Does everyone have the same problem answering that question as I do? I always witter on about smartcards and eventually say something like, “You know Oyster, in London? I do the same sort of thing only in Yorkshire”. “Oh, that sounds…interesting. I must go and have a word with…”
What I actually do is easy to describe, and not remarkable or unique in any way – I’m trying to make as good a living as I can in the most interesting and fulfilling way possible given my particular attributes, personality and skills, the demands of the market place and the aspirations and needs of my family and me. In short, I do the best I can (as opposed to doing the best that can be done - you have to keep your expectations in check).
How do I do this living making? I get up early, put on a suit, get on a train and go to an office. In this office, I go to meetings, read email, write email, make and receive phone calls, try to communicate what has to be done, try and let people get on with it (no control freakery here – honest!), try to listen, try not to agree with just the last thing I heard, read and approve documents, occasionally make a decision, write documents, do plans, prepare presentations, give presentations, do financial plans and budgets, explain, cajole and argue, occasionally I lose my temper, sometimes we have a laugh, I get stressed and generally try to move things forward, if necessary through sheer bloody-mindedness, sometimes by just playing by the rules. “Moving things forward” usually means hiring someone, getting someone to agree to something, getting someone to understand something, understanding something myself, deciding what to do about something, getting something organised, forecasting something. Very occasionally, it means actually getting something done.
Sometimes I get on a train and go somewhere else (in the olden days I used to drive, but I’m too old for that now, and anyway if you’re on a train you can do all the things that you do in the office (more or less) – with the added pleasure of a nap! And you feel virtuous because you’re not wasting your time and you’re saving the planet all at once). In this somewhere else, I’ll generally do a sub-set of the things I do in the office. I especially like going somewhere else and giving presentations. There’s little I find remotely as stimulating and absorbing as my own “insights” and “thoughts” (“belated realisations” and “hobby-horses”?). Sometimes I get asked back!
Even if I were to say all that (which I don’t), I still wouldn’t feel I’m getting to the nub of the question. It’s missing the point – it doesn’t include the purpose of my job. It might be better if people asked, “what is the purpose of your employer that you achieve by your employment”", but only Mr Spock talks like that! It is, however, a question I can answer, “My employer wishes to design, build, roll-out and transition to operations an integrated, contactless smartcard ticketing scheme, including an interoperable stored travel purse, for the Region of Yorkshire and the Humber. My job is to make that dream come true.”
So there you are, I make dreams come true. Do you still want to go and talk to someone else?
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