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Why is it that when we meet people, the first (or close to the first) thing they ask is "what do you do for a living?" or, on occasion, "What do your parents do for a living?" When we introduce ourselves to people and they ask the horrid question of "tell me a little about yourself" why is the answer always "I'm a (fill in the blank with job title here)"?
This societal ritual makes me very uncomfortable, especially because I have what people perceive to be a 'boring' job. There are disinterested nods and glazed-over expressions. The image that pops into their head is inevitably this or something very much like it:
(source)
The thing is, I love my job and I get very tired of defending it. I'm even abused for my job by OTHER ACCOUNTANTS because I chose tax as my specialty. I considered not even putting my actual job in the profile of this blog for fear of losing readers.
Should I stop introducing myself as an accountant so I don't have to deal with this problem?
"Hi, I'm Jen. I enjoy photography in all forms, decoupage, science fiction and drama shows, cult movies, indie and punk music, museums, and my newest passion, blogging. Also, I work at a Big 4 CPA firm." and then segue into a discussion of how I made my coffee table, brilliant!
... that sounds infinitely better than "I'm Jen, a tax accountant...(blank stares)... but I really love my job! It's so interesting! Really!! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, YOU JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND!!!"
Does anyone else have this or a similar problem? What do you do when faced with job judgmentalists?
Hopefully by now you're more confident in telling people what you do for a living. I'd tell them who you work for and not what you do--I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who watch the PGA Tour and see marketing materials for E&Y yet have no clue what your firm actually does.
ReplyDeleteI just mainly tire of people not knowing what GIS is and constantly berating/questioning me about my choice of majors in college. People that truly understand what I do think that my job is boring too. I know where you are coming from.
ReplyDeleteMy problem is more in the other direction: I wish people would be less interested in my job.
ReplyDeleteThem: What do you do?
Me: I work at the library.
Them: Oh, really, what do you do there?
Me: ...I put books on shelves in alphabetical order. I am the lowest man on the totem pole. A trained monkey could do my job, and if they ever figure that out I'll be out on the street. But it sounds way better and more professional when I say, "I work at the library," so can't we just leave it at that for once, you inquisitive S.O.B.?
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