What I Think I Do

In a recent email thread friends of mine were discussing what they do for a living and inviting others to do the same.  It got me thinking of that “What My Friends Think I Do” meme that was floating around the internet a while back and how that applies to anyone giving a resume-esque response to job title questions.  Myself?  I’m a specialist at a bank.  And nowadays when people hear the word “bank” they cringe and give me a venomous look as if I had just been eying their wallet.

But that’s not how everyone views bankers, at least I would like to think so.  So I’ve put together a written example of that same meme that used to plaster our facebook walls…

Bankers

What My Friends Think I Do

Darth Banker

I love my friends, and I’d like to think that they love me as well, but it usually feels like it’s more of an “even though you work for a bank” sort of love.  They know that I personally am working in the best interest of clients day in and day out, but that’s not the overall view of bankers as a whole.  It seems as though the popular view of bankers across the nation is a bunch of Darth Vaders or Stormtroopers collaboratively scheming within the Death Star.  But not the cool Death Star, more like the Death Star that has the Empire patrolling the galaxy waiting to blast your Rebel bank accounts out of the Recession System.

What My Parents Think I Do

Highway to Success

My family thinks that I have a great job that is constantly raking in paychecks, raises, and bonuses.  They’re partly right: I do have a great job.  But my paycheck just barely covers rent and bills, like most other people.   Illusions of “banker” being synonymous with “large bank accounts” aside, my family thinks that I’ve hit it big with the a finance and business oriented job.  They aren’t 100% wrong, but tend to blow the “pros” out of proportion when making a mental “pro v con” list.  Even if their views of how my job relates to my lifestyle are slightly skewed, they’re still proud of me and like to share it.  As a banker, that in itself is a welcome change to the stink eyes I usually get when I tell people where I work.

What Society Thinks I Do

Scrooge McDuck – no relation

Society sees expensive suits, shoes, and rich mahogany desks at the bank and thinks that we bankers have that plus much more in not only our own bank accounts, but at home as well.  They group us with people like Barney Stinson from CBS’s How I Met Your Mother, with closets full of suits and diamond studded pinstripes.  Little do they know that many of us bought those suits from the discount rack or with credit cards that we used almost a full paycheck to cover.  Even if we look like a duck and talk like a duck, it doesn’t mean we’re related to Scrooge McDuck and have his swimming pool full of gold.

What My Boss Thinks I Do

“The Diffuser,” in action!

I’m one of the lucky employees that has a great boss.  That being said, I’m positive she doesn’t see everything that I do for the company and has her own idea of what I do.  My position is mainly customer facing and I deal with over 200 people per day.  As you can imagine, not every one of those interactions is good, and it’s the bad ones that people tend to remember.  I’m fairly positive my boss thinks that I let people rant at me about their problems and (most of the time) successfully diffuse the situation.  Of course I do more than that, but if someone’s yelling at me loud enough for the whole bank to hear, that tends to be what coworkers and bosses remember most.  Having the boss view you as a tension diffuser isn’t necessarily a bad thing!

What I Think I Do

Hot off the press: “The Banker” saves the day again!

Like most people, I could write a novel about what I think I do for a living.  Also like most people, I like to talk about myself and have people realize “oh my lord, her job really is that important!!”  Even though I’m passionate about my job, I know not everyone else is so I’ll keep it short and sweet.  I help customers, I manage people, I audit parts of the bank, I make sales, I solve problems, I stay on hold for an hour so that you don’t have to, and generally like to think that I make the banking experience a good one.  You can’t win with everyone, but I do my damnedest.  I feel as though I go above and beyond customers’ expectations to keep them happy, but I suppose if I really want to take that feeling to the fullest extent I’ll make a superhero in the next Mutants and Masterminds game I play in called… “The Banker.”

What I Actually Do

Caffeine: the New Food Group

Hopefully what I think I do is at least mostly accurate, but I have no illusions that it focuses on the positive notes of the job.  What I actually do, in a nutshell, is: work in customer service, handle a disgusting amount of money on a daily basis, deal with angry customers, fly by the seat of my pants through the day to get everything done, and rarely get thanked for what I do.  I (along with my coworkers) leave at the end of the day exhausted and with more on our to-do list than we started out with that morning.  I go home, grab a beer, and sit on the couch to catch up on TV or movies.  I savor the elusive “free time” that is seen almost as often as sparkly unicorns dancing on rainbows, and in between all of that try and get the things that I like done in a regular and timely manner.  Coffee and beer have become new food groups, and have the mystical property of seeming to create more time in the day.  Rinse and repeat to start the next hectic (but often rewarding) day at the bank.

~In Summary~