Comments on: So, What Do You Do?

By: Rob Aiers

Rob Aiers — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 09:33:36 +0000

You got a commute I am a Brit living in the UK but I deal with a specialist branch of law liaising with Law firms in the states. Try explaining that to people in the UK – I am not a lawyer but an expert in my field – and try getting people in the USA to understand that someone based out of the UK can impact their business by $millions – and I do. You see its not just that people want to put you in a “box” but they don’t want to look out of theirs.

By: Get More Done With a Work Buddy

Get More Done With a Work Buddy — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 16:01:31 +0000

[...] who understands your work. As Dawn pointed out in a previous post, explaining most web working jobs to the uninitiated can be difficult. Your work buddy should [...]

By: Why I Hate The Question “What Do You Do?” « PushTheLimitz

Why I Hate The Question “What Do You Do?” « PushTheLimitz — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:00:07 +0000

[...] What this man was trying to do was put a label on me. It’s a natural tendency – we as humans want to categorize. When we can’t or don’t, we’re not sure how to make sense of the information. We want everything to fit. What we fail to realize is that generalizations are not always correct. They influence us to make biases, judgments and stereotypes. The man misunderstood me. He thought that teaching English overseas requires an English degree. He made an inaccurate judgment about the job. Oftentimes, when we tell people what we “do,” they don’t understand us. [...]

By: Desiree

Desiree — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:49:08 +0000

I usually say that I work for myself doing marketing and translation. Then people go like “oh cool”. But it backfired today when a parent of a child my brother tutors dropped by and I responded as I always do…and then they wanted to sit next to me and see what I was doing …I mean this person wanted to ask 50 million questions!

By: Top 10 Ways to Answer the Question: What Do You Do?

Top 10 Ways to Answer the Question: What Do You Do? — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:01:59 +0000

[...] 2009 (1:00pm) Dawn Foster No CommentsTweet This Around this time last year, I wrote a post about how hard it was to answer the dreaded questions about what I do for a living when talking to family and friends during the holidays. It didn’t take long to realize that I [...]

By: Ashley

Ashley — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 14:10:16 +0000

i don’t answer similar what is your job?

By: Great Blog Content vs. Search Engine Optimization

Great Blog Content vs. Search Engine Optimization — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:17:07 +0000

[...] Yahoo Pipes and then I wrote a short, quick post about how I dread answering the question, “So, What Do You Do?” during the holidays when talking to non-technical family and friends. The [...]

By: What I Do And Why I Do It « Whuttup?!

What I Do And Why I Do It « Whuttup?! — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:49:47 +0000

[...] a bonus, here’s a funny read from Dawn Foster about what she does and her experience that is pretty similar to [...]

By: Mike McClure

Mike McClure — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 19:55:09 +0000

For me, the worst was when I was working a regular office job at Hewlett Packard.

I was a Business Intelligence Manager in the outsourcing division but all I got from most people was:
“Can you fix my printer?”

*sigh*

By: How Will You Survive the Holiday?

How Will You Survive the Holiday? — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:01:14 +0000

[...] and friends, which can mean that you will most likely be faced with the dreaded question: “So, what do you do?” from your less technical friends and family. I always struggle with how to answer this [...]

By: WebWorkerDaily » Archive The Language of the Web Worker «

WebWorkerDaily » Archive The Language of the Web Worker « — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 16:08:13 +0000

[...] the holidays, I talked about how hard it is to explain what I do to family members, friends, and other people living in the regular world who find our web worker [...]

By: Desirea

Desirea — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:06:07 +0000

I usually just say “I’m a computer programmer.” It usually scares them off of any other questions. If I get too deep, their eyes glaze over.

By: NatalieMac

NatalieMac — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 20:08:02 +0000

“I work with computers” is no good because then they just want you to fix their computer or figure out how they can use their neighbor’s secured WiFi.

“Front-end developer” gets too many smirks and suggestive questions about back-end developers.

So I usually settle with “I make web sites.” Half the people who hear that claim they need a web site but I don’t think I’ve ever actually gotten any business that way.

By: gwalter

gwalter — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 19:49:16 +0000

Funny, I no longer work in tech, but I have the same issues. I’ve always been told to break out of of the “label” and move into the actual doing. Hence, I coach people and speak motivationally.

By: Tamara

Tamara — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 18:39:53 +0000

Hi,
I ran across this as I was posting in Facebook…too cute. Very good article and I know just what you mean. I use all this social media stuff to promote my books and speaking career and my husband comes home and says, “What did you do today?” I say,
“chatted and promoted.” and you can just guess the rest of the conversation.
PS I used to be a vegan, but not anymore. I do, however, still eat 85-90% raw, organic…not this week tho!

Take care,
TD

By: #define SYSTEM_ADMINISTRATOR « Blogs are like opinions. Everybody has one…

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 23:07:25 +0000

[...] παραλλαγή αυτού του διαγράμματος. Γιατί όπως φαίνεται δεν είμαι ο μόνος που δεν μπορεί να απαντήσει απλά και περιεκτικά το [...]