S/O Describe your job.

[monsterz]

Based on the salary thread where there were job titles and questions about what people do.  How do you describe what you do to others.

I work in technical product marketing and management.  On the marketing side this consists of writing blog posts, data sheets and white papers about a company's technology, speaking at conferences, creating demos to illustrate features. On the product management side this covers determining what features to build for a product, determining how to bring a new product to market, calculating market share, determining what price a product should be sold for, and evaluating competitors.   

I mostly work with technologies that make the internet work.  

[pooh8402]

I'm a nursery nurse. Since pretty much everyone here is a mother, many of whom had their babies in a hospital, I think yall know what my job description entails, ha.

Just in case someone doesn't...

I assess well newborns twice a shift--this includes checking vital signs, and doing a head to toe physical assessment. Most of my patients are rooming in with their mothers, so I round on them every hour or two, and check to see if baby has eaten, peed or pooped. I also assist the parents with any needs, like feeding the baby, demonstrating diaper changes, swaddling, gas relief techniques, and answer any questions they may have. I do bloodwork on all my patients at 24 hours of age for the PKU test, and test for congenital heart defects. I administer hep B vaccines if parents request. I do a lot of education, especially at discharge, and check to make sure the baby is in the car seat correctly. I also attend deliveries as the baby nurse--so I do initial assessment, give vitamin K and erythromycin eye ointment, footprints, and band the baby and parents. I give a bath after the first hour, so the parents can bond and feed the new baby. I will watch babies in the nursery if the parents want a nap, and give a bottle if the parents desire me to, or bring baby back to mom to breastfeed. Anything else is as needed--blood sugar checking, extra monitoring of vital signs as needed, car seat studies for preemie babies, intermittent IV antibiotics, jaundice checks and phototherapy, navigating special cases like adoptions, surrogacy, CPS, etc.

And at some point, I write down that I did all that. "If it wasn't documented, it wasn't done."

[bowies]

I can't because of my NDA. I've been in the defense sector my whole career though so you can probably imagine.

[boiler717]

I am a pharmacist, I work in medical affairs for a pharmaceutical company.
My work stream is any non-promotional communications that are received by health care professionals and patients (so no marketing). I make sure our call center staff is appropriately trained and has all the resources they need to answer calls that come into the company. Write publications and posters for clinical trials. I determine what types of questions HCPs will ask about our drugs and maintain a repository of responses to answer these questions. Monitor the medical literature on our competitors. Train our sales force on the science of our drugs. I'm kinda like the company librarian in a way -- I have to know about all the info we have on our drug and how best to communicate that info to others. It's a great job, I work from home with a flexible schedule and great benefits.

[jessnpaul]

My title is QA Analyst but I usually just say "software tester" as it's easier to understand if you're not in IT. I write test scripts, try to break software, and test patches for various releases/upgrades.

It's actually more fun than it sounds, but that might be because I work with a crazy crew that keeps me entertained! IT isn't exactly known for being a fun job ;-)

[Deleted]

Sept 25, 2015 11:57:47 GMT -5 monsterz said:

Based on the salary thread where there were job titles and questions about what people do.  How do you describe what you do to others.

I work in technical product marketing and management.  On the marketing side this consists of writing blog posts, data sheets and white papers about a company's technology, speaking at conferences, creating demos to illustrate features. On the product management side this covers determining what features to build for a product, determining how to bring a new product to market, calculating market share, determining what price a product should be sold for, and evaluating competitors.   

I mostly work with technologies that make the internet work.  

This. I'm a product manager. I cover 4 products currently. Also tech sector (healthcare). 

[Deleted]

Sept 25, 2015 12:26:44 GMT -5 jessnpaul said:

My title is QA Analyst but I usually just say "software tester" as it's easier to understand if you're not in IT. I write test scripts, try to break software, and test patches for various releases/upgrades.

It's actually more fun than it sounds, but that might be because I work with a crazy crew that keeps me entertained! IT isn't exactly known for being a fun job ;-)

I love good QA analysts. Seriously. 

