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I'm a nurse in the Navy
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I stay home! It's new. My husband calls me a home maker who doesn't make home, because I don't really cool or clean...
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@ShootingStar: Yeah one of those :P. I was a unicorn up until 2010 when I stopped developing. I *can*, I just prefer not to right now. He's going to start training for back-end stuff soon so I'm sure I'll have to get back into front-end at some point.
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@namaste: Yeah, my DH is the same - can do front end, but prefers not to!
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SAHM now that I have DS, but was a pharmacy technician before that.
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I'm a stay at home mom and a full-time student. Then I usually get asked the age/sex of my kids (two boys, 8 months and 2 years) and what I'm going to school for. I usually just say to be a high school teacher, because if I say that I'm going for an English major and history minor with my secondary education certification, I get blank stares.
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@Ms. RV: yep, I get the same response and in my current industry/company they automatically assume all I do is audit. I kinda miss working in a manufacturing facility because they at least understood that I could help fix stuff.
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I'm a nurse... so then I get the "what kind?" & "Where at?" questions.
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@shellio: thats exactly what I do. I work at X Children's hospital. Then everybody gets distracted and says how much they love my hospital and don't bother to ask what I do there.
If I say "hospitalist" they get really confused and generally stop asking questions. They don't know what a hospitalist is at all.
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Assistant controller at a tier 1 automotive supplier....which then still leads to "can you do my taxes?"....no I can barely do my own
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I work as a Group Lead for a supplier of engineering services. I work with a lot of engineers but I'm not one! In college I mostly seemed to enjoy hanging out with people in engineering, science and math even though I'm not really into any of these things. My job is a combination of HR, recruiting, sales and management.
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I work at a county assistance office, and usually leave it at that.
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@Mrs. Jacks: Exact same here! People just say how they love the hospital or something along those lines. Then I don't have to answer other questions.
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I got a big lecture in grad school from my advisor when i told him I didn't bother try explaining my research project to my parents. I think he called me a condescending asshole, I wasn't trying to be at all but I really didn't know how to explain everything that was going on. So he sat there for like 20 min with me while I tried a bunch of different ways, and would tell me when I was giving too much info or catch me if I was using abbreviations or too much lingo. now whenever I have a project I have a lingo free quick two or three sentence explanation when people ask for details.
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Currently I say I'm on an extended maternity leave until the fall when I plan to go back.
Before LO, or if they ask what I used to do, I say "I manage the development of digital products, such as websites and apps". And depending on the audience I might throw in the company I worked for last since they are well known and it helps to put things into perspective. -
I usually say I'm a psychologist. But then regret it with the reactions I get which can range from "oh I better watch what say / are you going to analyze me" to looks of "oh wow, aren't you special"- which is just awkward. When people ask further what area I work in and I say eating disorders, I sometimes have to listen to how awful they think eating disorders are, and how they don't understand them because people with anorexia don't even look good (as if the only type of eating disorder is anorexia and that those patients only have it because they want to be skinny).
I want to remember to answer this question (depending who asks of course), with a more general response like I "work in a hospital/mental health".
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I'm a teacher. Then I typically get the, "must be nice having your summers off!" To which I have started replying, "must be nice getting paid 12 months out of the year." Or, "must be nice having an 8 hour work day where you don't take any work home." Or, "must be nice not having to buy materials out of your own pocket to do your job." I only say those things if I'm feeling snarky though. I mostly love my job.
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I HATE this question too. For complete complete strangers, they probably assume I just hang around at home all day doing nothing because I work at home. If these strangers asked, I would tell them I am a graphic designer, but that's not entirely true. For a big part of my life, I've been a motion graphics / broadcast designer and I work with TV networks to design, animate and produce on-air spots for TV shows, such as show promos, campaigns, show packaging (eg. show open, bumper, close...etc.). Basically I work with footage and images and such and design and animate "motion graphics" for TV shows. People don't even know what that means anyway, or wonder oh there are people actually doing this stuff? Therefore I just tell them yeah I am a graphic designer.
After LO was born, while I still take some motion graphics design projects with TV networks, I am phasing that out and am going into illustration and art licensing. Which is another area that no one understand what the heck do I do. Now I am illustrating 2 children's books with a publisher, and licensing art for cards, home decor, wall art and such. So yes, I do hate people asking now as I have no idea what to tell them. I just continue to say I am a designer
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My one liner is: I'm a project manager for a healthcare company. Then I'll name the company. Most people recognize the company so then the lightbulbs go off.
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I don’t mind this question – IMO, it’s sort of in the same category as “how are you?”; it’s just something people ask to be nice/make chit-chat, they don’t really want/care too much about the answer unless you’re actually already having a real conversation.
I’m a compliance manager in the law department of a large insurance company, which tells you absolutely nothing about what I actually do. If people inquire further, I’ll tell them more what I do. I do a fair bit of project management (and am trending towards even more, which I love), I answer a LOT of questions on tax laws, the legal structuring of groups to sell insurance to, and I produce internal educational materials / translate “legalese” into plain English. I also hold trainings, etc. (Eyes glazing over yet?)
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I don't mind this question at all! I'm getting my phd in a humanities discipline, so I generally say my broad field, or I say my dissertation topic. Which generally starts a convo about my topic, which I always love talking about
Occasionally someone will say something about how they hate school how can I stand it or they'll ask when I'm going to be finished (which is the worse thing you can ask a phd candidate, lol). Dh hates this q though bc he works in a really niche industry that's hard to explain. We've had friends think he's cia or something since it's so hard to explain briefly but no his job is way more boring than that haha
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I usually say Online Marketing for a publishing company because it's easier to understand than my "official" title.
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I don't mind this question. I usually say "a clinical social worker at a hospital" and tell them it's in child protection only if they ask additional questions about it. Once you say child protection, most people don't ask anything else
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@Mrs. Peanut: I love your replies
I'm a teacher too.... maybe I should reply with, "Must be nice getting raises, I've only gotten 1 in 5 years and it was only a 1.5% bump." When I tell people I'm a teacher, most people ask the subject/grade and say something like "I could never do that," or "You must be such a good person" and I have no idea how to properly reply....
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@irene: I think your answer was great and I would be really interested if someone responded with that in real life.
I don't believe at all that the response to this question has to be a one-liner; I always ask it to start conversation rather than make small talk. When I get one-liners I always ask follow up questions to get more info
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I don't mind this question, but I typically don't ask it.
I usually just say the company I work for and then depending on their reaction, I elaborate.
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@irene: I have a friend that does exactly what you do, but he tells people that he's an animator!
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