The most misunderstood jobs in Australia

YOU know how there are jobs your friends do that you kind of understand but not really? What do they actually do?

sex and the city- samantha #3

IT’S a familiar social exchange.

You’ve just been introduced to someone at a function or at a party.

You: “What do you do?”

Them: “I’m an actuary.”

You: [pause] “I’ve never really understood what it is that actuaries do.”

You wouldn’t be alone. Actuaries are the third most misunderstood professionals in Australia. Few, outside of the insurance industry, would be able to tell you with any confidence what actuaries actually do. Something to do with numbers?

As part of LinkedIn’s Bring in Your Parents Day, the online networking platform conducted global research into which jobs parents have the most trouble describing when it came to their offspring’s professions.

So to help everyone out, here’s what the 10 most misunderstood jobs in Australia are and what they actually do:

USER INTERFACE DESIGNER(88 per cent of parents couldn’t confidently describe this)

What you think they do: Play computer games all day.

What they actually do: Designing and building websites, machines, apps and other technologies so that it’s user-friendly. Otherwise, we’d all still be using Windows ‘91

DATA SCIENTIST (76 per cent)

What you think they do: Study Sesame Street’s The Count all day in a lab.

What they actually do: Companies and governments have endless reams of data on everything we do from what we buy to what our favourite milkshake is. A data scientist’s job is to analyse the data for insights so that it’s actually useful.

ACTUARY (74 per cent)

Data guys certainly works with a lot of numbers.

What you think they do: Seriously, no idea. Something to do with numbers. Or is that birds?

What they actually do: Analyses and works with numbers and statistics to calculate risk and opportunities — often for insurance companies.

SUB EDITOR (70 per cent)

What you think they do: An assistant to the editor of a newspaper. Or someone who edits a column about submarines.

What they actually do: Makes sure typos and inaccuracies aren’t published. (Sub’s note: Hi, mum)

SOCIOLOGIST (66 per cent)

What you think they do: Works in a zoo with very friendly and sociable animals.

What they actually do: Sociologists study how people work in and relate to society, organisations and institutions.

SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER (66 per cent)

What you think they do: Spend the day on Facebook.

What they actually do: Spend the day on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Reddit, Google Plus. But for brands. So they’re probably dealing with a fair amount of abuse.

PR MANAGER (54 per cent)

Samantha Jones may have been a PR extraordinaire but she never seemed to do any actual work ...

What you think they do: Hang out with glamorous clients and media at swish parties.

What they actually do: Cold-call journalists with stories their clients want to sell, no matter how uninteresting that story is.

RADIO PRODUCER (52 per cent)

A radio producer’s job can involve dealing with on-air talent’s egos.

What you think they do: Whatever it is that Roz did for Frasier.

What they actually do: Coming up with stunts and segments that are just on the right side of the law for the amusement of listeners. They also ring and wake up people before dawn to get them on the show.

CIVIL SERVANT (49 per cent)

What you think they do: Be courteous and helpful. Of course, if you weren’t civil to your masters, that wouldn’t make you a very good servant, would it?

What they actually do: Civil servant is actually an umbrella term for anyone who works for the government. This can be anyone from teachers to defence personnel to someone in the Prime Minister’s office.

Public school teachers are civil servants.

LABORATORY TECHNICIAN (49 per cent)

What you think they do: Send up puffs of smoke in weird and wacky experiments with various vials and beakers of coloured liquid.

What they actually do: Someone who operates medical equipment such as MRI machines or who work in a medical or science lab and prepares specimens or tests samples such as blood.

Originally published as The most misunderstood jobs in Australia