I work in a senior position in a University. I’m part of University governance and strategy and have no direct contact with students. My job title is long and full of HEI-related jargon. Most people within the sector would understand what I do but in “real life”, I wouldn’t even attempt to foist my job title on anyone. I actually love my job and find it extremely interesting and the odd person who has listened long enough to understand what I do has said that it sounds fascinating. I realise it won’t be interesting to everyone though, and there’s so much explanation involved that I can’t and won’t go into the detail every time I’m asked what I do. There is really no succinct way to sum it up.
I usually go for “I work for X University”. Very occasionally I’ll be asked what I teach and then I have to explain that I don’t hold a Lecturer or Teaching Fellow post and then they lose interest immediately. Sometimes I am told that it’s people like me and NHS Managers who are ruining the country. More often than not though, people assume that I’m “just” a secretary (their words, not mine). I’ve genuinely had conversations that have gone:
“What do you do?”
“I work for X university”
“Ah, well. Never mind, I’m sure something else will come up”
Or
“Oh, isn’t that really hard for you? I mean you went to university and now have to watch students graduating and going onto good jobs while you’re just a secretary there”.
I know I could answer the question with “I’m a manager at X university” but that sounds so wanky.
Anyone who does start to listen to the explanation of my job will invariably butt in before I’ve reached the end of the first sentence to ask me what on earth that has to do with speaking a foreign language and then tell me I’m a failure because I’m not working as an interpreter for the UN (clearly the only career path for an MEL graduate).
I also tend to get interrogated about the person’s son/daughter’s chance of getting into University, I’ll be told all about their results so far, what subjects they are taking now and predicted grades and they’ll be really anxious for me to give them advice and disappointed/annoyed when I say this is nothing to do with me. I’ll also be asked to explain why their son/daughter received a low grade in an exam. I get treated with suspicion if I admit I only have a vague sense of the academic timetable in any given year and, my personal favourite is when I get told I have an even better deal than teachers with 10-12 weeks off in the summer. Nobody will believe me when I say that not only do I work all year round but the summer is particularly busy with year-end and strategic planning work going on “but the students are off…” is a common refrain. When asked if the students are keeping me busy throughout the year, I used to try to explain that I’m not student-facing but I’ve given up now and just say yes. Unfortunately that gets me into more difficult conversations as people tend to follow it up by asking why said students are making me busy – is it exam time? Do they have accommodation problems?
More recently I’ve started telling people I work in either HR or Finance at the University. This is accepted although I still get the wasted degree comments.