Comments on: 8 Vaguely Named Professions: Explained!

By: Anne Ochs

Anne Ochs — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 16:12:58 +0000

I just got hired to be a Knowledge Management Officer– the title still tickles me. Everyone loves it but no one knows what I do.

By: Megan

Megan — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 15:31:43 +0000

What about “consultant”? I worked for a wealthy school district, and many of the kids’ parents were consultants. I never figured out what that meant, except that they probably made lots of money.

By: old hippy chick

old hippy chick — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 13:15:01 +0000

I heard the term ‘Riverkeeper’ for the first time this year. Unfortunately it was due to King Finishing company discharging chemicals into the Ogeechee River, here in SE Georgia. It resulted in thousands of dead fish (some covered in blisters), a few dead alligators, numerous people getting skin irritation from swimming in the river.

By: Kat

Kat — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 12:28:42 +0000

My grandfather is a surveyor! He even surveyed my aunts neighbourhood, so whenever we went there (and inevitably got bored at the parties) we’d wander around and he’d tell me stories about the place.

I`m going to send him a link on Facebook so he can see your lovely description of his job. I wonder how many other 87-year-old Flossers there are…

By: Tiffany

Tiffany — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 08:20:00 +0000

Uhm…orderlies are now called CNAs, PCAs, and PCTs. And ALL of it is true. We do ALL the work except pass out the meds but the RNs get paid twice what we do lol.

By: Sara

Sara — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 18:17:44 +0000

Ombudsman comes from the Swedish word ‘Ombudsman’. Just like smorgasbord the word was a complete rip off. Swedes are considered by some as very law abiding with a sort of ‘fair for all’ mentality. That’s why we have ombudsmen. The word ombud more or less means representative and man means, drumroll, man. Hence, there are also ombudskvinna which means an ombudsman who’s a woman. Swedes also like gender fairness.
Ombudsmen in Sweden represent an individual or group thereof in resolving disputes before they go too far. Liked the description here on mental_floss but it did sound more bureaucratic than I have had experienced that it is.

By: Pamela V. Martin

Pamela V. Martin — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:15:25 +0000

You are correct in that an Ombuds, particularly an Organizational Ombuds in the corporate arena, can be viewed as a masochist. We like to think of ourselves as fire alarms for HR who man (person?) the fire hose. Ombuds are the finest trend spotters and big-time legal mess prevention specialists.

By: Kim

Kim — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 20:56:31 +0000

Ha, wheel. I’m in mortgage processing too. I guess we mortgage production types just see eye to eye on these things.

By: wheel

wheel — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 19:39:59 +0000

Amen Kim, I feel the same way.

BTW, my job title is Mortgage Sales Production Associate which is a really fancy way of saying Assistant

By: Florida

Florida — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 19:10:18 +0000

@ Julesie,

You’re assessment is correct. The rodman is the person with the least experience and, as such, is essentially the bitch of the crew.

My father is a land surveyor/civil engineer so my summer job every year until I graduated HS was land surveying (Apparently I wasn’t qualified to have a summer job civil engineering) and being the 12, 13, 14, etc. year old of the crew resulted in me always being the rodman. You mention hiking through the TN mountains; I had the pleasure of working in the mangrove swamps of the Florida Keys. Nothing says awesome summer job like 100 degrees temperatures, 100% humidity, and mosquitoes so thick you actually breathe them in. However, on the flip side was coming across the occasional endangered species sightings (especially key deer), pot bush or naked sunbather.

But as technology has progressed the need for the rodman has dwindled. Many surveyors have replaced their rodman with excruciatingly accurate GPS devices, essentially eliminating the need for anyone to hold prisms anymore.

@ PartiallyDeflected

Think of a “community organizer” as similar to being mayor of a rinky dink town, but without access to Congressional earmarks.