[jessnpaul]

Sept 25, 2015 12:27:48 GMT -5 @sessalee said:

Sept 25, 2015 12:26:44 GMT -5 jessnpaul said:

My title is QA Analyst but I usually just say "software tester" as it's easier to understand if you're not in IT. I write test scripts, try to break software, and test patches for various releases/upgrades.

It's actually more fun than it sounds, but that might be because I work with a crazy crew that keeps me entertained! IT isn't exactly known for being a fun job ;-)

I love good QA analysts. Seriously. 

It's usually a thankless job, so thank you

[drloretta]

I'm a medical writer. I work with pharmaceutical companies and experts in the field to write about new products to educate doctors and other health professionals.

My job last summer sounded so fun on paper, but sucked. The company made personalized videos to educate patients on diseases they had

[fortnightlily]

I'm a User Interface Developer (also called Frontend Developer) for web-based software, so I use HTML, CSS, and Javascript to write the code for the screens users interact with when they log into my company's web application (we make software for nonprofits). I've also done some User Experience, which is designing how those screens should function, the workflows, etc. before I actually build them.

I'll second the good-QA-tester praise

[monsterz]

Sept 25, 2015 12:26:44 GMT -5 jessnpaul said:

My title is QA Analyst but I usually just say "software tester" as it's easier to understand if you're not in IT. I write test scripts, try to break software, and test patches for various releases/upgrades.

It's actually more fun than it sounds, but that might be because I work with a crazy crew that keeps me entertained! IT isn't exactly known for being a fun job ;-)

It should be.   I was just telling a coworker that I am having a lot of fun in my current role.  Part of it is being at the right company, at my last company the culture was toxic. 

[stretchad]

I work in brand management. This means I have a product category that I'm responsible for from top to bottom...I figure out what the next new product innovation should be, our product & go-to-market strategy for a year, how the product is positioned, how it tastes, it's price, distribution, etc. I am also responsible for delivering the revenue & profit for my business (~$4bn) which makes up about a quarter of total company revenue, and then ensuring that day-to-day product is in the right place, at the right time.

It involves a lot of general management and strong marketing skills.
Right now I work on a beverage category for a very large company.

[osulori]

The very short, generic as it can get version is that I help kids communicate better.

[Cicero]

I spend a lot of time telling people that they really can't just do whatever it is they were planning on doing and trying to clean up messes after they go ahead and do it anyway. Other than that most of my time is spent drafting/reviewing contracts.

[bullsgirl]

I am an elementary school administrator in a title 1 school. I have about a thousand responsibilities, but the 2 biggest are curriculum and discipline. I observe teachers and provide feedback a lot. I also spend a lot of my day responding to either calls to classrooms to deal with behavior, or referrals. I say this line to kids multiple times a week, "Right now we are just talking this through. We can work it out here and now. But if I find out you are lying to me about it we are going to have to ________(insert consequence here, which can be as small as calling their parent, lunch detention, sit out from recess, whatever). Is there anything about your story you want to change?"

I also have an open door policy, so I am a sounding board for teachers alot.

[mrssandro]

Mine is so boring to explain.

I am a business analyst and I support the software development team with documentation of the code for both the internal and external clients. So basically I create/manage/update XML API documentation and publish it out so other teams can see it. I have to attend a bunch of meetings and listen to developers talk and design all day long. Then based on what is decided I have to build documentation from that.

[cjeanette]

Lots of random-

I answer client questions pertaining to their investments, if they need money I determine where to take it from. I make sure they take their RMDs and worry about tax implications of things. I trade, individually and models. I make sure our variable annuities are invested properly and choose the investments. I make sure the person who does paperwork has what they need and that flow is going smoothly. I watch a lot of Erin Condren videos on You Tube. I sometimes sit in client meetings but try to avoid it.

There is more but you get the idea.

[thebreakfastclub]

I was the keeper of the checkbook for a category of merchandise. I built the financial plan for sales, receipts and margin.

