Support the fact-based journalism you rely on with a donation to Marketplace today. Give Now!

From This Collection

How to be a Lego designer

Jun 29, 2018
The company's vice president of design left fashion for his "ultimate childhood dream" of working with the plastic bricks.
Husband and wife Annie and Ed Diment put the final bricks in place on their 400,000-piece "Ice Age" display at a Lego exhibition in London in 2015. The woolly mammoth took nine weeks to build.
Chris Ratcliffe/Getty Images

How to be a composer

Jun 15, 2018
Carter Burwell talks about his job making music for the big screen.
Dave Thompson/Getty Images

How to be an umpire

Apr 13, 2018
No, yelling "safe" at the TV doesn't count.
Carlos Guillen of the Seattle Mariners gets called out by umpire Rich Rieker during a game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Safeco Field in Seattle, Washington.
Otto Greule Jr /Allsport

How to be a lighting designer

Mar 23, 2018
Steve Lieberman has designed light displays for Coachella, Lollapalooza and Electric Daisy Carnival. Here's what it takes to do the job.
In this handout photo provided by Insomniac, the 4th Annual Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC), New York returns to MetLife Stadium Memorial Day weekend, May 23-24, 2015. 
Insomniac via Getty Images

How to be a toymaker

Mar 15, 2018
Melissa Bernstein of Melissa & Doug on how she does her job.
Melissa Bernstein started her career at Morgan Stanley ... but once she ditched investment banking and started making toys, she found her dream job.  
Courtesy Melissa & Doug

How to be a tour guide

Mar 9, 2018
Jonathan Lerner put his passion for people, culture and history to work when he founded Tailored Tours Barcelona.
“Every time, I'm still humbled by the absolute beauty of the city, of the architecture and of the cultural heritage that I'm able to share,” says Jonathan Lerner of Barcelona. Above, La Sagrada Família basilica.
Jorge Guerrero/AFP/Getty Images

How to be a Zamboni driver

Feb 23, 2018
Ice technician Ryan Hevern on what it takes to create Olympic-caliber hockey and figure skating rinks.
The Zamboni machine resurfaces the ice during the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games, at the Gangneung Ice Arena in Gangneung on February 10, 2018.
MLADEN ANTONOV/AFP/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

How to be an ice cream flavor creator

Feb 2, 2018
A Ben & Jerry's Flavor Guru talks about how she got her job and what it's like to make ice cream.
Sarah Fidler, Flavor Guru at Ben & Jerry's. 
Courtesy Ben & Jerry's

How to be a winemaker

Jan 12, 2018
According to winemaker Elizabeth Vianna, making wine is more scientific and less romantic than most people think.
Chimney Rock Winery in Napa Valley, CA, where Elizabeth Vianna is the winemaker and general manager. 
Courtesy Chimney Rock Winery

How to be an astronaut

Dec 8, 2017
Advice from a former International Space Station Commander.
Attired in a training version of his spacesuit, astronaut Doug Wheelock, Expedition 24 flight engineer and Expedition 25 commander, awaits the start of a spacewalk training session in the waters of the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory near NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Courtesy NASA Johnson Space Center