Stock Kevin

“Where exactly do you work?”

“I work at a Big 4 accounting firm.”

In the most dull and lethargic tone possibly imaginable coupled with the rolling of the eyes, “oh so, you are an accountant, well that’s boring. You are going to spend the rest of your life as an accountant?” First of all, the boring you are thinking of is a different kind of boring I am thinking of. I don’t do much accounting in terms of bookkeeping nor do I sit in front of a desk with a calculator crunching numbers. In this day in age, we have Excel for that. Second of all, who said I was going to be doing this my entire life? Thirdly, are you even employed?

“What do you do exactly?”

To which, I calmly reply, “I do auditing work.”

Suddenly there is a moment of excitement. I see my friend break out a smile. Perhaps she understands what I do after all.

The next words out of her mouth are, “Oh, will you do my taxes?” No, I will not do your taxes. You don’t have complicated income. In fact, you are unemployed. Do your own taxes with TurboTax.

“Can you get me out of paying taxes?” No, I cannot. With your income, you probably don’t even need to file taxes.

“So, where is your office located?”

“Typically, I work at the client’s site.”

“Oh, so you are a temp?”

“No, we just do work at the client site because that is where the information and resources are. We need to test controls and perform certain tests to ensure their financial statements are fairly stated”

How do you explain to your friend, what you do? If I were a lawyer or doctor, there would be no explanation necessary. Eventually, I relinquish any hope of explaining to her what I truly do and end up convincing her that I do accounting, which has a negative connotation in it of itself. But, there is no need for social affirmation anyhow, right?