Is your job portrayed accurately in movies/tv?

[Anonymous]

Librarian... they NEVER get it right. Well, except for the "sexy librarian" thing. I've definitely hooked up in the stacks before!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yup - Silicon Valley.

God it’s scary accurate isn’t it?

Forever Jiang Yang!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Up in the Air got the traveling consultant thing kind of right, especially the scene when George Clooney is schooling the new recruit on getting through the airport with the essentials only, picking the best security line, etc. Also the scene of George and Vera Farmiga pulling out their credit and rewards cards and discussing points in a hotel bar.

+1

Speaking as a former campus recruit, people who are overly impressed with themselves comparing points and miles? 1000%. People leaving for greener pastures because they got into the field for the wrong reasons (like Anna Kendrick's character)? Spot on. Traveling to the middle of nowhere for work? Yep yep yep.

George Clooney looked too good to have spent that much time in planes and be believable, however

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Programmer....yes...if the movie is Office Space

No other movie has ever captured the average person's office like Office Space.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Journalist. Newspapers. They get bits and pieces right.

The best depiction of the day to day life was Ron Howard's The Paper. The fight over the chairs was classic.

Yes— oh my god! I used to be a journalist, and watching The Paper always makes me sad—I miss that life! It’s pretty accurate depiction of the personalities and newsroom drama. Love the budget meeting where front page placement is determined by whether there’s a NY connection!

Another journalist here, but not in newspapers or TV. I think they get some stuff right. I haven't seen the paper, but apparently I need to...fighting over chairs in the newsroom is a near-daily occurrence!

When I think about movies like Spotlight, probably some of that is fairly accurate if you're at a big-name/big-time publication with lots of staffing and resources. The reality is very few places are like that these days. There are so many stories I wish we could cover, but I only have one dedicated staff reporter, and as an editor I'm more tied up in developing "sponsored content," planning events, sitting in meetings about redesigns and staff re-arrangements and re-doing budgets. In other words, I barely edit or write, and spend a lot more time trying to figure out ways to appease sales and marketing and make profits in new ways. And if I'm not doing that, I should be out at events networking and raising "brand awareness." I do get to do some big(ish)-name interviews, though, so that's cool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a trauma nurse and we all couldn't believe how accurate nurse Jackie could be. And there was a lot of pill abuse amount nurses at my hospital around that time too.

I'm a nurse (though not trauma) and although I liked the show/characters, I'm not sure I found it realistic. Venturing out on numerous breaks during a shift? Pleeeease. ;p Also, I guess it would be easier to sneak out narcs in an emergency room setting vs. the floor or unit.
But of all the shows, I guess it's one of the most realistic ones. Nurses are usually just portrayed as background in medical dramas even though we spend the most time with patients. I understand that they have to make hospital dramas exciting and all about life/death decisions. But most of my time is spent following protocols, chasing doctors, keeping patients' families ( or should I say customers?) happy, and dealing with the administration's BS.

[Anonymous]

Professor. In reality there are so few "hot guy professors" who look like Robert Redford. In fact, very few undergrads are going to be interested in having an affair with their prof, because they are usually dressed in target brand khakis and beat up sneakers and are out of shape and balding.

But for me, the funniest part of portrayals of university life is when the professors jet all over the world giving presentations (on their 2000 dollar a year faculty travel fund, LOL), or lounge around in their swanky offices. Usually it's a windowless office in a basement somewhere with very little air and a metal desk. Not very photogenic, is it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a social worker. Sometimes.

Me too (in a hospital) and I am always screaming about how all hospital based Social Workers on tv walk in and remove children. That isn't what we do. Most recent example of what we really do was in Shameless this week (re: guardianship.)

[Anonymous]

Fed here- no. I rarely see feds in movies or TV, but we aren't anything like how the news portrays us. Most of my coworkers are well educated (majority have masters/PhDs), very middle class with middle class older model cars, and most are not political at all. While do vote in higher numbers, my coworkers are very moderate, not liberal at all. We also are hard working and love our missions. I've worked in 3 different Departments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Programmer....yes...if the movie is Office Space

No other movie has ever captured the average person's office like Office Space.

NP and I'm your standard issue corporate drone in a soul sucking job where I spend 90% of my time fiddling with spreadsheets.

Office Space is too accurate to be funny to me, it just hurts.

[Anonymous]

I am a nanny and most nannies in lifetime movies are completely nuts lol So, no it's not accurate

[Anonymous]

Energy industry. Movies are too soft as compared to reality. Way less caring, way more corruption.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a special ed teacher. I like to imagine that I am a combo of Annie Sullivan and Kotter.

Who?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a prosecutor, so it varies. SVU is pretty accurate in its portrayal of prosecutors. The biggest misconception I see on TV is that witnesses and victims are very respectful toward prosecutors and are generally thankful and cooperative with us. None of that is true. I was treated with more respect when I waited tables.

Prosecutor too and I agree for the most part.

My biggest problem with our portrayal on TV is that everyone thinks we have a huge budget, thinks we will have DNA, fingerprints, confessions, videos, and that this will all be presented within an hour. The reality is that most forensic evidence testimony is terribly dry and boring and most of our cases have little physical evidence at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a prosecutor, so it varies. SVU is pretty accurate in its portrayal of prosecutors. The biggest misconception I see on TV is that witnesses and victims are very respectful toward prosecutors and are generally thankful and cooperative with us. None of that is true. I was treated with more respect when I waited tables.

Prosecutor too and I agree for the most part.

My biggest problem with our portrayal on TV is that everyone thinks we have a huge budget, thinks we will have DNA, fingerprints, confessions, videos, and that this will all be presented within an hour. The reality is that most forensic evidence testimony is terribly dry and boring and most of our cases have little physical evidence at all.

I always dreamed of being a prosecutor. I just love the law.

Sadly, it’s too late for me