The New Generation

(via Mommy)

The Wall Street Journal has a good piece about the difficulty people have in explaining what it is they actually do:

Jamie Kelly's job title is national marketing programs manager. That really means "employee marketing training manager," she explains, as if that clarifies her role to adults, much less kids.

The way Ms. Kelly's 6-year-old daughter sees it, her mother travels to a big building, sits in her office and fools around at a computer. Is that inaccurate? "No, not really," says Ms. Kelly. On the other hand, it makes her ponder, "What do I do all day?"

Personally, I have a mixed reaction. To some extent, obviously these people who sit on the phone all day are doing tremendous work. But the more you work, the more you realize just how little some of them do; how easy the jobs are of others; how little so many of them know in terms of computers and the like, and how inefficient they are because of it; and more. Could I be a partner in a large accounting firm? Obviously not - I don't have a good enough handle on too many accounting rules, I don't have the knowledge base, etc. But can I do certain things much faster and even better than many partners in these accounting firms? Certainly. Almost any person 18-25 with a decent knowledge of accounting could.

Elsewhere... Mom pointed out this interesting article on Cleveland businesses trying to draw Israeli technology companies' business. Seems like a nice partnership. I think my mother should have a blog, seeing as how about 1/3 of the good links I get are from her anyway.

And Shoshana has a very introspective piece on how real people act - or are we all hiding our true selves a nice chunk of the time.