A few weeks ago, someone on Reddit made a comment about how the Screen Actor’s Guild helps actors meet producers and provides health insurance. I could not help myself and corrected them; I have no idea where they got their info, but SAG does not introduce actors to producers at ALL and our health insurance only kicks in if we make over a significant amount of money every single year from acting work.
u/Enguzelharf recently asked for more stories like this, “What’s your profession’s myth that you regularly need to explain ‘It doesn’t work like that’ to people?”
1. Animator:
“Computer animation doesn’t mean the computer does the animation — I do.”
2. Journalist:
“Something being ‘off the record.’ If you’re speaking to a journalist, you can’t just say, ‘off the record,’ and then spill your guts. You need to have agreed with the journalist beforehand that you will not be quoted.”
3. Defense attorney:
“The ‘defense attorney’ aspect of law. It’s not your job to lie, deceive, and cheat to get your client acquitted. You give them the best legal defense so that they receive the due process that everyone has a right to. The job of the defense is to make sure the prosecution does theirs.”
4. Vet tech:
“That vet techs get to play with puppies and kittens all day. It’s a physically and mentally exhausting job.”
5. Locksmith:
“There are no skeleton keys. There is no ‘one key that fits all locks.'” There are master keys that have been painstakingly installed into a building’s locks, some of which might fit all the locks depending on that particular key’s chosen mastering levels, but no.”
6. Electrician:
“That turning your thermostat down as far as it will go will cool your apartment/house faster. You want a frozen cooling unit? That’s how you get a frozen cooling unit.”
7. Archaeologist:
“It’s not dinosaurs we’re looking for — it’s the remains of human activity. No, we didn’t find any gold.”
8. Medic:
“No, ma’am. We aren’t going to ‘shock’ (defibrillate) your family member because their heart isn’t actually beating. Defibrillators do not restart a heart; they reset a malfunctioning cardiac rhythm. If the heart isn’t at least doing something, then our options are CPR and meds until we get some kind of rhythm. Sincerely, Tired Medic.”
9. Dentist:
“Dental implants are not magic fixes. You need to first have the right health conditions to get them. And even after the placement of implants, you still have to brush and floss it appropriately.”
10. Hacker:
“No, you cant just hack everything by franticly typing random bullshit into a console.”
11. Librarian:
“Librarian here. I never get to read on the job. It’s a lot of work.”
12. Student:
“As a student, studying is not simply sitting down in front of a book and magically starting to memorize pages. It requires a great mental and psychological effort, which is why it is very exhausting.”
13. Radiologist:
“Working with X-rays does not make me radioactive.”
14. Tax professional:
“Most clients think that the best tax pros necessarily get them bigger refunds. If you get a smaller refund in a particular year, it may be because tax laws change, because you didn’t pay in as much, or because you didn’t have as many deductions. Explaining stuff to people doesn’t work if their eyes are all glazed over because tax law discussions bore them.
15. Investment management:
“People working in investment management secretly have a crystal ball that tells them exactly what’s going to happen with the economy and markets. Some people are always upset that I give them different scenarios of what could happen, acting like I should know 100% what’s going to happen.”
16. Daycare worker:
“I work in childcare, and no, I don’t just get to play all day and have fun. I have to deal with behavioral issues, developmental delays, diapers, injuries, curriculum, art projects, huge messes during mealtime, working with one other person to put 12+ toddlers down for nap, etc. Of course, it’s fun at times, but dealing with all of that is so stressful.”
17. Teachers:
“That teachers have paid summers off. We’re paid for 10 months and work 10 months. Many choose to not work another job over the summer, while dealing with the trauma from the year; others cram in several jobs in those two months due to needing to supplement income.”