
Alan James
Head of production at Jersey Dairy and occasional ice-cream taster
Best part of my job: ‘Getting to sample some of the great Jersey Dairy products we make.’
Worst part of my job: ‘Having to watch my waistline!’
If I wasn’t doing this, I would be… ‘Selling ice-cream on a Caribbean beach.’
How I got the job: ‘After being in the dairy industry for 25 years, this role came up and I applied.’
Daily routine: ‘Tasting ice cream is not my only job. My main role is to ensure all the milk is collected from the farms in Jersey, processed and packed into high-quality products that you see on the supermarket shelves.
My dream job: ‘Owning my own ice-cream factory.’
Chris Dixon (18) has become a YouTube sensation after posting videos of himself playing the football game Fifa online, with more than 380,000 people subscribing to his online channel – more than pop superstar Rihanna and football legend David Beckham combined.
And the teenager, who goes by the name ChrisMD online, has even decided not to go to university in favour of pursuing his online career.
In the last couple of years, the amount of money that can be made through advertising revenue on YouTube has risen dramatically, with the most popular online stars earning millions of pounds.
The former Victoria College student posts around four videos a week, with each receiving hundreds of thousands of views.
The more clicks his videos receive, the more companies are willing to pay for pre-video advertising space.
He said: ‘Last year, I was planning to go to university to study zoology. My YouTube videos were beginning to get quite a lot of views at the time so I decided to take a gap year and thought I’d do this. It has been like a proper job.
‘It started as a hobby – I made the occasional video when I played Fifa and put it on YouTube but then I decided to start recording myself to make it a bit more interesting and get my reactions into the videos.
‘A lot of people do find it hard to understand the appeal of watching someone play a game but there are a lot of people who enjoy the reactions.’
Mr Dixon, who confirmed he earns a ‘six-figure sum’ but declined to reveal the exact amount, added: ‘It takes more time to record and edit the videos together than people think. It takes a few hours editing the videos – maybe that’s just because I’m not very efficient at it.’
And Mr Dixon, from St John, says that despite Fifa being his job, it has not impacted on his enjoyment of the game.
He said: ‘I’ve always enjoyed video games and whenever I play Fifa I record myself. I really enjoy what I’m doing. Basically, you get adverts before the video and people bid for the advertising space and you can earn a percentage of that. In the summer and before Christmas, gaming videos get a lot more interest than at other times because people are looking at buying consoles.’
And thanks to the popularity of his videos, Mr Dixon is enjoying something of a celebrity status – even when he leaves the Island.
‘I get recognised every now and then. I went skiing with my family over Christmas and someone came up and asked me for a picture. There was another time that I was in Yorkshire and got recognised in a café’, he said.
‘It’s growing quicker than I could have thought and I’m certainly not getting bored of it just yet.’
- 386,935- Subscribers to his YouTube channel ChrisMD
- 28,618,108 – Cumulative views of his videos
- 49,600 – Followers he has on Twitter[/breakout]
