Randy Seaver hosts this weekly meme called Saturday Night Genealogy Fun. It’s cool, but I never find out about it until Sunday morning, because I’m not on the computer Saturday nights. I’d like to tell you that’s because I have a life, but I really don’t. Last night we went to Noodles and Company and then watched Rocky and Bullwinkle until it was time to put the kids to bed. Then I went to bed myself. Glamorous!
Anyway, last night’s prompt was to tell everyone what your elevator speech is. Randy got the idea from Tonia Kendrick, who is doing it as part of a larger project. When I read it this morning, I had a shuddery flashback to my early days in corporate HR, when I wore pantsuits and took myself Very Very Seriously and thought that it mattered a great deal whether I could summarize my career-related fabulosity in the time it took to ride in an elevator with someone. I was nearly done with that corporate career before it dawned on me that (a) I live in a small city that has few tall buildings (and therefore few long elevator rides), (b) nobody in an elevator wants to hear about my fabulosity, (c) I’m not crazy about talking to strangers, and (d) I usually take the stairs anyway.
So nowadays I have a different elevator speech. This is it:
I used to be a corporate HR executive. Then I realized I like dead people better. Now I’m a genealogist.
See, it’s short enough for a Milwaukee-sized elevator ride. It’s true. It’s snarky. And if they’re stuffy humorless types I wouldn’t want to talk to anyway, it shuts ‘em right up, and I can ride the rest of the way in peace. That’s a home run in my book.
Photo by Steve Snodgrass
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Sounds almost like a haiku.
Dead people definitely are easier to “HR”, that’s for sure!
I love them for their lack of ability to sexually harass one another. There are some things I miss about HR, but sexual harassment complaints are not among them.
While they may be hard to find sometimes, dead people never complain and often turn out to be more interesting than the live ones!
That’s true…and when they get on your nerves, you can put them in a file cabinet.
I like it! I was discussing something similar with my sons and they suggested I get a t-shirt that says “I dig dead people”.
I think I’ve seen that shirt, although I can’t remember where.
Touche Kerry! You should win some kind of award for your elevator speech.
I think my award is that I work at home, and therefore rarely need to ride in elevators in the first place.
I love your speech. Enough said!
Hey Kerry, thanks for the shout-out! Love your pitch, and as someone who did a stint in corporate HR, yeah, dead people, much better.