Explain what your profession is like as you would explain it to your grandmother?
Asked by
rebbel (
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April 11th, 2010
Would you like to explain in simple words, what your job holds in.
Your present, past or future job.
If your grandmother or old aunt asked you to tell her what you need to do in your job, how would you describe it?
Are there any rocker scientists or brain surgeons on Fluther?
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40 Answers
I read 150 pages a night, write 30 pages a week, and in 2 more years I will have a piece of paper that won’t really help me get another job unless I rinse and repeat for another 4 years, and even then, it’s sketchy.
I’m a personal property appraiser. I’d have to say, “Grandma, I rummage through dead people’s underwear drawers.”
I’m a full-time undergraduate history student :-)
@Blondesjon Wouldn’t your gramma wonder what a “farm” is?
I tell storys and give advice… for points on the internet that have no monetary value.
@rebbel, it was a decent enough guess!
Hey,Grandma! I work as an artist,just as I told you I would be doing when I was five:)
I still paint,but I now do pottery,stained glass,carve wood,and take photos.I will still draw in the dirt with a stick any chance I get and I still LOVE it :)))
There is an American University thread on Facebook that asks alumni/ae to “explain what you do in seven words or less”—that seems to work for me. Also, I have always felt that professionals and other workers who could say what they do in one word had the advantage over people who needed more words “doctor, lawyer, teacher, nurse, accountant, bookkeeper, salesclerk, server, artist, lumberjack, writer etc etc” have an easier job than “middle manager, widget factory” or even “Rear Admiral, Lower Half” [which I think has to be the one of the funniest titles going]—I can say designer or designer/editor or print/web/exhibit designer argghh.
(why are we assuming that grandmothers have low IQ? My grandma’s real smart and active…)
but, my job in simpler terms:
well, I shut myself up in a room and I write and write. And then when I finish writing I get a group of people together and we shut ourselves up in another room, usually in a factory building in the evening, and I tell them what to do—where to stand and what to say. And then finally, we are so proud of what we do, that we go into another space where lots of people come, and we show them.
Sometimes instead of me writing things for people to say I find some music and we move to that. If you look at us it will be like your dream—there are characters and a sort of story but sometimes people change into other people, and crazy things happen.
Now because this sort of work doesn’t earn much money, in the weekends I teach students how to write about poems and thick books. And I also teach this Chinese exercise in the park.
@rebbel designed exihibits, print materials, and websites [not necessarily all at the same time]—researched, wrote, and edited stuff. Pulled various pieces of a project together to create a whole . . . .
How ‘bout you, @rebbel?
My ‘boss’ tells me that we are going to make a garden bench.
His colleague makes a drawing of it.
My colleagues and i then take some wood from the depot which we think will be of good quality to make the bench of.
We cut it in the right dimensions/measurements and when we’re done with that we put all the parts together with glue and bolts and wood-connections.
When all parts are put in one we will paint it in the colour, desired by the guy who ordered the bench.
Hi Grandma. Nice to meet you. Would have been nice if it could have been before the Zombie Apocalypse, but I understand – you being dead since 1963 and all.
What am I up to? Oh, I’m a mommy. And I head the food rations for myself and the other 74 people walled up in this shopping mall.
I no longer HAVE a job, but if I had to explain to my grandmother what the one I held the longest was like, it would go something like this:
“I have a whole bunch of men who work for me. We all wear uniforms. We get up very, very early in the morning to do push-ups and sit-ups and run at least five miles. Then we practice firing all sorts of guns. When another country has been misbehaving ( whatever that term means to the President and Congress ), they send us to kill them. Sometimes we jump out of airplanes to kill them, and sometimes we fly there in helicopters to kill them. Most people do not like to see us coming.”
I try to help people navigate a complicated judicial system. I help insure that children who get into trouble are treated fairly and their rights are not trampled upon, and those who are in poor home situations have a chance to live in a safe environment with caring adults.
@rebbel you are a fabricator [and I don’t mean fibber]—do you call yourself a carpenter or a cabinet-maker? I have noticed that this distinction seems to imply different skill levels with cabinet-maker rating higher but many people I know do both and use both titles . . .
@rebbel
LMAO! At least it’s the plain, unvarnished truth! : D
@anartist
LOL! No, just airborne combat infantry. : )
@anartist
When asked i say carpenter.
First of, it’s a very well known profession, and an old one.
And i feel i’m too inexperienced to call myself a cabinet-maker.
Other ways of explaining a soldier’s job:
*We kill people and break things.
*We belong to a huge organzation which sends us to exotic lands to meet strange people and kill them.
I wipe butt in a hospital.
Well Gran, it is like this. I do stuff and people pay me for it. Then I check other people’s stuff to make sure that it is good enough to pay them for it. If they have stuffed it up, I suggest stuff so they can fix their stuff. So basically Gran – I do stuff all.
@CaptainHarley *We belong to a huge organzation which sends us to exotic lands to meet strange people and kill them.”
This one I’ve heard. Actually a photograph of a poster with this on it is in the photo ardchives of the U.S. Naval Historical Center —- Army, Navy, hey, what’s the diff?
Either “My job is to sell ideas” or “I shill partisan public policy to voters, but don’t worry Grandma. I have my own ways of resisting.”
Dear Grandma,
I’ve decided to follow in your footsteps and become a farmer. Like you, I plan to plant a very high value crop. Unlike you, I do not want to be an amateur. I’d like to sell a lot of product.
I know you grew just for your personal consumption, and that of a few friends. And your daughter, when she was a teenager. From their stories, I’ve learned a lot. But technology has changed, so I will be doing things a bit differently. Still, it was your inspiration that has made me decide to be a marijuana farmer.
Wundy
I make sure that the numbers on your bank statement are correct.
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