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That wasn't the pigeonhole I expected

I went to the BYU CS alumni dinner tonight. At one point they briefly put everyone's name and position on a projector, one at a time. (At five seconds apiece it wasn't as tedious as it sounds.)

When it was my turn, it announced "Jonathan Ellis, System Administrator."

What the hell?

It turns out that when I RSVP'd I said I was a "python kung-fu master & sysadmin of last resort." (In the sense that, if you really can't find a better sysadmin, I know enough to be dangerous.)

Don't bother trying to be clever around bureaucrats.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Yeah, but putting "python kung-fu master" on your tax return has got to feel good. :)
11:00 AM
Anonymous said…
I work in the CS Department office, so while I wasn't involved directly with the dinner, I know a fair amount about what went on behind the scenes. I post this to help put a bit of a face to the bureaucracy.

Keep in mind that the person who compiled the slides had to compile a *lot* of them (including slides for people that didn't show up), and had limited space to work with to keep things readable in 5 seconds. She's not a technical person, either, so likely the editing meant finding the thing she understood or recognized from other titles. There were also plenty of other things regarding preparations for the dinner that were keeping her busy as well; dealing with strange slides wasn't a high priority.

Next time, I'd recommend just using Senior Python Developer, if that's the pigeonhole you want. :)
1:54 PM
Jonathan Ellis said…
Thanks, anonymous face of the bureaucracy. :)
3:07 PM
neeber said…
What could be better than having a 'witch doctor', and a 'kung-fu master' in your linkedin network?

Your recent job/title change has made my linkedin contact list 50% less wacky!
9:16 AM
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