Laughed at for saying "I'm working towards my Master's"

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VHunter

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Why is it so funny?

A friend recently laughed at me when I said my goal was to achieve my Master's.
:irked:
She said, and I quote "Masters? HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA"
:irked:

I explained what it meant in this industry and that a lot of knowledge, skill and experience were required. That it means mastering MULTIPLE systems that are very different.
I pulled out the big guns and used all the 'big words' and explained how we need to know chemistry and biology etc..

And yet, she still thought it was funny WHILE nodding her head "No, I could never do it, I dont have the skill, but you're very talented" "And no, I dont know what an eponychium is, or a sole horn, or what was that word? ony something or other?" "no, I dont understand what polygomers are.."

THEN WHY is it funny?

Ordinarily, this sort of thing doesn't aggravate me over much.
BUT TODAY, it pissed me right off!
She laughed, IN MY FACE:irked:

Meanwhile, her part time job is as a cashier in a grocery store.
How impressive is that?:rolleyes:

What is with the stereotype people have of those in the beauty industry that we must be stupid or something?

HOW do we change it????
 
Why is it so funny?

What is with the stereotype people have of those in the beauty industry that we must be stupid or something?

HOW do we change it????

It's not funny (as we know), it's hard work and a massive acheivement to do.

I don't know why people stereotype our industry, but I wouldn't just throw long words at her I would point out that you choose your hours, are close to fully booked, have clients that choose to return to you above other people and finalll that you choose your own wage (to a point!). And to use Nailzoo's closing line - stick that in your gel pot and cure it!!!!!!! I'd say all that beats being a part-time cashier......:hug:

Keep doing what you're doing honey, it's been a long road but you're getting their. Don't let others pull you down......
 
Why is it so funny?

A friend recently laughed at me when I said my goal was to achieve my Master's.
:irked:
She said, and I quote "Masters? HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA"
:irked:

She laughed, IN MY FACE:irked:

Meanwhile, her part time job is as a cashier in a grocery store.
How impressive is that?:rolleyes:

What is with the stereotype people have of those in the beauty industry that we must be stupid or something?

HOW do we change it????

Sounds like the green eyed monster to me! :green::green::green:
I am sure she wishes you well, but feels her own life is so mundane, why should yours be any different!

Go for it Val.. its great to have aims and aspirations... don't let anyone put you off. :hug:
 
I think a lot of these negative words are due to jealousy hun, they dont have a creative bone in their body, have no goals and dont now what they relly want, you have all those.

someone tried to put me and my carreer down a while ago and my answer was Ild rather be doing nails/ hair/beauty instead of sitting in front of a computer all day in a box
they usually shut up then.
 
Dear Victoria (and all the other of you who don't feel you get respect).

If this had been some years ago, I would have jumped up and down and moaned with you here. Now, I am older and wiser/number/dumber/whatever... :-D

You can't DEMAND respect from others, you have to GAIN it buy what you're doing or/and saying. I am sick of hearing all the nailtechs not getting respect in one line and in the next you tell how idiotic you think all other are, wether it be cashiers og professors... Where is YOUR respect to them and what they are doing?

I don't blame people who laugh at what I am doing. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to do nails and thank god for that. All of us can't be either rocket scientists or nailtechs! And please, don't pretend you have to be buy telling all the complicated words from the book! I think this makes you even more "laughable"! Who are interested in what hyponychium is? To get respect you shouldn't tell people how hard it is to be a nailtech, what you have to learn (don't you think it's damn hard to learn all the PLU-codes when being a cashier?) etc... If I met a plumber and he told me about all the different pipes he has to use, I would have thought he was kind of strange... (Or a professor in mathematic telling and showing me complicated maths...) It's not in my interest to know all th small detail he has to know to do his work!!!

To do a master... (Ok, now I know some of you will shoot me, but I'll jump into it...) I think the word/term is totally wrong.... At least in Norway, people will think you have a university degree of fours years! I don't have a master and I don't know what it involves, but it can't be the same as a four year university degree.

OK, now I am heading to work! Have a nice day!

(PS, when I say "you" I don't mean anybody specific)
 
I don't know why people stereotype our industry, but I wouldn't just throw long words at her I would point out that you choose your hours, are close to fully booked, have clients that choose to return to you above other people and finalll that you choose your own wage (to a point!). And to use Nailzoo's closing line - stick that in your gel pot and cure it!!!!!!! I'd say all that beats being a part-time cashier......:hug:

Don't you thin people stereotype other "professions" too?

