Friday Five

[cjsmith]

Most recently stolen from: ohhjuliet

1. What do you do for a living?
Systems programmer. Right now, that means I write diagnostics for chips -- ten-line programs that take me days to get just so.

2. What do you like most about your job?
It requires creativ... The intellectual challenge... I feel good about the contribution I... okay, free Coke.

3. What do you like least about your job?
It's full-time, and thus interferes with my life.

4. When you have a bad day at work it's usually because _____...
...someone's lack of planning becomes my emergency.

5. What other career(s) are you interested in?
Just about the only ones I have NO interest in are sales, politics, or courtroom law. I'm just not into power over others* or coercion of any stripe. The rest I could see myself enjoying.

Astronaut. Aerobatic pilot, either teaching or in airshows. Making baby-blanket quilts. Fiction writer. Line editor or copyeditor. Financial coach (advice: quit spending lots of money on financial advice). Pastry chef.

That's this week. Many others are on the back burner.

* Unless someone asks very nicely.

Comments

[ambar.livejournal.com]

I didn't know you quilted.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I do, although I'm much more keen on starting projects than finishing them. Baby-blanket quilts are the perfect size for me to finish.

[ambar.livejournal.com]

I have one such which has been waiting to be bound for quite a while. Quilting is one of those things I find much more compelling in groups.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

metoo. Or with a deadline -- baby quilts have that built in. :-)

[ohhjuliet.livejournal.com]

free Coke hahahahahahahahah that was great. And I'm jealous.

:D

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I'd trade all those cans for the month of July off. The grass is always greener, huh? :-)

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

2. What do you like most about your job?
It requires creativ... The intellectual challenge... I feel good about the contribution I... okay, free Coke.

LOL!!

Good seeing you at Mary's party, btw - wish we'd gotten more time to talk, but I don't do very well in large groups.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

It was good to see you, too! Are you back in India now, or still in California? How's the interview process going?

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

the only ones I have NO interest in are sales, politics, or courtroom law. I'm just not into power over others* or coercion of any stripe.

Just to correct a misimpression ... I was in the sales field for a number of years, but never the type of sales that involved heavy -- or indeed, any -- pressure. Sales doesn't have to be about power, or even coercion. It can truly be about serving the customer.

When I sold and brokered airplanes, I wouldn't even show a customer an airplane that wasn't right for him. What was supposed to be a part-time business just for "something to do" while being at home with my preschooler burgeoned because of word of mouth around the local airports that the best way to buy an airplane was through me, because I'd make sure they got the right one. It was a win-win-win situation -- the seller got a fair deal, the customer got a better price than they would have on their own (including my commission or profit), and I got the commission or profit (depending on whether I was selling or brokering).

When I sold memberships in the US Chamber of Commerce (http://www.uschamber.com/default) (a national business lobby, not the same as local chambers of commerce), all I did was show small-business owners how they benefited from what the national chamber was doing, and explain that it needed their support to continue supporting them. For a small-business owner, it's no different than you or I supporting organizations like the ACLU, which I do voluntarily and willingly. Ultimately, what they got out of it (http://www.uschamber.com/sb/member/whyjoin.htm) was much greater than the amount they spent, so I never felt like I was pushing them into anything -- I just explained them the benefits of joining and left it up to them. If my honest enthusiasm for how much it would help them wasn't enough (and usually it was, enough to win several sales awards), they didn't join.

I feel exactly the way you do about high pressure sales (http://www.livejournal.com/users/sunnydale47/354838.html), but there are plenty of sales jobs and businesses that would not violate someone with your ethics or sensibilities in the least.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I just knew I'd get chided for that one.

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

I really wasn't trying to chide you at all! I just wanted to explain that salespeople aren't all bad.

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

That's weird ... I meant to use the default userpic and noticed that the book one was in the window. I changed it back to the default, and it still got posted with the book one.

=scratches head=

This one is supposed to be Pooh....

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

Oh, good, it is. I wonder what that was all about?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I like the Pooh one. It looks just like he's scratching his head, which is what you said you were doing!

Maybe the glitch was caused by a "LJ form of very little brain". ;-)

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

That was my intent when I grabbed the picture for an icon. The label I put on it on my userpic page is "Confused"! ;-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I really wasn't trying to chide you at all! I just wanted to explain that salespeople aren't all bad.

OK, a mini-chide then. And justifiably. I agree with you -- I've run into some good ones. I hadn't run into any whose employers WANTED them to be like that... as an airplane broker it sounds like that's exactly what your goals were, to help the customer find the right plane, which is great.

I had a short stint doing phone sales telemarketing. It was horrible. I lasted about a day and a half. I quit with no other job prospects, no food in the kitchen, and no money in my wallet. It was that bad. :-)

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

I had a short stint doing phone sales telemarketing. It was horrible.

=laughs= Yeah, me too. I was in high school, and it was a job I could do from home on my own schedule, since it was straight commission. This was in the 1960s, when telemarketing was far from the major problem it became in the 90s ... and I wasn't even selling anything! All I wanted was to take an application over the phone for a JC Penney charge card (this was also pre-Master Card and Visa). But I still got abused -- they'd yell at me and/or hang up on me. I hated it, and didn't last very long either -- about a month, I think, and I only managed to keep it up that long because it was very, very part time. I just did it less and less, and finally simply quit altogether.