I say, "I'm an actuary", even though that's just my background and the work I do these days isn't very actuarial. Most people don't want to know more.
I hate it when people say something like, "I work for a financial services company." Like, are you in marketing or are you an admin or do you work in HR or are you the CFO? Just saying where you work isn't particularly helpful!
Interesting. For some stupid reason, I feel guilty saying "I'm an engineer" since technically I'm not doing engineering anymore. But I still work in the engineering group. Whenever I try to explain that it gets confusing and I can tell that most people don't understand or really care. Maybe I should just stick with being an engineer since that is the simplest answer.
I'm in sales for a company that does X. Because they won't have heard of the company itself, but should be familiar with the X once I explain it a bit.
I give a silly description of my job. My title sounds much more fascinating and important than my job really is, so I like to head off the impressed reactions.
Post by undecidedowl on Jan 23, 2018 20:35:39 GMT -5
Like others, I give the answer that gets the least questions. I would say "I'm a design engineer". I don't mention my company since many people haven't heard of it and I don't mention the type of product or specialty because that tends to confuse people.
Sometimes I say what I do. Like I’m an X at a Y Firm. In my profession, you are actually not supposed to say you are the title of the profession without having a license. So it would be like practicing as a Lawyer without taking the bar exam...but that is totally legal in my profession, and there’s no reason to become licensed unless you are a sole practitioner, but you cannot call yourself a “Lawyer” you’d have to say “I’m an associate who handles litigation at a law firm.”
Usually something like “I work in XX (functional area) in the pharmaceutical industry.” Occasionally I say “I’m a pharmacist by training but work in the pharmaceutical industry in XX (function area).” If I say I work in pharma, they assume I’m a rep. If I say I’m a pharmacist, they assume I work for CVS. So I have to be a little specific. Same for DH, he’s a very specific type of pharmacist. Sometimes he just says pharmacist but people always have questions. He doesn’t give his title but kinda has to explain his job. “I’m a pharmacist at XX (health system). I work in quality for the physician group some days and other days see patients in an outpatient setting, like a NP or PA would.” People still don’t know what he does.
I say, "I'm an actuary", even though that's just my background and the work I do these days isn't very actuarial. Most people don't want to know more.
I hate it when people say something like, "I work for a financial services company." Like, are you in marketing or are you an admin or do you work in HR or are you the CFO? Just saying where you work isn't particularly helpful!
Interesting. For some stupid reason, I feel guilty saying "I'm an engineer" since technically I'm not doing engineering anymore. But I still work in the engineering group. Whenever I try to explain that it gets confusing and I can tell that most people don't understand or really care. Maybe I should just stick with being an engineer since that is the simplest answer.
I could have written this. I am doing data analysis so I am always torn on what to say exactly. I support engineers, I have been an engineer with an engineering degree, my group does engineering (for a large company with many departments most of them not engineering), so it is muddy.
I say H is is an accountant for xx company (no one has ever heard of). So I say what they do. People still get confused sometimes based on what I say his company does even though he doesn't do any of that because he's an accountant.
Mine is pretty straight forward: I'm a substitute for my local school district while mostly SAH with DS. Before that I taught preschool for my local school district. (obviously not corporate)
I generally give my title (which is descriptive of the kind of work I do) and the industry. This typically leads to puzzled looks and a short explanation of my role.
This and then I make some idiotic joke about looking at spreadsheets so we can move the hell on (from the fact they still don't understand what I do).
Post by sillygoosegirl on Jan 25, 2018 23:29:30 GMT -5
People get confused when I say, "I'm an Epic Engineer" so I say very briefly what I do (software), and say who our major local customers/members are, because what THEY do is easier for most people to understand than what I do.
"I do communications for a local nonprofit." Sometimes I say the name, but it's kind of complicated because it's actually 3 separate but intertwined organizations, so I don't get into that unless asked for more information. (and I will change which organization I say I work for based on what I think would most interest the person asking).