In season, I would do analysis to understand how to react to business. I would often figure out the sales lift from promotions or markdowns, etc.

[Alyssa]

I process medical claims.  Labs, ER visits, clinic visits, child well-checks.  I use a computer system that flags procedures on claims and I have to go in and look at whether the claim should be paying or not. 

If a Dr. charges for 3 units of something when they are only allowed one per day, I adjust it.  I pay for one and deny the other 2 units for billing limits.  Sometimes an office visit includes a certain procedure and the Dr. will add in the same procedure again on the second line.  So I have to deny the second line because they are already billing the office visit which includes the procedure.

If the provider bills with an approved authorization, then even though it's something that we would normally deny, we have to fix the claim with the the auto denial code and pay it.

[Marmee]

Poofity poof

[noodleskooze]

poof

[rbp]

Everybody *thinks* they know what college professors do. What they don't know is that we have meetings...and meetings about meetings...and meetings about meetings about meetings...

I once had a student at my office hours say "So do you just like sit here and wait for us to come ask you questions?"  :?

ETA: And also that we (at least untenured faculty) spend lots of time "reflecting" and writing reports about ourselves.

[meij]

I hang out with other people's threeangers all day. There's not much mystery to my day.

[hazelden]

I spend part of my day doing social listening for several Facebook and Twitter accounts for a large retailer. I read multiple social streams, identify trends and determine which posts require further research and response. I spend the rest of my day researching and responding to posts in our brand voice. If social volume is slow I respond to customer service related emails.

[robyn]

I'm a paralegal in a small firm. The partner I work for does solely bankruptcy work, Chapter 7 and Chapter 13. We work on the Debtors' side. I meet with clients, do an intake of information from them and take paperwork, talk to new and existing clients on the phone, receive and process all of our emails from the Court (we get an email whenever something happens in a case). I manage our calendar for deadlines, to-do's, court appearances, and appointments; I talk to opposing counsel or their paralegals. I calculate plan payments, arrearages, new payments, and figure out creative ways for our clients to make their bankruptcies work. I also prepare all of the bankruptcy petitions and schedules and review them with the clients to sign. I file new cases, pleadings, motions, amendments, past due tax returns, request claims from creditors, review new bankruptcy code and forms, pull credit reports, and manage our receptionist. I've been at my job for 10 years, and pretty much do it all when it comes to bankruptcy except actually speak in Court.

[lucy83]

I help greenhouse growers and vegetable farmers grow their crops more efficiently. I also adjunct as horticulture professor.

[sunshine608]

I work with college students who have broken the conduct code and/or have behavioral issues.

I also coach a Mock team and adjunct classes to earn extra $$$. You can teach in any field where you have 18 graduate credits.

[vmars]

I work in the Civil Division at the courthouse. I deal mostly with post judgment cases when people are collecting on their judgments (under $15k) I handle bank levies, wage executions, taking away people's license/registration, judgments that need to go out of state, judgments that are satisfied. I also mediate landlord tenant, small claims and special civil cases. I have to do monthly reports for my team. I also am in charge of finding coverage for court clerks.

[preppy]

I am an event planner for a healthcare tech company. I throw dinner events for physicians and medical practice decision makers all across the country. Generally it's at a four or five star hotel with cocktails, dinner, sales pitch, etc and sometimes wine tastings or something. I also plan and execute our trade show booths at medical specialty shows. I additionally do rouge events that pop up like sporting events (derby, masters, etc) and some events at the resort that my company owns in Maine. I like the work a lot, like my company a lot, seriously dislike my boss. I travel a ton so I will have to see how that works once I am back to work.

[gibbinator]

Document arrives in my inbox in French, and goes out in English.
I use a fairly complex program to assist me with this process. Mainly it integrates glossaries I've compiled as well as translation segments (sentences) based on my previous work and suggests possible translations if matches are found.
It speeds things up and keeps vocabulary consistent, but I do about 95% of the translation either in my head or with the help of various hard copy or online language resources.