Funnily enough, twice in the last couple of weeks — once in Canberra and once in Sydders — I've paid for something with my credit card, and both times the personable young, um, person has noted the 'Dr' bit in front of my name and said something like,
"Oh, you're a doctor. Is that a PhD?"
I guess I don't much look like a medic. Perhaps medics do not buy bottles of chilli wine or strimmers and spray paint (what do you think, Georg?). But of course they weren't, either of them, satisfied just to discover that I am a real doctor, but both wanted to know what I did.
And going into that conversation, cold, can be a bit daunting (for me, I mean; not for the people asking. Although it could be, I guess). When people have asked me that in the past I used to kick off by asking how much biology or chemistry they knew, but that is a bit of a non-starter really because what I do is so far removed from anything you learn at school it is a waste of time trying to build on it.
"I dissect the very fabric of life itself" tends to be rather a bit of a conversation killer, so these days I jump straight in with something like,
"I'm trying to find out how certain factors affect the processing of messenger RNA" and see at which word the questioner's eyes glaze over. I was quite lucky at the Old Bus Depot market in Canberra; he stumbled at 'messenger'. The poor lass in Bunnings got as far as 'processing'. But both instances were better than someone who wimps out at 'factors' or even 'to find out'.
Fair go, though; they both bounced back and I was able to expound a little bit ("Human genome, right? It's the DNA inside each of your cells. It gets read to make RNA, and that is the instructions to make protein. But the RNA needs chopping up and sticking back together again because it has extra bits in it"), and I hope that those two people went away with a little bit of a clue of why what I do is important, and how bloody interesting it is.
Actually, I went away and they stayed to serve the next customer, but you know what I mean.
Comments
I'm sure medics buy all sorts of things...my thoughts are that perhaps you don't 'look' like a medic...
Posted by: Georg | October 6, 2006 01:09 PM
Oh go on, say the next bit . . . "You look like an evil mad scientist".
I see trackback pings are working w.r.t. Stack, anyway.
Posted by: BK | October 6, 2006 04:52 PM
..and the thing I think about reading this is "you actually have Dr on your credit card" :) I guess that is one thing I have never thought about... don't think we do it that in the scandinavian mountains ;)
Posted by: challenge | October 7, 2006 02:01 AM
I remember when I was working in hospitals the annual debate amongst the interns as to whether they were going to get "Dr" appended to their bank accounts, driving licenses etc once they finished the intern year.
A lot of them ended up doing it, I think because they got sod all else to mark the occasion - no reduction in ridiculous hours worked &c. I'm not sure how the debate works in academe.
Posted by: tigtog | October 7, 2006 02:54 PM
I use it all the time. I consider it a critical factor in getting airline upgrades and better service from a Jaguar dealer.
Posted by: Nige | October 7, 2006 07:11 PM
/me considers tigtog's comment, circles the bit about 'ridiculous hours' and throws in 'appallingly low salary', and compares it with the marketeer's comment about Jag dealerships.
Posted by: BK | October 7, 2006 07:16 PM
I don't travel that much, but I've *never* been successful in getting an airline upgrade based on my 'Dr.' appellation (which I use all the time when booking). They're much more interested in upgrading business folk who travel all the time.
When I worked on the genomic organization of Ig Heavy Chain genes, I could get away with simply saying 'I work on the genes that make antibodies', which most people could at least get a handle on. I stole that phrase from the previous grad. student on that project, who'd obviously wrested with the 'What do you do?' question a few times too often.
Not sure what to say now though... 'sit on my butt in an office' doesn't sound that impressive, unfortunately.
Posted by: The Whiffler | October 11, 2006 11:52 PM