To find it awkward explaining my job?

[Bluebluesea321]

Does anyone else find it awkward/tiring trying to explain their job to people e.g. when being asked in a social setting? Unless you’re a vocation like doctor, teacher, accountant etc it just feels quite difficult without either sounding boring or show-offy! I work in a senior role in financial services and although it’s a very good job I have people asking what I do!

Telling people you are a specialist worker in child sex abuse kills conversation stone dead so I usually mutter something about working with dc.

Not that easy for known professions really.

I'm an accountant and find that most people havn't the faintest idea what it entails. Some think I literally sit and count money all day like a bank clerk. Others just assume I spend my day advising rich clients about tax evasion.

Many professions have lots of different branches. In accountancy, there's compliance, tax planning, audit, management accounting, systems, costing, trusts, executorship, mergers & aquisitions, international, VAT, capital taxes, etc - all very diverse and no single accountant could do it all.

@EvilHerbivore - can you tell people where you work or is that out?

I think I should start telling people to google me, actually.

I annoy myself when I reply I'm JUST a ....

I work for a large international company. Even internally people dont understand what I do from my job title, so I have to list what I actually do (and its a fairly recent position so loads of my old workmates want to really understand what I do).

Outside of work Im vague cos it's too difficult to understand if you dont know the internal dynamics.

Mine is dead easy to explain but dp's is a bit more tricky.

He tends to just say 'I'm a scientist'

He's an industrial chemist which is both far more boring and dangerous than you might imagine.

I reckon evilherbivore works for mi5

Telling people I am a psychiatrist usually leads to a predictable joke, then the person saying things which makes it obvious they don't know the difference between a psychiatrist and a psychologist.

@Windinmyhair also out! TBH possibly even more out than what I do! Bloody awkward isn't it?!

I’m a London Underground Station Supervisor. Unless you are in the railway family it’s tough to talk about it because all people want to do is moan about the Tube.

I'm a librarian, so get a lot of "Oh, you must really like books/reading". I would actually discard CVs if they said that they liked books, as I only wanted staff who realised that they really needed to like people. I used to say "I'm a librarian by day ...." and leave people wondering.

I'm also in a senior role in financial services, and I too hate this question so much so that I no longer ask it or answer it (I just brush it of with, 'oh, in banking, but what I really love to do in my spare time...'. If I explain what I do I sound self-important and showy-offy and if I downplay it I get knocked to the bottom of the social heap. I don't choose my friends based on their social standing and I refuse to be judged on it.

Mines easy behaviourist but then you get the CF wanting free advice knocked that right in the head.

I often have to explain my job as the job title is meaningless unless you give the explanation. I have a few stock answers I give depending on who is asking. My job isn’t high level but just boring to explain.

Saying you are a doctor is no solution.

People start telling you about their illnesses which is not exactly what you want at a dinner party. And often not remotely relevant to what your specialty either.

And your specialty can be a complete conversation killer too. I thought mine was bad - palliative care, people start telling me about how their relative has just died or that I must be some form of living saint, until I met someone who is a paediatric pathologist. 'Hi, yes, I cut up dead babies for a living' - sound of tumbleweed.

Consultant who worked in paediatric palliative care said she took to just lying about her job - people couldn't cope with someone working with terminally ill children through choice.

@XingMing were you a CoSec? I bet that’s a hard one to explain (and a really hard job!!)

@EvilHerbivore - are you just really vague then... 'I am a civil servant' covers a multitude of potential jobs!

Like Fluffycloudland77 I'm a Podiatrist .
It usually incurs "Eeeeeurgh how can you look at peoples' manky feet"

I sometimes just say "I work for the NHS" and they'll say "Are you a Nurse" ( cos I'm female.)

I just answer something like that especially if it's a situation I don't really want to talk about me .

@PeachieGeorgia - yes - I try and avoid it tbh! If I say I work for a bank I have had people before think that means I work as a bank cashier (nothing wrong with that, just totally different!) - a vague ‘finance’ would make people think I’m an accountant...

I work in supply chain management and sourcing. I'm also qualified physiotherapist and I usually say that cause it's easier.

@Nofunkingworriesmate oh I don’t use the word ‘senior’ in conversation - I’m a ‘head of’ but people don’t really understand what the area is so inevitably it just ends up sounding like a mundane office job...! (Which arguably it probably is )

@Queenioqueenio

@Windinmyhair I saw I work in housing usually 😁 and then move the conversation on!

I hate telling people I'm a solicitor.. more often than not it's met with 'ah so you must be really clever?' and it's impossible to answer that without sounding like a massive twat/a liar