Friday 28 November 2014

Professions Week

10 November 2014, 4 pm

I manage to get into the House of Commons for the second week running.  This time they do not even complain about my mobile phone, although they do get cross with me for loitering with intent to wait for the EyePeePee.  For this, they make me go and stand outside on the naughty step.  The EyePeePee is still in the Security Area: he is trying to reunite his trousers with his belt, and the two of them with his waistline, and this takes a while for a man who is more used to wearing a boiler suit.  Eventually Mr Davies comes to his aid with a double Windsor knot, and we can all go through to the Professions Week reception.

Professions Week is about making young people aware of all the wonderful things that accompany a professional career, like, um, billing targets, regulatory compliance and client care (ie being available 24/7).  The campaign is especially important for ragamuffins, urchins, pickpockets, guttersnipes and plumbers, who would not normally think of themselves as tomorrow’s actuaries or paralegals but could in fact, with an appropriately timed apprenticeship and a double Windsor knot, scrub up quite well in a professional environment.     

Of course, few people at today’s reception have heard of patent attorneys.  So it is clearly time for CIPA to do a little awareness-raising.  One of the speakers shows us an excellent way to do this.  She has a set of “Top Trumps®” cards for different professions.  At the moment the patent attorney card is conspicuous by its absence, but I am sure we could produce one and I set to work imagining what would go on it.

Intelligence:                                       106

Attention to detail:                         108.19

People skills:                                      –5

Communication skills:                    Please clarify the context

Team working:                                  No thank you

Stress levels:                                      104

Travel opportunities:                      Munich 85; elsewhere 4

                Financial rewards:                            Please see attached tariffs.

 

On second thoughts, it is probably more fun to play Top Trumps with racing cars.

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