To think that these people have got it all wrong!

[Yesornono]

Two ppl today!!
Person 1 on Facebook: oh I am just so happy to have started my new teaching job!#officiallyateacher

Me (to myself) eeehhhh... you are not a teacher you are a teaching assistant (not putting down TA’s (as I know they are a godsend) but... there is a difference between teacher training and TA training 🤔

Person 2: in the supermarket, I bumped into an old friend. Having a catch up and she tells me her daughter is in college, I say fantastic etc what is she studying? Answer: Law, ooh fantastic etc etc then she says “ I know just think in 3 and a half years (she’s half way through 1st year) she will be a solicitor!! Me (to myself) eeeehhh NO in 3 and a half years she will have a law degree 🤦‍♀️

AIBU to think these ladies have got it all wrong!!??

My sister is hilarious! She is working at a university working in the finance department... she calls herself an accountant 😂

Nurse needs to be made a protected title in the UK.
I’m a retired qualified Nurse. If anyone asks my advse I’m point that out that I’m quite a few years out of practice.

However the amount of people I’ve met who claim to be a nurse but are carers or HCA’s is shocking.
I have nothing against either, I was both. But people hear Nurse and assume they are qualified, and have seen it on here too with people giving frankly dangerous advise. And then people slag off Nurses as not knowing what they’re talking about, it damages the profession, that’s why we care.

People have a chip on their shoulder and try to make themselves feel better. I would feel more sorry for them than annoyed. I am more interested by my payslip, and would be happy to be thought at the PA even if I was the CEO as long as I had the salary and package to go with my role.
It's worth boosting your job title to get a pay-rise accordingly, but apart from that, life is easier when people don't really know your position.

Im an accountant. I'm studying the AAT Level 2

Every Tom, Dick and Harry with a bit of cheap drawing software is an architect apparently despite it being a protected title and taking 7 years to qualify. Doesn’t stop them and it does my head in.

My dp does this in reverse and it's v funny to see folk show their snobbery by changing the way they treat him. e.g. he will say "I'm a cleaner" when he is actually (for e.g.) the COO of a firm that has maintenance contracts with the govt.

In general though it's a difficult one, i understand why people do this, work is such a defining thing.

But the problem is that part of most designated professionals' training is ethics, responsibility towards the public good, being v aware of where you can present yourself as an expert and where you can't - if you've never been exposed to that part of the training, you may not be aware of how dangerous it can be to give advice you're not qualified to give.

Ha ha. I have a very snotty neighbour who told my DP that she was a surgeon.

She’s actually a receptionist at a dentists.

My annoying relative is a teacher apparently. Or could be she says. She’s registered as a teacher she says. Actually she’s a childcare assistant.

My really annoying half sister is a consultant. Although I think she’s admin. She never says. My half brother is a manager and a mixologist. No you are not, you are a Barman in a second rate hotel.

‘I changed a wheel once. Does that make me a mechanic by their logic?’

This ^^

Some of these are hilarious! I’m a bookkeeper for self-employed people (that’s all I’m qualified and experienced for, level 2 and level 3 ICB qualified) but would never say I was an accountant! People would just end up asking me questions that I wouldn’t understand probably lol.

I don’t get how people can lie just to make themselves feel better about the role their in, as long as you’re earning your own money and happy then who cares about impressing others.

I have an acquaintance who calls herself a business executive - she is actually a PA to a business exec and does little more than general Admin!!!!

Our PAs do so much more than general admin. A good PA is like gold dust!

Nobody really understands my job so it baffles rather than impresses. People in my office comment on how diverse my role is from overheard phone calls so it's hard to explain to laypeople. I work in nhs communications. One minute I'm designing a pancreas icon for the webpage then the next I'm advising our ceo on the comms approach to an issue. I think acquaintances think I answer phones.

A friends ex told anyone who would listen that he was a musician/producer when in reality he was long term unemployed, with only a flea bitten guitar to tinker with.

