Want to earn $200,000/year? Become a Cook on an Australian Submarine!

Senior Submarine Cooks in the Royal Australian Navy earn $200,000/yr.

The official title is “Leading Seaman Cook” and you must have 6+ years experience. Base pay, starting bonus, capability bonus, seagoing allowance, etc, adds up to $200K/yr.

The great pay comes at a price though:

• You work in a cramped galley (kitchen) every day
• Sometimes you’ll go 50+ days between port calls
• Claustrophobic = you’ll stay submerged for months at a time
• You sleep in coffin-sized racks (bunk beds)
• The smell. Reports of being in a sub for months say it smells like a sweaty gym locker times ten.
• Submariners are a breed of their own, oft referring to the Navy’s Surface Fleet as “Floaters”
• The Surface Fleet say Submarines get to “cruise through whale pee”

Non Qual? Gotta get your dolphins, then you can talk.

Until then, when the sub is at periscope depth and you’re using sonar for navigation and reading the digital inclinometers to tell the balance of the ship, just remember: keep cool, stay level-headed and keep pushing for those higher-paying jobs!