Have you ever had somebody prove or disprove a professional sterotype?

[auntiehill]

Re: Have you ever had somebody prove or disprove a professional sterot

My dad is the perfect example of the corporate attorney.

He read thick books on grammar---for fun.
He was/is far more concerned with HOW you say something than what you are trying to say.
He speaks solely to hear himself speak.
Whenever we were upset or unhappy as kids, he simply handed us money.
Every conversation, every encounter is seen as a competition.
Other people had value only in how efficiently their could serve his needs.
He was brilliant in making and managing money, and completely clueless about how to treat people--and clueless to the mere idea that he should CARE about how he treated people.

 

[Guartho]

Re: Have you ever had somebody prove or disprove a professional sterot

I had a trial lawyer stiff me on half his bill for a deposition video once. My tip, get your money up front if you're working for the plaintiff's attorney. When he loses he suddenly doesn't feel like paying.

Defendant's attorneys make much better clients.

 

[Kestra]

Re: Have you ever had somebody prove or disprove a professional sterot

I break the stereotype for computer programmers. I don't write code at home, I don't have a mondo-bitching super computer for my home system, and I'm not a gamer.

Flip those around and that's my husband. Guess he fits the sterotype pretty well!

 

[iguana_tonante]

Re: Have you ever had somebody prove or disprove a professional sterot

I'm an astrophysicist (well, sort o: still finishing my PhD thesis).

Stereotype: geek to the core, love science-fiction and enjoy math jokes.
Un-stereotype: well-groomed, dress with style and have a black belt in jujutsu.

So, I say I'm middle of the road.

 

[Daedalus12]

Re: Have you ever had somebody prove or disprove a professional sterot

Stereotype: geek to the core, love science-fiction and enjoy math jokes.
Un-stereotype: well-groomed, dress with style and have a black belt in jujutsu.

So, I say I'm middle of the road.

What do you think of this one?

e^x and a constant were walking down the street. Suddenly, the constant notices a differential operator walking along the other side of the street. "Oh, no!" exclaims the constant. "I've got to run away! You've got to hide me! There's a differential operator... he could reduce me to nothing!" "Hmmmph," came the haughty reply. "I'm e^x. He can't do anything to me." So e^x walked across the street and introduced himself. "Hi. How are you doing? I am e^x," he bragged. "Pleased to meet you," replied the differential operator. "I'm d/dy."

 

[TorontoTrekker]

Re: Have you ever had somebody prove or disprove a professional sterot

e^x and a constant were walking down the street. Suddenly, the constant notices a differential operator walking along the other side of the street. "Oh, no!" exclaims the constant. "I've got to run away! You've got to hide me! There's a differential operator... he could reduce me to nothing!" "Hmmmph," came the haughty reply. "I'm e^x. He can't do anything to me." So e^x walked across the street and introduced himself. "Hi. How are you doing? I am e^x," he bragged. "Pleased to meet you," replied the differential operator. "I'm d/dy."

*headdesk*

I guess I'm probably pretty stereotypical in some ways, not so much in others. I'm a computer programmer with a math degree (which is why I got the above joke), and I'm into science fiction (working on three conventions currently, which is a whole different level of geekiness), but I also bowl and watch hockey (I'd play recreationally if I could skate, but I can't).

My fellow science fiction fans don't get the hockey bit, and my fellow bowlers don't get the science fiction bit. My fellow gay men don't get either. (Strangely, most of them don't say anything about the bowling.)

OTOH, I'm 41 years old and have a 23-year-old boyfriend.

 

[thestrangequark]

Re: Have you ever had somebody prove or disprove a professional sterot

I work in education, so I meet people who make and break stereotypes constantly. Unfortunately, the stereotype for educators is the old "those who can't..." Teachers are often considered less capable, less intelligent, less professional, and they are also often the target for everyone's frustrations with the education system as a whole. There is an overwhelming stereotype of useless, lazy teachers clinging to their unions.

I've worked in 9 different schools and closely with more than 20 NYC public school teachers. Most teachers are intelligent, extremely hard-working, and really do put their students first. In all my time working in schools I've met only one teacher who personified the stereotyped tenured beast so present in America's image of educators.

