Saturday, November 24, 2007
Wait, what did you say you do?
We just got back from my high school reunion. It was surreal. I recognized most people but I forgot more names than I anticipated. And more people seemed to remember me than I expected. Sadly, most of the band kids didn't come, so I was stuck talking to people who weren't really my good friends. Anyway, what is relevant here is that I realized how weird my job sounds to lay people. I'm used to going to parties populated mostly by scientists so rather than asking what you do, they ask what you study. Tonight, it was sales people and bankers and teachers and such. My job was utterly strange sounding. Plus, I felt pretentious saying I was working on a PhD. It was the first time I felt self conscious describing my occupation. Usually I'm really proud of it.
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3 comments:
I usually get positive vibes when I say have a PhD and do research, but when I detail my research questions, the reactions are mixed. From "Very interesting and important" when it comes to the current, more applied stuff I do now, via "Meh" when it comes to my basic research I did for my PhD to "I'm laughing my head off" to what I did for my previous postdoc (involving cow poop)
I would love to go to a high school reunion and tell the people who bullied me for being a geek that I have a PhD and work in cancer research! (Kinda). That was actually my fantasy at the time!! Unfortunately my old school doesn't do reunions (they're not that common in the UK in general).
I thought I would be really into it, but what I do sounds too weird. It's usually met with blank stares. Not like cancer research that rings a bell right away and sounds really important.
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