C.
 
I think Cec has got that point spot on.

I am not a nail technician...yet...but I would never put the job down in any way or form.

I WAS however a cashier in a supermarket...and yet it has been insinuated that this isn't a good job to have either!!!???? :cry:

Obviously it isn't any fun to be put down and laughed at for any ambitions or goals we have...but maybe just maybe this person who laughed at you Victoria felt a little insecure herself...maybe she was laughing at you saying you were going for your Masters because she felt inferior and insecure herself... after all she might get told she is a mere 'cashier' by other people and that she isn't worthy just because she works in the local grocery store...you said it yourself in a round about way...surely others' think it.

Not getting at you...:hug: but often people will laugh and make fun because they are jealous, insecure, not confident etc...

We all have a living to earn...to be honest I think whatever job you do it requires some form of skill and learning.

I know that one supermarket boss I had started out as a cashier when he was 15 and still at school to become the manager of the store in his twenties...:)

Anyway good luck with your Masters Victoria...you know your worth...if someone laughs at you laugh along with them....just say ' I know...little old me doing my Masters, who would have thought it? ' :lol: then walk away muttering ( rather loudly ) about how much extra money you will be making...and how you can spend it on luxury holidays... :rolleyes::rolleyes:

xxx
 
I guess the reason that she thought it was funny because she thinks "Well, it's only nails..............anyone can do that. What's to be a master of?"
 
dont stress over it victoria, you are doing it for yourself, not for anyone else, there will always be people who are envious of others achievements.

A master certificate in nails is a great thing to aim for, what is wrong in trying to be the best you can at your job, the theory side of it was more difficult for me,but the practical side improved my application hugely, so it was well worth the time and effort as far as I am concerened.

dont listen to those that laugh or put you down for your goals, the green eyed monsters lurk everywhere mate xxx :)
 
i know what you mean hun,

happened to me the other night, i was explaining what i wanted to achieve and that my goal was to do my masters only difference was it my hubby who found what i said funny so bl**dy funny :cry: .

well i soon put him in his place :evil: :smack: i think he knows better than to laugh about my goals again!.

i think they have this response because it's beauty how does it warrant a master level . it's only sticking a few nails on or painting some thats how they see it. where as, if we were all doing law well it would be different i bet you no one would laugh at us then.

lucy x:hug:
 
I suggest waiting til you are 95 and take on a room full of fit young technicians with nothing more than your brush, leaving them in a pile on the salon floor, without breaking sweat yourself.

Mike xxx
LMAO!!! Boy what an image! :lol::lol::lol:
 
Seriously Victoria...you should try having that same conversation here in the west Scotland.
If I told anyone I was a Grand Master....they wouldn't just laugh...they would think I was high up in The Orange Lodge....or the Masons!:lol:

Don't get too caught up in the wording of it all....you should just be smug in the knowledge that you are an empowered woman who is investing in herself and her chosen career.

Cue music...Chakka Khan..."I'm every woman...it's all in me......"
 
HOW do we change it????

I forgot to answer this... I think we can change it buy telling people, not about all you know about nails etc, but buy telling them you're a business woman! Business women never tell people how hard it was to get their education!!! Tell people how you started, how you built your salon, how pleased your clients are etc... I am used to "be the wife", to smile and look nice. Some may think I am an idiot, until I tell them about my business and my strategies and how hard I work... I don't care what people think of me! If somebody choose to laugh at me, so be it, it's not my problem! I may laugh with them!!! Because I know what I can, I know how my business is running and I know the stereotypes people have about people in the beautyindustry. And to be very honest... there are always a little bit of truth in stereotypes............

C.
 
Seriously Victoria...you should try having that same conversation here in the west Scotland.
If I told anyone I was a Grand Master....they wouldn't just laugh...they would think I was high up in The Orange Lodge....or the Masons!:lol:
D

But Izzi, don't you understand them??? I do...... Maybe we should all try to see things from another side...

C.
 
the easiest way to earn an idiots respect, is to give them a bottle of polish and ask them to paint and stay between the lines.

Admittedly, when i think of "masters", i would think of someone with the ability to do almost anything, using almost any medium within the industry.
If you ain't snatching the pebbles from my hand (remember Kung Fu) ....then i'd remain unimpressed. Sometimes you have to walk the walk, rather than talk the talk.

Look at what a "Master" is ..... (your thoughts included as to what it is) and where you are now, the easiest way is to simply "prove" what you are.

