OT: Mommy's Alright, Daddy's Alright

[throwittoblythe]

Simple question for the CF community: Do your parents understand what you do for a living? As in, do they have a firm grasp on what you ACTUALLY do?

For me, the answer is a straight "no." I work in the civil/construction engineering world. I started my career as a geotechnical engineer (dirt engineer) doing design but have been in more of the BD/procurement part of the business for years now. My parents do not understand what I do and still talk to me as though I do design work all the time. No matter how many times I've explained it, they do not grasp that I'm not a design engineer and have not been for 5+ years.

 

[Sigmapolis]

No. Not at all.

 

[IcSyU]

Yep. Not much to imagine what a CPA does for the most part.

Normal people though generally think if you're a CPA you know everything about the accounting world. They can't fathom that someone can be a CPA and not know taxes.

 

[VeloClone]

I haven't gotten that far with my mother. I'm still working on her figuring out how to spell my daughter's first name and our address (she gets both the number and street name wrong). She did finally figure out how to spell my wife's name, though.

In her defense on the names, they are both common names with two equally common spellings for each. She just seemed to get the wrong spellings stuck in her head.

 

[coolerifyoudid]

Yes, to a degree. I'm in transportation/logistics, so they understand the concepts easily enough. However, they really don't understand the full scope of what I'm involved in.

My wife works in the technical side of a company that deals with financial companies. She talks in constant acronyms. 23 years later, I still don't know what the hell she does. If someone asks me, I just tell them she's a stripper.

 

[throwittoblythe]

Yes, to a degree. I'm in transportation/logistics, so they understand the concepts easily enough. However, they really don't understand the full scope of what I'm involved in.

This is a better description of my case, as well. My parents know I work in the civil/construction engineering world. But what I specifically do everyday, they don't get.

 

[BoxsterCy]

Simple question for the CF community: Do your parents understand what you do for a living? As in, do they have a firm grasp on what you ACTUALLY do?

For me, the answer is a straight "no." I work in the civil/construction engineering world. I started my career as a geotechnical engineer (dirt engineer) doing design but have been in more of the BD/procurement part of the business for years now. My parents do not understand what I do and still talk to me as though I do design work all the time. No matter how many times I've explained it, they do not grasp that I'm not a design engineer and have not been for 5+ years.

Not sure as both have been gone for some time. When I was a landscape architect for an architecture office in DSM and then a small design office in Edina people thought I did yard landscaping. Other than my own yard I've never done a home landscape in my life. I did everything from the master plan of Pleasant Creek Rec Area in Palo, Iowa to the parking lot and sewers of the DSM Botanical Center to fancy ass redwood decks for rich doctors in Edina. After I started work for the Corps of Engineers, mostly doing rec and environmental planning, I "sold out" and went into management when they opened up project management positions as interdisciplinary. I didn't even try to explain to people what an LA did as a civil engineering agency project manager. Everything from managing design teams to negotiating design contacts to interagency support agreements to Asian carp go to guy for our Mississippi River Division.

BTW, a geotech soils guy saying "dirt" made me laugh. I miss my geotechs explaining to me their risk analysis on global stability of levees in North Dakota.

 

[Angie]

Great question. In terms of the broad sense, they understand "healthcare IT." But I don't think they really want or need to know at a more granular level what all my responsibilities are. It's so mired down in regulations and industry speak that it's really hard to explain to anyone from the outside without putting them to sleep, so I don't think they'd ever get much beyond the highlights when telling someone, anyway.

 

[dawgpound]

I am a Marketing Data Analyst that also focuses on Business Intelligence. My parents have zero clue what any of that means, so basically they just ask if my work is going well and if I like it. Thats about the extent of our conversation on it

 

[throwittoblythe]

BTW, a geotech soils guy saying "dirt" made me laugh. I miss my geotechs explaining to me their risk analysis on global stability of levees in North Dakota.

"Dirt engineer" is the easiest way to explain it to the layman. Though I know many in that profession deride anyone who calls it "dirt" and not "soil." Frankly, I could not give a damn.

 

[srjclone]

Yep, bus dev, marketing and sales. Pretty much exactly what my dad did growing up. Only thing my parents don't fully get is the technology that my company sells, but the understand the basics of how it works.

 

[Cyclones_R_GR8]

Mom & Dad knew I worked in computers but didn't really understand what I do. I think half the people at work have trouble understanding because it seems they think my job title is Miracle Worker

 

[Sigmapolis]

I guess I will expand upon my answer --

None of my grandparents and neither of my parents went to college. All of their jobs were pretty understandable in their responsibilities for a layperson.

Housewife
Nurse
Nurse
Railroad conductor
Real estate agent
Utility lineman

When I went off to college (or more properly started driving to Ames for school after high school instead of staying in town), my father... not the most intellectual of fellows... liked to make affectionate but snide dad comments about college being a "waste of time" for "pipsqueaks" and "nerds" who could only learn out of a book.

My father was the railroad conductor from the list, and he was a local union president for 20+ years. I was raised in a strong union household, one very proud of its blue collar aesthetic. "College-educated" or "white collar professional" was a dog whistle for "management" and "blood-sucking lawyers" in that milieu -- not to be trusted, not even real men. To him, a man doing work meant being outside, on his feet, with protective equipment, first and foremost gloves for his hands. Management was a parasite on real men's backs and needed to get of the way so they could get the real work done with their hands.

My brother has a college degree, but like many of you in the ag, science, or engineering fields, has more of a field job than an office job. While I never operate anything heavier than a mouse and keyboard save a telephone handset.

Of course, after I finished school and was making more money by my late 20s than he was making at the end of his career in his early 60s, he quieted down about this, but it was a culture shock for him. He still does not understand it.

It is hard to even explain my job now to people. The core of it is software sales, but I also do development on products, technical support, and some consulting for and with the same tools. Nobody forces me to specialize.

 

[CycloneNorth]

Yes. I'm a transportation engineer so most people have a general idea of what I do and my projects are always visible.

 

[JM4CY]

Simple question for the CF community: Do your parents understand what you do for a living? As in, do they have a firm grasp on what you ACTUALLY do?

 

[diaclone]

Not really.

I "grew up" as a Business Analyst, pretty much being a liaison between end users and developers, doing requirements discovery, spec writing, testing, training, etc., for new software systems. I was quite fortunate to be on projects in every functional area of the org and work with all levels from entry level to - C level. I did project management, managed teams of analysts and developers, and more. Sometimes it just hard to explain. But I've never been able (or even wanted) to fix everyone's desktop/laptop (which everybody thought I could do because I was "in computers").

 

[Al_4_State]

I work with my dad. So, yeah. Intimately. As well as anyone else could understand it.

My mom does in a very generalized sense.

 

[Sousaclone]

"Dirt engineer" is the easiest way to explain it to the layman. Though I know many in that profession deride anyone who calls it "dirt" and not "soil." Frankly, I could not give a damn.

Dirt is what you get on your boots and in your truck, soil is highly specialized building material.

From the contractor side, geotech is all voodoo math and witchcraft that is covered up by an extremely large FOS.


I think my parents have a general idea on what I do (Construction Field Engineer). Basically they know I figure out how to build large bridges. They did get a slightly better idea a year or so ago when I was actually able to take them out on a jobsite tour when the visited me. The scale up close is vastly different.

 

[mywayorcyway]

The last time my Dad visited he confessed he had no idea what I did. I'm 44 and have had the same job for 13 years.

 

[oldman]

My folks pretty much know what I do, construction estimating. My dad was in HVAC construction for many years and in fact estimated projects for a short time. He couldn't stand the pressure, and it baffles him how I do it.