How about ‘malingerer’ or ‘mendicant’? Take your chances on the reader not knowing the definition of the words. 
Even though I study pretty close to 40 hours a week, guess I’m just a slacker :dubious:
Living off of savings for a while, and watching loving and living with my son as he grows up .
“Bum”?
[stoned Homer]
As soon as I graduate I am so outa here!
[/s H]
What, are you bucking for most ignorant post of the month?
Bolding mine.
I’m sure I worked harder as a student than I ever did in a paying job.
The fact that you don’t think being a student counts as an occupation means either 1) you have never been one; or, much more likely 2) you were never a good one.
Maybe a better rant would be waiters, waitresses and bartenders who list their occupation as “actor”, “writer”, “singer” or whatever.
Until you make enough money to support yourself doing those activies, they are hobbies and your “occupation” is waiter, waitress or bartender.
I don’t think it’s an “occupation”. I think it’s just being a student. It’s just convieneint to call your occupation student instead of “unemployed” or “not in the workforce yet”.
Sooooooooo. Awake at 5 am, continually supervising children till 8pm, plus potentially on call every night, seven days a week is “unemployed” is it? I won’t even get into the cleaning/tidying/household maintenance side of things (ok maybe I will a bit. Hint: it’s harder than sitting at a desk all day in an office)
:dubious:
:taps foot:
Please, do be my guest and justify THAT one.
Don’t forget that 4 1/2 hours a day keeping abreast of the soaps.
:taps index finger:
Guess I better put a winkie 
here.
Do you know what a student does? Do you know what an occupation is? I seriously doubt it.
I mean, I have a fellowship, which means I get paid to be a full-time student and, as part of accepting the fellowship, I am not allowed to get any other job during the school year. But, apparently, that doesn’t count as employment.
Neither does the 65+ hours a week I put into classes, reading, research, writing, presenting at conferences, groveling at my advisors’ feet… that’s not a real job. I don’t have the luxury of a “real” job – I don’t get to leave my work in the office. The amount of shit I have to get done before I graduate so that I can get a decent job leaves little time for relaxing, spending time with my husband, going to the gym, taking care of my parents… sleeping, brushing my teeth, getting food.
Well, I need to get back to work at my nonexistent occupation. Enjoy your Saturday.
I got a shovel you can borrow if you want.
The reason people answer occupation with student is because that’s what other people want to know. Saying “I’m a student” in answer to “What do you do?” is more or less shorthand for "I actually don’t have a full-time job, instead I am in school full-time ". If you’re at a bar or a party and someone asks that question, they don’t want your tax return, they’re just trying to make @#$ conversation. If it’s a marketing or research survey, well, for very practical reasons suits do distinguish between the guy who is looking for work right now and the guy who is not because he’s in school, the logic being that in a few years the student will probably at least quadruple his income, unemployed guy not so much.
And as already pointed out, many students are in fact employed, as students. The university writes me a check every month and I pay income tax on it, so I don’t know what else you’d call our little arrangement other than a job.
I’ve never had the luxury of listing my occupation as “student”. I worked full-time and went to school full-time throughout my college career. I would have happily made my occupation simply “student” if that were remotely feasible.
I don’t get the hate for the OP here. Disagreement, sure. Counterexamples, great. But some of this vitriol seems a bit uncalled for. I don’t think he’s trying to denigrate all of you who feel that he’s improperly defined “unemployed” and “employment”. He just hasn’t thought it all the way through. What’s more beneficial here, educating him or berating him?
Well, when you work your ass off just to have people keep asking you when you’re going to get a “real job,” it wears a little thin.
OP (originally posted in MPSIMS, btw) didn’t say nuthin 'bout no asses or nuthin.
I occupy my time by studying, therefore my occupation is student.
The SDMB, however, is my preoccupation.
In either event, go march off to Nuremberg, ya freakin’ grammar Nazi for whom square brackets are an enigma.
Here’s a question to the OP -
Would you say that people busy setting up a new business - say, a store or a restaurant - are unemployed? After all, they don’t have any income, only expenses and lots of work. They’re certainly not gainfully employed. What would you call them - and how do they differ from students?
I dunno. Is “business owner” an occupation? A job?
Can we substitute “What do you do for a living?” for “what’s your occupation?”?
Check out the auxilliary eroteme.
Why do I have to choose?
mangeorge, if what you really want to know is “How do you make money?” then ask that. Of course, one wonders why you want to know.
I don’t recall asking any question in my OP.
In fact, I made an unambiguous statement. I think that anyone claiming “student” as an occupation is gilding the lilly at least a little.
I mean, somebody’s paying for that education. Don’t get me wrong, I think that’s a good thing and I’m glad to be part of it. A lot of students would do better if they didn’t have to have a job.