Why don't people want to say what they do for a living?
Discussion
;)It's a bit tedious after a while isn't it?
I just say "I work in finance" these days as my job title (Stockbroker) normally illicits lots of questions and I end up talking about work, which I'd rather not.
Or you get: "oh wow!, like in that movie with DeCaprio yeah??, buy buy buy, sell sell sell yeah??"
"Yes, it's just like that". -_-
I just say "I work in finance" these days as my job title (Stockbroker) normally illicits lots of questions and I end up talking about work, which I'd rather not.
Or you get: "oh wow!, like in that movie with DeCaprio yeah??, buy buy buy, sell sell sell yeah??"
"Yes, it's just like that". -_-
Timmy40 said:
One of my brothers mates is in the sh*t tank emptying business. It always was a tricky point of conversation when out on the pull with young ladies.
You've got your own business : tick
Oh wow nice car: tick
What's do you do then in your business.... erm.
Environmental Services Executive, shirley.You've got your own business : tick
Oh wow nice car: tick
What's do you do then in your business.... erm.
Because I work a lot of Saturday nights, a female friend who I've known for years but hadn't seen for a while asked me what I did these days. I replied "Haven't you heard? I'm a pimp."
She actually believed me!
Oh well, it would be much more interesting than what I really do, railway maintenance, which I really enjoy, but is very difficult to explain to people and they generally wish they hadn't asked.
When they do actually listen, I then get the "So I can blame you when my train is late then".
ETA: I've just remembered one time I was out having a drink with a mate and we got talking to three women, not bad lookers. They asked us what we did, and my mate said he was a builder. "Oh, nice" they replied and turned to me and I told them I work on the railway, maintenance and renewals. Them, "Oooh, that sounds interesting, like engineering and all that?"
They totally blanked my mate and wanted to hear all about it. Mate was a bit miffed to say the least.
She actually believed me!
Oh well, it would be much more interesting than what I really do, railway maintenance, which I really enjoy, but is very difficult to explain to people and they generally wish they hadn't asked.
When they do actually listen, I then get the "So I can blame you when my train is late then".
ETA: I've just remembered one time I was out having a drink with a mate and we got talking to three women, not bad lookers. They asked us what we did, and my mate said he was a builder. "Oh, nice" they replied and turned to me and I told them I work on the railway, maintenance and renewals. Them, "Oooh, that sounds interesting, like engineering and all that?"
They totally blanked my mate and wanted to hear all about it. Mate was a bit miffed to say the least.
Edited by Baz Tench on Monday 27th July 12:07
I just say i work for the Civil Service in the day which normally follows with "oh that sounds important"... the response is met with "no, i work at pretty much the arse end of the service as a low grade so not overly important" much to their amusement. I also work 4 nights a week in a large supermarket chain's distribution centre. Again nothing glamourous but not ashamed to say it. It helps to pay bills more importantly.
Bit miffed really that someone could be even remotely ashamed or embarrassed about saying where they work. The way i see it is that if your working at all then your doing something productive and contributing!
Bit miffed really that someone could be even remotely ashamed or embarrassed about saying where they work. The way i see it is that if your working at all then your doing something productive and contributing!
OpulentBob said:
Ruskie said:
"So what's the worst thing you have ever dealt with?"
Yeah cos I really want to go through that harrowing incident that has scarred me for life, just for your amusement.
geeks said:
I am an IT Manager... or at least thats what I tell people, it's not strictly true but close enough. People tend to switch off that subject after that as it's about as boring as a job gets in their head. I am lucky that I meet alot of people who do interesting things for a living so when asked I tell them, then find out what they do and spend the time talking about that, so much easier!
I get kind of jealous of people who do interesting things for a living but can't change as I have hit a certain salary that would be hard to clime down from for a few years to retrain!
I enjoy talking about anybody's job. I find it genuinely fascinating finding out more about what it involves, the upsides, the downsides, even the 5hit emptying role mentioned above. I think the only ones I'd find boring are auditors but, even then, I'd be asking about what frauds they'd come across, how regularly they get offered free sex (surprisingly often.....)I get kind of jealous of people who do interesting things for a living but can't change as I have hit a certain salary that would be hard to clime down from for a few years to retrain!
Maybe it's because I'm an Accountant and, by comparison, every other job in the world seems exciting....
Ruskie said:
OpulentBob said:
Ruskie said:
"So what's the worst thing you have ever dealt with?"
Yeah cos I really want to go through that harrowing incident that has scarred me for life, just for your amusement.
To assume makes... oh forget it. You're obviously a bit tired and having a sense of humour failure.
I'm an IT Contractor if we meet at someone's party. That's usually end of convo! Do you want to know about support/development on mainframes? Probably not. Can I fix your laptop? Well I'm happy to try, but am probably no better than you can, have you tried Google?
Having said that, I've met loads of really interesting people in the IT game, but interesting for the things they do outside oif work rather than in it.
Generally I find that people who are "in business" with no follow-on description are either doing something borderline illegal/would prefer the taxman not to know/thought they'd hit on the next .com revolution but are struggling to make ends meet.
Having said that, I've met loads of really interesting people in the IT game, but interesting for the things they do outside oif work rather than in it.
Generally I find that people who are "in business" with no follow-on description are either doing something borderline illegal/would prefer the taxman not to know/thought they'd hit on the next .com revolution but are struggling to make ends meet.
PurpleTurtle said:
I'm an IT Contractor if we meet at someone's party. That's usually end of convo!
Same here, although I generally say "Code Tart", "Code w
e" or "Software Mercenary", depending on who I'm talking to. 
Edit: Actually, I usually just say "Computer Programmer" and people just nod and file me under "dork".
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