Think that all writers spend their time in front of the laptop, notepad or typewriter? Think again. Some of the most famous writers in the history of literature also kept their day jobs –  some of which were more prestigious than their writing careers!

1. Kurt Vonnegut : Saab dealership manager
2. John Steinbeck : apprentice painter, fruit picker, caretaker, construction worker
3. Stephen King: high school janitor
4. J.D. Salinger: Swedish luxury liner director of entertainment
5. William S. Burroughs: exterminator
6. William Faulkner: postal worker
7. T.S. Eliot: banker
8. Robert Frost: paper boy, teaching assistant, lightbulb factory worker
9. James Joyce: piano player and singer
10. Nabokov: entomologist
11. Margaret Atwood: barista
12. George Orwell: officer of the Indian Imperial Police in Burma
13. Jack London: cannery, oyster pirate
14. Jack Kerouac: gas station attendant, cotton picker, night guard, construction etc
15. Joseph Conrad: gunrunner
16. Lewis Carroll: mathematician, photographer, teacher