Always mistaken for a student December 7, 2012
Posted by mareserinitatis in education, work.Tags: computers, license, software, students
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A week or two ago, I commented that I get mistaken for a student a lot. There’s another way this happens, and it has nothing to do with my appearance. It has to do with the fact that my work email ends with .edu.
I work for a university, hence the appendage on my email. Many vendors, but particularly those who sell software, give educational discounts on their software. The problem is that I work in a center that does a lot of work with commercial interests, thus requiring we have commercial licenses on our software and any other equipment we need to buy.
This is not a big deal except when it comes to getting support or information from the vendors. That little appendage on my email means certain doom. The assumption is that, because I am at a university, I must be a student and don’t have the right to get support from the vendor. There are also those vendors who won’t call back to give prices, likely for a similar reason: I’m probably a student who doesn’t have any money to spend.
While I really like where I work, this is one of the more frustrating aspects of the job. I would like to say it’s a fluke, but it happens to my colleagues and myself on such a regular basis that I know it’s not someone just having a bad day. I can only imagine how frustrating it must be for an actual student.
I also blog at Engineer Blogs, home away from home to some of the best engineering blogs.
Maybe you should start you correspondence by saying “My name is Cherish and I am NOT a student. I work for the university so please contact me regarding etc etc
:)
Maybe I should…or I need to use my email more often so they’ll note that my signature indicates I’m a researcher…
A couple people I know are more likely to use gmail accounts than try to use their university accounts. :-D