“Daddy What Do You Do?”

Bet You Can’t Explain Your Job To A Five-Year-Old

By Jon Fahrner, CEO of BumeBox

Today was a school holiday and my kindergarteners Max and Cole were staying home. I decided to take them into the office with me. Mostly because I recall a day that my Dad brought me when I was young. He was a lawyer who worked in an 11 story building on Sansome and Pine in San Francisco’s financial district. His office made an impression: the enormous globe, refrigerators with nothing but soda, and books and books and books. A really nice office by any standards. But to me, as a child, it was the Sistine Chapel, Candlestick Park and Disneyland all rolled into one place. Even better, it carried the mystery of countless hours of my Dad’s committed time. Time he was away from the home and doing something important.

I was hoping to make a similar impression on my kids. I conceded there was zero chance they would compare the BumeBox headquarters to something like Disneyland. I work in an underground warehouse space in downtown Palo Alto. Cement floors and an indoor wire fences. Start-up chic and cheap rent. No globes or libraries. You can, however, write on the walls. This wasn’t in the realm of possiblity at Dad’s law firm.

Modest digs aside, we had fun. I coaxed them in the BumeBox conference room with a coloring book, an ipad and snacks while I checked email.I felt like I was upholding a generational family rite. I hope the boys remember drawing orange robots on my office walls someday when they are adults.

I did run into trouble, though, when they asked me about my actual job. A smattering of technical development diagrams were up on the dry erase walls in the conference room. These triggered “Daddy, what do you do at BumeBox?”

The question physically urked me back more than 30 years when I asked my Dad the same thing. I then saw an unmistakable apparition with his wide, late 70's tie. I heard his deep, loud voice. I felt him lean down and re-explain, “Jon, I am an attorney. Some people call me a lawyer. That means I argue cases in front of a judge on behalf of other people who feel that someone did something wrong to them.” Ok, that makes sense. I had several questions about what Dad meant by “arguing” and about the specific role of the judge. But I was familiar with most of the words he put forth and the concept that people sometimes need help to get out of trouble. He delivered as eloquent and tangible a description of his job as you will ever hear. I imagine “anti-trust lawyer” can be described in many other convoluted ways. My Dad helped me understand what he was doing all of those hours away from home. It was rewarding to be bridged into the mystery of Dad’s job.

Back to the future, one generation later, with my kids pitching the same question to me today. I replied, half thinking out loud, and repeating the question,“What do I do? I am the CEO of BumeBox. CEO is sort of the boss. We made a technology that powers Twitter-based events for companies in a better way. Companies like TV networks. We are a live tweet platform that powers things like chats with people on TV.” I caught myself. Holy crap, that is impossible for them to understand. Do they even know “power” in a non-super hero context? As I was fumbling through it, I just saw two wrinkled noses starting up at me. I pulled the safety chute,“Duck Dynasty? Remember Daddy worked with the TV show Duck Dynasty? And you know Twitter, right? Daddy works with people like Duck Dynasty and with Twitter,“ long pause, “on the computer.” My boys phased into the relief of understanding and rebutted 10 to 15 questions about beards, duck calls, duck feathers and Uncle Si’s glasses. Finally, they wanted to know if they were going to be on Twitter today. I admit it. I sucked at explaining my job.

This is, in part, due to the times. With the internet, you can piece together a living doing almost anything. Companies and positions are invented from scratch and harder to explain. 25 years ago there were less things you could do. Law is a perfect example of an easily explained, traditional career path. But I don’t care if careers are harder to understand now. I am going to spend the next 24 hours thinking about how I can better explain my role at work to my kids. Simply because I want to give them understanding, and bridge the mystery as my Dad had done for me.

I would love to hear from anyone who has had tried to explain their job to their kids. Would you be able to explain your job to a 5 year old kid? Is it important to you that your kids understand what you do?