What we "aspire" to and what we are , are sometimes different things.

Simply, go ahead, do it and prove them wrong.
 
Ok, perhaps I expressed myself wrong with regards to my comment about her being a cashier. IT WAS rude of me.:o
It's an honest job, just as any other and yes, she's entitled to respect too.
I guess it's just that.. well.. I've BEEN a cashier.. and it was probably one of the worst jobs I ever had and in all honesty, I didn't find it required much skill. Only the ability to smile under duress and use the register properly.

Actually, if I were to put every job I've ever had on a cv, it would look something like this (keeping in mind that for a period of umm 10yrs and I have been working for 20. I bounced around a LOT)
- cashier at corner store, Shampoo girl, Hair dresser & makeup artist, fast-food cook/waitress in VERY small restaurant, sale's lady in Jeans apparel store, Nanny to 5 kids, Encyclopedia sale's person (yes, that's FUNNY and omg, unbelieveably hard lol), coat-check girl at a bar, shot-girl at same bar (walk around with bottles on hips, selling shots of tequila etc & fending off drunk perverts), receptionist, secretary, Branch administrator & wire operator (input buy/sell orders onto stock exchange floor via computer) for investment firm, Office Admin & Client liasion for Immigration Consulting firm, Exective Assistant & Office Admin for Jewellery Import firm...

yeah, took me a while to figure what I wanted :lol::lol::lol:

All jobs require respect. If it puts food on the table, clothes on children's backs and keeps the rent/mortgage paid... then it's a good job.
I guess I just wondered where she got off laughing at me?
And yes, I did point out that I am my own boss, determine my own hours and salary (within reasons) amongst other benefits of choosing this career.

Yes, perhaps "Masters" is the wrong term given society's interpretation of what that means, and that it's usually associated with other things.
But even in this industry, I can't see another term being appropriate.
What's involved in getting a ummm I don't know.. A master's in science? MANY years of study. Well, it requires a lot of study to get our Master's too.

Maybe I'm pms'ing, but it ticked me right off, whereas usually it wouldn't bother me and just roll off my back.

Thanks everyone for your time and thoughtful posts!
I needed to vent, and you helped me do that.
Hubby just rolls his eyes at me when I get frustrated :rolleyes:

giant :hug::hug::hug:
 
Don't you think people stereotype other "professions" too?

C.

Of course people stereotype all the time. Tbh, I have completely changed my view of the whole beauty industry since I embarked on my Nail Tech career - I am guilty in the past of assuming the people who studied hair or beauty did it because they weren't bright enough to study anything else :o...... I'm not proud of it, and seeing it from the other side (so to speak) has made me much more respectful of peoples career choices...... I try not to 'judge' people because of what job they do.

I left a full-time, well-paid marketing job to become a Nail Tech, and I know people in my old company think I'm mad! But at the age of 37 I really don't care......

If I tell people I'm doing my Masters I always qualify it with what being a Master Nail Technician means - I make it clear it doesn't involve university or rocket science!!! But it does mean working hard to be the best Nail Tech I can be - and that's what I want!
 
Go you!!! :)
I would not of been able to hold my tongue. How could a friend do that?
Lets see if she laughs once you do it hun.
At least you have ambition and are prepared to work hard to get what you want out of life.
I could never put a friend down like that no matter what their aim in life was.
Good luck and make sure you celebrate in style when you achive your goal!
 
Well you get Master Builders, Master Chefs so why not Master Nail techs? They probably don't understand the amount of skill it takes to do what we do ... and do it well. After all it's only fake nails!!! Yeah well we don't do fake do we!!!!?

We had a lady come into the salon yesterday who was so rude, couldn't understand that we were fully booked for the day and weren't prepared to drop everything to do her NOW. She was so rude and had no respect for either us or our clients that had booked. Even if we had a space we wouldn't have wanted her sat in our chair for over 2 hours looking down her snooty nose at us. Yes respect is a two way thing, and we had none for her.

There is a connotation that what we do is for the pea brained, but heck they can think what they like, I know different. Not many people can say they love their job as much as I do, and I call that smart!
 
This work is so fulfilling,rewarding,inspiring,instills confidence in clients,can transform peoples lives from something simple from a file and polish,to a set of intricate nail art...and you as a professional Victoria are doing something you love.

How many other people can say that about thier work....

Just follow your goals...you ultimately are going to benefit and reap from this...can the other girl say that about her life...maybe not:)

:hug::hug::hug:
 

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