When will you get a “real” job?

Hey guys, before you read any further, did you know you can follow my blog with Bloglovin? Neat!

Ok, back to the topic at hand…

I recently attended a family event, which was great, it’s always nice to see extended family and catch up with them.

We ate, we laughed, we reminisced about embarrassing stories from my childhood… good times were had by all.

But then come the questions… you know, the ones about camp – the “when will you get a “real” job” questions and their variations, I’ve gotten really good at fielding these over the years but these ones were extra funny some how.

Here’s how these hilarious conversations went down…

What do you do the rest of the year?

“Well, it’s a full-time, year round job… so I do camp stuff!
Just like any small business, I create the budget, write reports, hire staff, recruit campers, etc.”

 

Can’t you get a promotion so that you don’t have to work at camp in the summer anymore? Does’t so-and-so work at your company? Can’t you get a job like his? He doesn’t have to work at camp.

“But, camp is the thing I like about my job… it’s the best part. Everything else is just leading up to when I get to go to camp. And yes, so-and-so does work for my company, he’s in a different department, I don’t want his job, I really like my job.”

 

Oh, well, why don’t you own your own camp yet?

Wait, what? lol
I just laughed this one-off with a “oh, wouldn’t that be nice, maybe someday!”
But it’s sort of a hilarious question. How many teachers or principals are asked why they haven’t gone ahead and opened their own private school yet, or a salesperson or their manager being asked why they haven’t opened their own boutique yet.

 

Photo credit: Raven Photographic / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA

 

I can’t wait for the day when being a camp director is considered a legitimate career choice.

Until then, here’s a pro tip: let’s continue to try to educate people about what we do and hope that some of them will “get it”, there’s no point in getting annoyed, frustrated, or having our feelings hurt when people ask us these questions but it’s a great opportunity to teach them something about what you do. That way when they meet their next camp director they’ll be able to say “OH, you’re a CAMP DIRECTOR!! Man, you guys work awfully hard, but what an awesome job you have!!”

AND laughing about these questions is a great pass time! 🙂

Fortunately for me, most people in my life “get it”, although some of my in-laws still have no sweet clue what it is I do and every time I visit them they ask if I’m working, and then I have to explain to them that my job is full-time, year round. I don’t think they believe me though.  Ya win some ya lose some.  hahaha

I know this is a super common hurdle for full-time camp professionals, and I’d love to hear the funniest questions you’ve been asked about your job.

What do you guys think we can do to help legitimize (in other people’s eyes) the job that we all love so much?