 

[iguana_tonante]

Re: Have you ever had somebody prove or disprove a professional sterot

What do you think of this one?

e^x and a constant were walking down the street. Suddenly, the constant notices a differential operator walking along the other side of the street. "Oh, no!" exclaims the constant. "I've got to run away! You've got to hide me! There's a differential operator... he could reduce me to nothing!" "Hmmmph," came the haughty reply. "I'm e^x. He can't do anything to me." So e^x walked across the street and introduced himself. "Hi. How are you doing? I am e^x," he bragged. "Pleased to meet you," replied the differential operator. "I'm d/dy."

I'm splitting my side.

more jokes: http://www.math.utah.edu/%7Echerk/mathjokes.html

 

[John Clark]

Re: Have you ever had somebody prove or disprove a professional sterot

I've worked in 9 different schools and closely with more than 20 NYC public school teachers. Most teachers are intelligent, extremely hard-working, and really do put their students first.

That covers most of the teachers I've met too (mostly UK, but one US and Australian one too)

 

[PKTrekGirl]

Re: Ever had somebody prove or disprove a professional stereotype...?

I'm seriously considering a career in accounting, so I walk into the bookstore to look at the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) test-prep books. One of the test prep cds (in the back of the book) had been stolen. That's quite a way for that person to begin studying for an accounting exam!

I am a CPA, and I have only this advice:

Wait until you pass the CPA exam and then are required to take the separate Ethics exam administered by most states before you get your license.

Those ethics exams are so lame that pretty much everyone cheats on them.

Think about it: cheating on an Ethics exam.

I mean, the bottom line is this: if you are one of the more 'creative' members of our profession - the sort that is gonna pull an Enron, a stupid ethics exam isn't gonna stop you.

As for being a stereotypical accountant, I am FAR from it. In fact, that was one of my most useful selling points, in terms of winning and keeping clients. Because I could explain their financial statements to them in terms they could understand, while many in my profession rely on dazzling clients with all the shit they don't know via fancy Powerpoints, Brooks Bros. suits, and accounting technobabble.

Clients HATE feeling stupid and talked down to. And it doesn't matter if they are the CEO of a construction company who walks around in cut-off shorts and flip-flops all summer and who chews tobacco and spits it into a Coke can during meetings. They want to be given the respect they deserve for running a successful company. They don't want to be dazzled with technobabble.

I have been described by friends in the accounting biz as the most bohemian accountant they know. I've backpacked all over the world, lived on the edge in my younger days (did drugs, mainly - and yes, I DID inhale. ) and have a very casual outlook on life. Shoot, I was 'Accountant of the Wild Frontier' in Alaska for 11 years, getting flow in to native fishing villages on float planes with the mail - NOT going to fancy corporate offices every day.

No...you definitely can't consider me the norm, when it comes to accountants.

 

[Daedalus12]

Re: Have you ever had somebody prove or disprove a professional sterot

more jokes: http://www.math.utah.edu/%7Echerk/mathjokes.html

Q: What's the contour integral around Western Europe?
A: Zero, because all the Poles are in Eastern Europe!
Addendum: Actually, there ARE some Poles in Western Europe, but they are removable!


Heh that is one of my all-time favorite.

Sometimes I get the feeling that the Polish people are like the Mexicans of Europe..

 

[Delta Belle]

Re: Have you ever had somebody prove or disprove a professional sterot

In the pre-Internet era, the Martindale-Hubbell law firm directories at my local courthouse library were mutilated. Somebody took a razor blade and cut out all the listings for the Washington, DC metropolitan area (DC, suburban Maryland, and Northern Virginia).

The offender obviously took these for a job search. Not a promising start to a legal career, especially for an attorney.

 

[Shatmandu]

Re: Have you ever had somebody prove or disprove a professional sterot

I once dated a prim and proper librarian who absolutely loved to take a lap around the Kama Sutra whenever possible.

Only time I've ever gotten rug burns on my shoulder blades was with her.

And now, when my wife is bitching about something stupid, I'll think of that bespectacled perv and smile.

Joe, reader

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Re: Have you ever had somebody prove or disprove a professional sterot

While I love my father very much and consider him nearly a god among men, he fits to a T *one* stereotypical image of doctors:

Their handwriting sucks.

I swear, you could not read my dad's handwriting if your life depended on it. When he signs something, you'd think a tub of worms had deposited itself on the paper. He should be the government's secret code: Only he can read what he writes.

And now look at me. Normally I write in all capital letters (which, in my own defense, I consider quite legible), but my actual signature? Even though I'm the furthest thing from a doctor, it's just as unreadable as my dad's.