Imagine grasping paid to drive some of the worlds greatest cars -- Mercedes, Corvette, Porsche, Viper, and others. Sounds successful ? Now picture doing that on luxurious all-expense-paid trips to exotic locations, where you hang out with some of the biggest names in the auto industry.

Thats everyday life for car-magazine test drivers.

Hard to believe? Youre not the only human who thinks so. Ive worked as a car-magazine test driver since 1999 and I still get looks of astonishment when I tell everybody what I do for a living. Getting a job like this seems like it would be as hard as winning the lottery. But the truth is, you dont have to be working for big, glossy sports-car magazines to enjoy a sizeably workable job as a test driver. There are countless other publications that make use of test drivers. And you dont need extraordinary luck or rare talent to get into this profession.

Granted, its not as effortless as applying to get a part-measure job at the mall, or even like going after a typical office job. But its also not a frustrating, one-in-a-million chance like trying to become a rock star or a Hollywood actor either. Far from it.

There isnt a pre-specified way to become a car-magazine test driver as there is for, say, becoming a doctor or lawyer. So you have to pretty much find your own pathway into the field. That may sound intimidating, but its actually another one of the professions upsides -- everybody can work their way into test-driver jobs from widely varying knowledge and education. For example, one of my colleagues was working in a retail bookstore before becoming a test driver. He got into an automotive publication by grasping a relatively user friendly job in a publishers photo library. The photo library worked with the companys automotive division a lot, so he was in a prime position when a job opened up there.

Now he hangs out at racetracks, drives Jaguars and Corvettes, and goes on press trips to Hawaii and Palm Springs.

His story is fairly typical. Plenty of all the people -- men and women alike -- get into the profession in similar sorts of ways. And you might be surprised at how quickly things might move along toward acquiring such a job if you put your mind to it. Although every persons career progresses at a different pace, three to five months is a pretty normal time for breaking into becoming a test driver. Not bad for a job that routinely puts you behind the wheel of $60,000 cars for a week at a measure .

For anyone who loves cars, being a test driver is like a fairy tale mixed with a weekend in Vegas -- you can not help but be amazed by some of the things you get to do. It takes more effort to get these jobs than it does to break into other, more mundane fields. But its well worth it.

For more data on how to become a test driver, go to: http://www.autiv.com/