"What do you do?"
This is the most difficult question that I need to answer.
Working in the microfinance sector, I find it very difficult to answer this question to people who are from outside the sector. Just telling them that you work in the development sector does not help. They want to know more. You say, I work in microfinance. Now, what is that? And then you start explaining. They do not understand, but nod their heads as if they do. After you have finished, they will end up asking something or making a comment which makes you realise that they got nothing of what you had said.
The other day, my landlord told me to help him out with his financial investments. I was happy to offer advise. But then he told me that this must be my daily routine explaining people financial investments. I was surprised. I said no, that is not what I do. My landlord was miffed and said that while taking the house you had told me that you work for a consultancy firm which worked in finance??? This is after I had explained to him in great details what I do while I was taking the house on rent.
The task is a little easier these days after Dr. Mohammad Yunus has won the Nobel Prize. You can just say that I do the same thing that he does. People would nod in agreement. Again, while Dr. Yunus' award has given a lot more visibility to the sector, it still is not understood by many people, and people just pretend that they know and do not ask more questions. It would show their ignorance otherwise that they do not even know about a nobel laureate.
Similar problems when you are to say which organisation you work for. It is easy to explain if you work for the TATAs, Birla's, Reliance, Infosys, Satyam, ICICI, SBI, HDFC. Even McKinsey and Goldman Sachs are now known names in India. But as soon as I said Friends of Women's World Banking, people would say, OHH, World Bank!!!! After that, however you explain them, they would understand it to be World Bank, or at best, some Indian wing of the same. And my current organisation, MicroSave, always becomes Microsoft. Sometimes, even Microwave........
I am suffering from a major identity crisis.......
This is the most difficult question that I need to answer.
Working in the microfinance sector, I find it very difficult to answer this question to people who are from outside the sector. Just telling them that you work in the development sector does not help. They want to know more. You say, I work in microfinance. Now, what is that? And then you start explaining. They do not understand, but nod their heads as if they do. After you have finished, they will end up asking something or making a comment which makes you realise that they got nothing of what you had said.
The other day, my landlord told me to help him out with his financial investments. I was happy to offer advise. But then he told me that this must be my daily routine explaining people financial investments. I was surprised. I said no, that is not what I do. My landlord was miffed and said that while taking the house you had told me that you work for a consultancy firm which worked in finance??? This is after I had explained to him in great details what I do while I was taking the house on rent.
The task is a little easier these days after Dr. Mohammad Yunus has won the Nobel Prize. You can just say that I do the same thing that he does. People would nod in agreement. Again, while Dr. Yunus' award has given a lot more visibility to the sector, it still is not understood by many people, and people just pretend that they know and do not ask more questions. It would show their ignorance otherwise that they do not even know about a nobel laureate.
Similar problems when you are to say which organisation you work for. It is easy to explain if you work for the TATAs, Birla's, Reliance, Infosys, Satyam, ICICI, SBI, HDFC. Even McKinsey and Goldman Sachs are now known names in India. But as soon as I said Friends of Women's World Banking, people would say, OHH, World Bank!!!! After that, however you explain them, they would understand it to be World Bank, or at best, some Indian wing of the same. And my current organisation, MicroSave, always becomes Microsoft. Sometimes, even Microwave........
I am suffering from a major identity crisis.......
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