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Tuesday, April 20, 2010

“So What do You do Now??"

That has to be the most annoying question ever to proceed out of the mouth of a beast!!

Right up there with “So who’s the new guy?” THERE IS NO NEW GUY DAMMITT!! Can’t a girl just enjoy some much needed solitude and enjoy the attention that comes when guys can see you are not interested in anything they have to offer?!

I remembered this annoying question while reading my friend Wana’s new blog post, titled ‘Welcome to Mediocre City’.

That’s actually one of the reasons why I cringe when I have to see someone I haven’t seen in a long time. You know that the question has got to surface like a relentless ugly pimple. You haven’t even gotten over the excitement of seeing the person when the question rises.

One crazy friend, so pissed off at being constantly asked the question, decided to start telling people “I carry s#*t!!”

Can’t blame him, because here in Lagos, it’s what I call a Placement question. People automatically want to know how they should relate with you, treat you or how you can benefit them. So they throw the question. It’s the new Self Seller.

So trust my Lagos people (I de hail oooooo!!) everyone fine tunes their audio CV so well in order to shoot up the Placement Chart when asked the inevitable question.

For example, you ask a girl the question; she gives you an impeccable response about the Venture Capitalist firm she works in, conveniently forgetting to add that she’s doing her NYSC there. Placement!!!!

For me it’s particularly annoying because no-one ever understands what I do, so I have to explain for the next 15-20mins. Whatever happened to plain old meeting someone, liking their personality and taking it from there?!

My best business relationships have actually come out of just accepting one another as we are, noting each other’s strengths and then calling on each other when we see an opportunity for the other’s strengths to be expressed.

Oh well...I’m just the girl with the difficult-to-understand job title..what do I know?!

4 comments:

  1. honestly, in my own opinion i dnt see anythn wrng in d quest. i mean, common, its a harmless quest. u just wanna knw wat ur long lost frend has bn up to.abi

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  2. I knoww!! Its very annoying, and i ofcourse never have an occupation to give seeing as i am insolvent. dont let them get to you. next time they ask, say I am an "Indentured Chronicler" haha! before they can figure out what it means, you would have changed the subject.

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  3. Tari, its apparent that you are a sensitive person. That being said, its a commendable observation you have made. I must admit, you are right. I have caught myself doing it, and it did take a consious effort not to slip into the awful greeting.

    I goes to show how much of pressure we put on our relationships, when plain old friendship could have carried a conversation.

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  4. I soooooooooooo feel you on this. For a period of 6 months, i was working on a personal project, experimenting on self employment.I always dreaded the question like a plague because at the i had my hands in one too many things and i always had to give a 30min explanation to that question. not forgetting of course that there are times you're just not in the mood if u know what i mean.......ARGH!!! This Lagos sha

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