Comments on: The Easy Answer

By: RohoMech

RohoMech — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 22:14:37 +0000

@Presh, interesting post, I like the four responses Ryan has, though I expected the “girls at a bar” to be a bit…flirter

I agree a bit with Erik, people always follow up the college / student question with…what are you studying? Being a grad student made that question much more fun, like what is your thesis about etc.

I actually have a much much easier time telling people what I do now that I’m working. “I write software that helps the consultants do their jobs better” might lead to “what do the consultants do?” but it settles things pretty quickly.

Though, honestly, sometimes its just more fun to lie about things and tell people I’m studying Post-Modern-Feminist-Thought or Marxist-Reductions-with-Game-Theory-and-propaganda or some none-sense like that.

By: Presh

Presh — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 20:20:51 +0000

@Joe Jordan: Thanks for sharing because I learned a lot from your answer. The whole topic reminds me of a story.

My friend is a legal consultant and he helps defend big unpopular businesses in antitrust cases (like Microsoft). He enjoys the job, but often gets questions like “how do you sleep at night defending the bad guys?” These experiences have slowly made him question his job’s worth to society.

By: Presh

Presh — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 20:19:03 +0000

@Erik: True, as you get older people do ask you what you want to do with your college education. Which is why it’s amusing that about 50% of Stanford juniors my year had yet to declare a major. The university administration was shocked.

By: Joe Jordan

Joe Jordan — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 13:54:54 +0000

You and your friend are not alone. . . While working with hundreds of people engaged in career transitions–some early in their careers and some far later in the journey–I found few were able to clearly and concisely articulate how they bring value to an organization. They can give a job title, even describe the job. But when pressed to define their value statement in one or two sentences–most people struggle.

The bigger question for an individual or a company to answer is: How does what we do (or the service we want to offer) bring tangible value to our target market? I find that when I can answer that question in terms that other people understand (their eyes don’t glaze over) I have clarity about how to invest my time–and a better chance people will ultimately buy what I have to offer.

By: Erik

Erik — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 07:06:38 +0000

Presh, I disagree with your friend. I could never just say, “school.” People want to know what you are studying, and what you are going to do with it. Now, for different people, it all depends on how comfortable you are with your response. Kudos to Ryan Healy for perapring four replies.

As for me, I have never been comfortable with that last question. That’s why I have been on school campuses for 22 years and counting.