Oh and he sounded like a cat that had its balls squished in a vice 😂

I know someone who did a 6hr first aid course, yep you guessed it, following this course they were a "Paramedic"

A very nice lady I studied AAT (foundation stage) with told all of her friends out of college that she would be able to countersign their passport photos when the year was up. She thought she'd be pretty much on a par with a chartered accountant.

Anyone notice that 'Professional Poker Player' on Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

After some grilling from Jeremy, turned out he was back at uni full time on a law course and played poker online 'a bit'.

I do think that the term 'professional' has got a bit blurred - it did used to literally mean that you were a Member of a Professional Association that accepted, refused, suspended or terminated your application based on strict criteria.

Although many people may be "professional" in their approach it doesn't make them a Professional This, That or Anything Other. Whilst I'm qualified and experienced in a wide range of fields and roles, with a concurrent 'professional' approach parallel to the context and environment within which I'm working' I am not a Professional.

I take pride in my work and that is not only enough for me but also the diverse people that employ and pay me.

That's my approach so far - late 50s, won't change - "I ain't dead yet".

Ooh! I'm a lecturer! (Preschool) 😂

I briefly over-inflated my job spec for about a year without even realising it.

I work as a data manager in clinical trials and my colleague informed me that I had been listed as the Principle Investigator (PI) for one of our trials for some mad reason.

“Really?!? How did I do?” I asked

“Ok actually” she replied

“Cool”

We are still no wiser as to how it happened and why no one questioned why the ‘real’ PI was answering questions instead of me.

I am a qualified certified(able!) executive mum - manager, hygienist, nurse, dietician, psychologist, educator, pa, book keeper, source of random information etc (Oh & I went to Cambridge - Anglia Ruskin! & I am proud of that!)

My late MIL used to tell everyone SIL was a teacher.
She was actually a Lunchtime supervisor and did a few voluntary hours a week (but not a qualified TA).

I am a teacher and it used to grate on me a lot.

When my dc were little I took a break from teaching and worked as a registered CM. I was accredited to take funded hours and childcare vouchers, did NVQ3 and was on the Quality Assurance pilot. MIL used to tell people I did some babysitting now and then (while her poor DS slaved away to provide for us)

I count as a dental professional.. even though it doesn't feel very professional, we have to have a registration (that we have to pay for to even work, the cheek!) And we have to pay for indemnity at work. It's quite scary when you read into the laws of it all.

I think that, before exaggerating, folk should consider how it will look when the truth (inevitably) comes out......At my last school, one Mummy was very critical of the Science teaching her son was receiving; we must be Doing It All Wrong, since he hadn't come top in the latest test. And she should know, what with being a Science teacher and all.
Sure enough, a glance at the "emergency parental contact" file gave the name of a local school. Where my colleague's husband was Head of Science. He recognised the name. She was his lab assistant.
Ironically, he spoke very highly of her skills as a lab assistant; it's a worthwhile job. She hadn't made the connection because of the very common surname (think Smith or Jones), but was deeply flustered when her attention was drawn to the connection.......and put herself in a very weak position, should she ever have just cause to complain.
Better to understate slightly, as other PP's have said.

Oxford Brooks has a lovely campus.

I don't really see the issue with a TA saying they teach.

Saying you 'teach' isn't the same as saying you're a teacher

Back in the day my parents were at a dinner party and a very well spoken chap asked my dad what line of work he was in. TVs, says my dad. Oh how fascinating, came the reply followed by a long spiel about the BBC etc. No, no said my dad, I fix them. Stony silence. Chap went off to find someone more worthy to talk to.

I'm a nurse. Proudly so. I always introduce myself as red, a (insert specialism here) nurse. I normally explain my role (unless they're too sick to care) and genuinely don't want to be a Dr. I love my job and it in itself has status amongst colleagues.

But I wear scrubs, carry a bleep and use a stethoscope. Therefore, very often, within 5 minutes I'm called Dr and have to correct people. They often do it again. It's like the association's are too strong to be merely broken by facts.