What do you tell the taxi driver you do for a job?

So you’re a radio producer, you sell radio, you market radio, you schedule radio .. .etc basically you do pretty much something other than be the voice that comes out of the speaker.  We’ve all been in that totally awkward situation when you’re making small taxi – often with a taxi driver and they ask ‘so what do you do for a living’ ….

“Oh, here we go” you think ….  do I actually explain the fifteen million roles of my job or do I make something up that a non-radio person will kinda understand. How do you tell the ever talkative taxi driver without having to explain in detail because really you just want to get home / get to work / get out the cab!

A great fun tweet from Bauer’s Rachael Devine popped up explaining her transporting conversation based issue of explaining her slightly unusual (in the real world) job to a taxi driver – who naturally had so many questions. (Why do taxi drivers have so many questions, WHY?!)

Plus, also this ….

Which led to some interesting and amusing results from across the industry …

@_rachaeldevine been there toooo many times.

— Alex Baker (@alexbakerman) December 30, 2014

@_rachaeldevine "So do you just boss presenters around? Do they basically not to any work then?"

— Jonny Mounsor (@JonnyMounsor) December 30, 2014

@_rachaeldevine It's a nightmare. "So do you have to do that before you become a presenter or…?"

— Jonny Mounsor (@JonnyMounsor) December 30, 2014

@_rachaeldevine I get the 'so you make all the ad breaks'.

— Callum Clark (@itscallumclark) December 30, 2014

@_rachaeldevine ah, a conversation I know only too well!

— Lucy Duffield (@LucyDuffield) December 30, 2014

@_rachaeldevine I too know this pain, my situation is even more complicated than just saying "I'm a producer". I feel your pain Rachel…

— Jamie Boyd Ratcliff (@JamieRadioDJ) December 30, 2014

@_rachaeldevine I used to just shut people up by saying I was practically Roz from Frasier when I worked on Nightowls. Knobs

— Scott McGerty (@scottmcgerty) December 30, 2014

Would love to hear from Earshot readers how they describe their ‘off air’ job to those not in radio! You probably have had to do it umpteen times this Christmas to the family!

Oh and the worse is when they have an ‘opinion’ on the radio station/s you work for ….. yikes!!!!!

Oh and in case you’re wondering …. Rachael schedules the ever increasing number of boybands, S Club 7 hits and cheesy pop classics on Heat Radio (yay!) and provides production support to Magic too.

Jonathan Jacob is currently Content Solutions Manager at Global Radio with varied experience across commercial radio S&P, events, marketing and PR. He was listed in the inaugural Radio Academy 30 under 30, is a Student Radio Awards judge and sat on the Events Committee for The Radio Academy. Views are personal.