There are many misconceptions about a job. If you are in one, we asked, what’s a common misconception about your profession or hobby that you’d like to clarify?
Here are the top responses.
STAND UP COMEDIANS
“Stand-up comedians don’t want to tell you a joke offstage. It doesn’t mean we’re not great at it, but a 1 on 1 performance by the snack platter at a party isn’t the best place for it.”
“I stopped telling people on first dates that I do comedy. It’s not that I’m ashamed; I hate when they expect me to do some of the set at the dinner table. Like… my jokes are not going to hit one on one. I had one date relentlessly ask me for the rest of the night to throw a a couple of jokes his way- needless to say, we didn’t go on a second date.”
CONSTRUCTION WORKERS
“As a construction worker, I’d like the public to know:
- We did not decide to start doing this work out of nowhere. We did not just walk in off the street and decide what we would fix. We were hired by whoever owns the thing you use that is getting fixed, and it is getting fixed for a reason.
- It is all carefully considered… every road closure, every blocked parking stall, every inconvenience…it is all for a reason, even if that reason may not be immediately apparent.
- It is all insanely expensive and usually tricky to negotiate. Even those DOT guys that seem to be standing around watching one guy do the work….there is a reason. Maybe they all don’t have something to do right then and there, but there is a need for a certain amount of help, and you can’t just bring in/send out different guys every hour or every day.
I just hope I can prevent someone’s day from getting ruined by a misperception. My company mainly fixes parking garages, and the tension and frustration patrons feel is tangible. Indeed roadwork is the most common “frustrating” construction people encounter, but all the concepts are the same and vital.
We aren’t all drug-abusing, trashy, cat-calling jerks, either. There’s a lot of that, but it’s not all of us.”
IT AND COMPUTER SCIENCE
‘IT guy with a computer science degree. Yes, I took coding classes. Yes, I helped build an app or two for senior projects. No, I will not build you an app.
Edit: emphasis on the word helped.”
ARCHAEOLOGISTS
“Archaeologist. I don’t freerun through temples like Indiana Jones or dig up mummies or treasure chests all the time. One of my buddies did fall into a crypt once, though, while digging up an old churchyard and was scarred for a few days.”
PHARMACISTS
“Retired Pharmacist. My job was and still is more than counting pills.
Every day I would have to call Doctor’s offices to double-check because they wrote the wrong dose, the wrong directions, or the wrong drug. When the customer is expecting an antibiotic and the MD has prescribed a heart medicine, we definitely need to speak to a doctor. Then we have to argue with the receptionist/nurse that no the doctor really doesn’t want us to fill that prescription as written. Then you have to wait to speak to the MD.
All of this takes time. Add insurance problems, drug interactions, customers who need to be counseled about their medications, cut back on technician hours, etc, and this makes for very stressful days. I retired a few months into the pandemic and know the job has worsened.
I went to school for five years to do the job correctly. Nowadays, it’s six years or longer to get your degree. Please be patient with the pharmacy employees. I know that they care about their customers and are just as frustrated. Didn’t mean to make this into a rant, but we are more than just pill counters.”
GUITARIST
“I’m a guitarist with 20 years of experience, and you should never be impressed if a guy can play without looking. After the beginning, it’s all muscle memory; we can all play without looking. Something I think folks may not understand – and hell, I barely do – is how I can play super complex songs and, in my mind, have no idea what I’m doing.
My hands know what they’re doing, but my mind is elsewhere. I’m watching my hands do the right stuff, and I have no idea how they know what to do.
Similarly, since it’s muscle memory, I struggle to start a song halfway through. Every time I have ever played that song, I started at the beginning; I’m not used to this idea of having to begin on a note that’s not the beginning note.
That last one is SUPER strange – it’s like knowing exactly how to operate a car when it’s in the park but having no clue how to operate it when it’s in neutral.
FIRE PERFORMER
“Fire performer (i.e., fire breathing, eating, and fleshing) as a hobby.
The most common misconception is that using fuel like alcohol, such as whiskey, to breathe fireballs is how it’s done. It’s hazardous to use something like alcohol, as its low flashpoint means there’s a good chance it’ll ignite the fuel back into your face, causing massive burns at bare minimum.”
STAY-AT-HOME DAD
FISHING
“Fishing isn’t just sitting in a boat waiting for a bite. I’m paying attention to weather conditions, barometric pressure, water temperature, water clarity, and depth to select what I think will be the right lure, right color, and right speed at the right depth while targeting specific places on the lake based on time of year, bottom composition, and cover.
And throughout the day, I’m trying to recognize patterns that lead to bites and apply them to new areas or a more successful overall presentation. I’m always mentally exhausted when I get home.”
LAWYERS
“Most lawyers are not super bright; they are just average intelligence with a practiced vocabulary to sound intelligent. Also, only a few lawyers make a ton of money. Most are barely middle class, especially when factoring in the massive student loans.”
PSYCHOLOGIST
“As someone in graduate school studying to be a clinical psychologist:
- No, I could not “do a case study on your family” – most families are filled with oddballs, and that doesn’t mean it’s pathological.
- No, I am not “psychoanalyzing” you in our interactions. We don’t just immediately start taking notes in our heads based on the things we say.
- No, I don’t prescribe medicine. That would be a psychiatrist. We are trained to do talk therapy, research, and sometimes teaching.”
JOURNALIST
“Journalist. No, we’re not getting paid off lmao. We barely make more than teachers. Actually, probably less.
No, there’s no such thing as “completely unbiased.” Humans, by their very nature, are biased. So it’s biologically impossible to be “unbiased,” whatever that means.
Your favorite journalist is probably not a journalist. Your most-hated journalist is probably not a journalist. There’s a difference between “guy yelling at the camera” and a journalist sitting at city council in the press box writing about some ordinance.”
GENEALOGIST
“Genealogist here. It’s not just surfing Ancestry and asking for money to do what you can do yourself. And it takes a lot of time to do correctly. Also, the pages of citations you toss out are the most important piece of the whole report.”
MARKETING
“Marketing is all about being creative! There is a hard science to marketing. There is also art, but it has to be balanced with the science/evidence.”
THERAPIST
“Therapy is not you paying for me to care about you; it’s you paying me to teach you how to care about yourself. (Although caring about my peeps is an awesome product that happens naturally!)”
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This article originally appeared on Mrs. Daaku Studio.