What do you do?

"I am a doctor, but I am studying to be a nurse so that I can go abroad and earn in dollars."

"I work for the family business."

"I have my own business. We sell (soap/cellphone load/purified water/lechon manok/zagu-or-similar-type-drink)."

"I work as an (IT person/HR person/salesman/marketing guy) for (large multinational company)."

"I am the son of (name of a mayor/governor/general/senator/congressman)."

"I sit around the house all day, watching downloaded TV shows from the internet. My parents give me all the money I need. Hey did you see my new car? Its really quick and shiny!"

What you do defines who you are. Your answer to this question, and how you answer it, tells other people what kind of person you are, what you are interested in, what your priorities are, what's important to you. At least in my book, what you do tells me more about you than the clothes you wear, the car you drive (or what modifications - if any - you've done to it. Case in point - my neighbor removed all the "Kia" badges on his new car, and changed them to "BMW" badges. See what I mean?), or the company you keep.

I ask this question a lot, especially when I meet new people. I ask this also when I see old friends who I haven't seen for a long time. The answer to this question, and how it is answered, changes frequently - for some people, it can even change daily. This is because priorities shift all the time - when you think you have too little money, then studying to be a nurse when you are already a doctor so that you can go abroad suddenly becomes appealing. If you have too much money, then your priorities shift too - now you want to run for public office so that you can get even more money. Hehehe. (That was a joke. Seriously, it was!)

If the answer is interesting, I usually follow it up with "What about your job?" Most people, like me (as evidenced by this blog), love to talk about themselves - so be prepared for a long answer. Sometimes, the answer to this follow-up question is predictable - for instance, I haven't met a single call center CSR who liked what he did. I'm sure they exist - there are tons of folks who pay to talk on the phone all day (just take a look at the success of Sun cellular), and being paid to do just that would be their perfect "dream" job - I just haven't met any of them.

My problem is that I've never had a straight answer to this question. I tell them that I work for a large American multinational corporation in Makati, and that I work with computers. This is usually followed by "ano ka programmer?" I tell them no. "So ano, technician?" Again I say no. Then I tell them that I work in the IT support organization (well at least I used to work in support, I shifted now to something different and more confusing), and they say "ahhh, parang call center!" Again the answer is no.

Head-scratching follows. A lot of head-scratching.

When I was working from home one time, my younger brother was observing me work. He then asked me, "what do you do? All I've seen you do is send emails all day!" Aha - to that, I can say "yes." I send emails, IM messages - I even attend meetings. And we talk about computers! All day!

More head-scratching.

So what about you, what do you do?