Professional Misconceptions

Scott Hardie | September 12, 2011
The Atlantic asked readers to share misconceptions that people often have about their professions, and the resulting list had to be narrowed down arbitrarily to 26. It's a neat article, and it got me wondering -- what misconceptions to people have about your job?

I'm a web developer. We code the back-end systems that make a website functional, and lay out the display and add interactive effects. That doesn't mean that we know anything about computers outside of the browser window. When co-workers get a blue screen of death when trying to run a certain program, and they can't find anyone in IT to help, we're the next to be asked for help. When we visit relatives and the printer isn't responding, we get shown right to it. Sure, a few of us happen to be computer geeks as well, but most of us know little more about Windows or hardware than you do. We usually just guess or Google it. If you want to know why a particular web site seems broken, THAT we might be able to answer.

Steve West | September 12, 2011
Banking jobs are as compartmentalized as any other profession so it really bugs me when I'm at lunch and wearing my ID and people I've never met come up to me and ask me what their chances are at getting a loan. I don't do loans. I do checks. Lots of jobs at my credit union require a more comprehensive knowledge of our products so they can cross-sell. I'm back office. I have little interaction with our membership. Except at lunch.

Steve Dunn | September 13, 2011
People think lawyers are dishonest. In my experience, lawyers' integrity is way above the general population. Y'all non-lawyers are a bunch of thieves and liars!

Erik Bates | September 13, 2011
[hidden by request]