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> - You can be professional and proud of your job, but your job is not your identity. There is more to you than what you do for a living. I see this frequently
by jacooper 4y ago
> - You can be professional and proud of your job, but your job is not your identity. There is more to you than what you do for a living.
I see this frequently pointed out, as in not introducing yourself by your profession, etc.
But what are you then?
You introduce yourself as an uncle to somebody or a dad?
Yes there are things outside of working, but its a core part of who a person is.
- 29athrowaway 4y agoIt's part of what you do, and it does influence how you see things, but your life does not being or end with a job. Your job friends, however friendly, might not necessarily remain your friends after you leave the company. You can care about your job and your craft, and doing good for your customers to do your part in building a better world for everyone... but there must be something else outside that or your life will be pretty empty, and might even affect your job in the long run.
- whiplash451 4y agoYou can start by stating what you are good at.
- vuln 4y ago“Hi I’m John, I’m good at basket weaving”
- AlecSchueler 4y agoWhy not?
- jacooper 4y agoMaybe at a basketball court but in a public setting? No body's going to take you seriously.
- AlecSchueler 4y agoI don't need them to. I take my satisfaction from my baskets.
- InvaderFizz 4y agoMost of my friends know I do DevOps/SRE which is relevant to a lot of conversations we may have. They don't usually know or care who I do it for.
- jacooper 4y agoThat's what I meant, I will edit the comment to make it clearer.
- brailsafe 4y agoHi I'm ${first_name}. I only ever ask what someone does if it's clearly relevant to the context in which I met them, such as their lunch break.
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago> But what are you then? "What are you" is a fun question to ask, particularly when traveling. Most Americans answer with their race or job. Italians, in my experience, gave answers with their local heritage; in India I frequently got a religion.
- switchbak 4y agoRace?? Wow. Around here you're more likely to hear what their preferred outdoor activity is.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- Swizec 4y agoLeading workshops in USA and Europe has been pretty eyeopening. Americans: “I’m so and so from $employer where I do software engineering in the foobles department” Europeans: “I’m so and so from $city where I live with 3 kids and enjoy basket weaving. For work I build foobles” You have to explicitly ask Europeans about their employers whereas Americans seem to get completely consumed by their company so much they lose all other identity.
- HarryHirsch 4y agoIt's a puzzling observation, isn't it? By now, every at-will US employee will have internalized that they are disposable, and yet they continue to identify as a member of $COMPANY family. It's just bizarre, and I just can't think of an explanation.
- jacooper 4y agoPrestige?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- dontupvoteme 4y agoCombination of an inherited Anglo class system and American corporatism.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- myself248 4y agoI noticed this at 2600 meetings: "I'm so-and-so, I hack on $technology and I like to teach $interest", and some would mention their employer as an aside, but some wouldn't. Whereas at tech-bro meetups: "I'm so-and-so, I work for $employer in the $technology group".
- cscurmudgeon 4y ago
- jarsin 4y agoAfter 2008 something that always sticks in my mind was nobody puts where they worked on their gravestone.