College Education... What?!

Today I have been listening intermittently to Hillary Clinton's Senate Hearing to become Secretary of State. For some reason, hearing a very well educated and well spoken woman applying for one of the top jobs in the country reminded me of a few run-ins I've had in the past.

For a little background, I'm about 3 months away from obtaining my Master's degree in Education, (which then obviously I have an undergraduate degree as well), and I don't consider myself any type of feminist or anything like that. I'm just, well, you know... a regular person. I'm mid twenties, and have been working since I was 15 (including the college years).

But, when asked what I do for the past several years I have always been fairly vague- I don't want to bore anyone with the details of what I do... "Oh, I work at a college" or "I work for a marketing company" works just fine. However- it seems to always get the response, "So are you the secretary?"

Am I the what? Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with being a secretary, administrative assistant or anything else of that nature. That being said, why would anyone assume immediately that that is the position I hold? I think it's fairly clear that I have a college education and have always been fairly ambitious... so why the secretary? And WHY do I get the really amazed look when I tell them that I have been in charge of running the Student Services office? Or that I handle a majority of the client retention efforts from the marketing company? I may be in my mid-twenties and female but that doesn't immediately qualify me for only secretarial duties!

The only thing I can think of is that A) these folks are typically of a generation older, where maybe that was one of the main ways for women in their twenties to work back in the day or B) I look like front desk material. (ha ha) Either way, I wonder if there is some kind of education/generation gap between someone 20-30 years older than I am with understanding that us young-uns with our college edjamacashun are capable of holding positions of responsibility within a company.

So, here's my call to you of the similar generation; current or future college students or recent grads: go out there and don't settle for anything less than what you want to do! And even if they try to tell you you'd be the best secretary in the world, if that's not what you do let them know it! :)