Around 10 years ago, when I was leaving the first job that I got right out of college, my former boss sat me down to impart his sage advice on why I would not succeed in business. In short, he felt that I needed to spend more time keeping my work area tidy. He was very earnest and thought that I would not succeed until I learned this skill.
During this year’s annual review (which occurred yesterday) I harkened back to this earnest bit of advice. Although I never did learn to keep my workplace tidy, I still get good reviews year after year, regardless of where I work. To amuse myself, when my boss came to the “areas for improvement” portion of my review, I suggested that he include that I need to learn to keep my work area tidy. He gave me an odd look and said “why the bloody heck (he’s british) would I care about that? I’m paying for your software expertise, not for your housekeeping skills.”
So, what useless advice have you recieved over the years?
Well, I was once told that if I found six people that wanted to be independently wealthy, and they each found four people who wanted to be independently wealthy, and they each found two people who wanted to be…well, you get the idea…
The president of our company actually believes that sitting alone in our cubicles wearing dockers rather than sitting alone in our cubicles wearing jeans makes us more professional. After all, nobody worthwhile has ever worn denim.
Every morning when I dress I plan a new way to strangle him.
I attend a university that is well-known for its engineering, computer science, and management programs, but I am going into education. I came up with a rough draft of a resume and took it to the Career Services office so the “professionals” could critique it for me. I was told, “You need to quantify everything. In this part where you talk about student teaching, say something like, ‘Taught more students than any other teacher in seven weeks.’” Right–I’m sure THAT’S what administrators are looking for!
I got ambushed by my career adviser today.
“Raven, you need to show some respect! You’ll get nowhere in life if you don’t start filling your absence slips in now!”
First day of a graduate-level Statistics class:
Prof walks up & leans over me & screams:
"What the FUCK are YOU doing in here!!!??? Don’t you realize you’re stealing this seat from a man who actually NEEDS to be educated as something beyond the FUCKING HOUSEWIFEYOU SHOULD ALREADY BE !!???
it’s these little moments of enougagement that mean so much
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by madcat *
**First day of a graduate-level Statistics class:
Prof walks up & leans over me & screams:
"What the FUCK are YOU doing in here!!!??? Don’t you realize you’re stealing this seat from a man who actually NEEDS to be educated as something beyond the FUCKING HOUSEWIFEYOU SHOULD ALREADY BE !!???
Trying to figure out what to do with my life, I went and had a career assessment done. The #1 pick that came up for me was ‘professor’. (Really.) So off I went to university, to become a professor. When I came face to face with a bunch of them - particularly some of the department heads - I realized I didn’t want to be a professor. I wouldn’t have been able to put up with their heifer dust. (And probably vice-versa.)
Btw - The one stats prof I had (a nice guy) always called into question the validity of much of statistics.
And on the flip side, from one of my undergrad professors:
“You should certainly go to grad school, because we need more talented women in high-level faculty positions. You see, when there are more women professors, they’ll realize how silly these sexual harrassment rules are – did you know nineteen-year-old males are at their sexual peak? – and we can finally get them repealed so they can take advantage of their students.”
The only piece of career advice my father ever gave me – as an alternative to going to college; “You should learn to play a musical instrument, so when you’re out of a job, you can make money playing for tips at a bar.”
I suppose it’s correct in absolute terms, but it wasn’t very encouraging at the time.
