In the simplest sense, it’s exactly what it sounds like. I write about technical things. There are different industries that employ technical writers; I’m fairly confident there are some working for your telecom company. Some write training manuals for new software. Some FAQs and troubleshooting documents. Some, like me, write user manuals for large machines.
Katriona, what specialty do you have? As mentioned above, I write end user/operator manuals for large manufacturing equipment. You?
Wow, that is surprising. Not know what the telecom industry is? Or Cell towers? My 4 year old and 7 year old know what cell towers are. When they see them by the side of the road they say “Daddy, your phone is talking to that tower! Beep boop beep!”
I’m from St. Louis, and anyone else from St. Louis will ask upon meeting “where did you go to high school?”. Usually followed by “oh, do you know [random person]?”
I got asked that once while in the elevator at the Empire State building. And, as it turns out, I did know [random person].
I’m also a chemical engineer, and when people find that out they usually ask me mechanical engineering questions – car running rough, dishwasher making grinding noises, etc. I usually offer to find something they can use to dissolve whatever is having the problem. Because… chemical engineer, dude.
I don’t know that you’re meant to be mean to us. It just happens. West Virginia is a very beautiful place, but it’s plagued by rural poverty. It also ‘enjoys’ the reputation of being ignorant, backward and ‘hillbilly.’ I guess maybe a good comparison might be how Aussie’s stereotypically think of Tasmanians if they were all rednecks. Isolated and inbred, only more conservative than Tassies, sucking off the government teat. Some people like that we’re a pretty place and there are little mountain oases of art galleries and folk music that attract tourism, but for the most part we’re stereotyped as poor, inbred and uneducated bigots. Fun times.
You can be nice to us if you want though. If you start singing ‘Country Roads,’ you’ll get the whole place to sing with you. It’s not an uncommon occurrence to walk in a bar or restaurant and someone starts singing it and everyone else joins in. Especially in the northern part of the state where it’s an unofficial theme song for West Virginia University.
I imagine folks in the medical, legal, or computer fields get more than their share of requests for free help and advice. That’s got to be a pain.
So you’re an ER doc?
Q: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen?
A: That depends greatly on what kind of weird you’re interested in.
Q: What’s the worst thing you’ve ever seen?
A: Really? The worst things I’ve seen do not make for good small talk stories. Unless you’re in medicine, law enforcement, active duty military or possibly social work and inured to the kind of scenarios I encounter on a bad day my “worst of” stories are enough to ruin your evening.
Q: What should I do about (insert symptom/medical problem here)?
A: You should probably ask your doctor about that.
I used to train dolphins, sea lions and orcas (see username) for a marine park back in they day, and when people find out they invariably ask me “Did you like your job?”. I never know how to answer that. If I didn’t like it I wouldn’t have spent years trying to get into that field. Sometimes I say, “no, I hated it” and just walk away leaving the person perplexed…
Isn’t part of being a successful artist selling and marketing what you do?
I guess I am surprised that more artists have not developed better schticks condensed into elevator pitches …
(FWIW my mother was an artist and was horrible at that. I think she thought the quality of her work would sell itself.)
Yes, but as a person intellectually curious and immersed in the culture you probably did know about the historic (dating from the 1950s) movement to create one, Gestundo, and could answer that it fizzled likely for the same reasons that Esperanto did. Aren’t there still efforts to create some agreed upon international signs for use in international deaf community meetings?
Yep, and depending on your age you may get a few questions about where you hung out. Admiral, Ballpark, Ted Drewes etc.
oh, and…Bayless
I get that one a lot, too. I think they’re hoping we’ll tell them about the esoteric rituals we go through in order to keep the hair monster appeased. They are always disappointed when they ask what shampoo I use, and I say, “The kind that was on sale when I went to CVS.”
(The truth is, it’s probably about 75% genetic, and 25% that I can’t be bothered to do anything to it unless I am going to be on stage, in front of a camera, or at a gala. No curling, no straightening, no gel, no hairspray. I ball it up and wrap some elastics around it if it needs to be out of the way. This is unglamorous, and no one wants to hear it, but it’s the truth. LAZINESS IS KEY.)
Mercy. And if you recognize it, then you just gave away your age, as well.
I used to work in the telephone exchange a LONG time ago. One day I got a caller wanting the home number of a person, but they couldn’t remember their name. They had a business in a different name, but he wanted the home number and he couldn’t remember the name. “Oh, I said, you mean Mr <big long greek surname>”. He’d just happened to get me and I went to school with his daughter. I should have let him just wonder how I knew, but I filled him in on his luck.
They’ll just be trying to drown me out… 
It’s a very catchy song.
I, in contrast, LOVE brats. But not cheese and beer.
In answer to the OP, I have two “jobs” at least for now…one of them is freelance writing. When people hear about that, the usual response is “What KIND of writing?” My standard reply is “Anything anybody will pay me for,” which is flippant but also true. (Those who persist beyond that will usually get a “real” answer.)
Are you a nurse?
Are you a librarian?
Are you a teacher?
I guess I just have the vibe.
I was approached by a woman in the street who thought I was a NUN. I have no clue what she was thinking, she told me she thought I looked so “serene”. :dubious:
For the last decade or so, I keep getting “Are you ex-military?” The annoying bit is that several people have decided my “No” is a lie, and either keep probing or give a sort of nudge/wink when something relating to various branches comes up.
And since college I’ve always gotten “what are you doing here?” about work (even now, and I’m almost 60). No matter what job I’m doing, people seem to think I should be doing something else, though they’re never clear what that is. Yeah, I’m a bit smarter than average, but you want a few people smarter than average in the rank and file - we’re handy. Lemme be.
When I tell people I’m Jewish, they often say “Oh, I know [random Jewish person]. Do you know him?” If it’s a local person, maybe, but usually it’s not. It might be someone from their hometown four states away.
Of course I do. But people are so aggressive with this question, and I guess I didn’t communicate that well enough. They seem to be accusing me of something, as though I have personally and actively prevented their great idea of universal sign language from being realized, and thereby am responsible for most of the discord in the world.
It’s really weird.
I don’t feel like telling them about Gestuno. I just want to catch the next bus out of the conversation.
What is with that? I remember another time I was walking past a theatre where there was this person trying to get cast autographs on his program. He held it out to me saying he remembered me from the show and when I said that I wasn’t in the cast of “South Pacific” he said “yes! You were a nurse!” No, I really wasn’t in the show, and if you could see me, you’d realise how ridiculous it was, I’m as plain as a pikestaff with terrible posture. There’s no way they’d ever let me in a singing/dancing show. I don’t know why I encounter people who insist I’m something strange.
I share the same name with a famous actor - same spelling, everything…think the poor Michael Bolton character in ‘Office Space’…
“Oh, are you a big fan?”…(um, no, I’ve seen one movie of his…wasn’t impressed…)
“Are you related?” (um, no, I don’t think so as he’s never answered my weekly phone calls asking for money…)
When I tell people where I live, “Are you a Yankees fan?” (um, no, hate them), which leads to, “Oh, you must be a Red Sox fan…” (nope, hate them, too…)