It gets more challenging to keep people updated on our life as we age.
Not so for one group of young people, though, who have devised the perfect method of sharing information on their careers: PowerPoint presentation nights.
A TikTok video posted by Abbie (@abbieryan55) revealed her method of finding out what friends do for work and it has since gone viral, receiving over 980,000 views and more than 50,000 likes since she shared it on April 7.
“Finding out what each other does for work,” Abbie captioned the video with star emojis and the hashtag #powerpointparty.
The idea seems easy enough to throw together, albeit not without a bit of dedicated time on a laptop. In a series of presentations, Abbie and her friends unveiled what they do for work—from PR coordinator to nurse. Some of the slides explained the day-to-day functions of the jobs, while others included fun little asides, like “work besties” or “favorite bits.” An occupational therapist even did a demonstration of a mobility aid.
The group of friends raised their hands to ask clarifying questions, but some were ahead of the game: One friend wrote on her slide, “So, wait, what does your boring accountant friend actually do?”
The pals topped off their evening with pizza and drinks, and it seemed many laughs were had as they rotated presentations. They gave viewers an valuable idea to chew on, too.
This video below contains swearing.
Many people in the comments resonated with the theme of not knowing much about the adult aspects of their friends’ lives. “I have absolutely no idea what my friends do,” one wrote.
“I couldn’t tell you what my best friend of 26 years does for work,” another TikTok user said.
Meanwhile, lots of occupational therapists—present and future—chimed in, praising the one in the video for the “representation.”
Why don’t we know what our friends’ jobs are?
As people move into adulthood, forming or maintaining friendships in that phase of life, some prefer to keep their career and social life separate.
And, as a career expert at Open Study College told Stylist last year, that’s quite normal.
“There’s nothing wrong with not knowing exactly what your friend does for a living,” Robbie Bryant said. “We spend a lot of time at work, but it doesn’t necessarily shape our personality or interests. Often people can fall into a job rather than it being a true passion. Friends, more often than not, connect on a personal level.”
There’s another potential reason that people might not want to talk about their jobs with friends: They don’t want to seem pompous.
“Generally speaking, nobody wants to boast about their job, especially during harder times like the current cost-of-living crisis,” Bryant said. “Plus, when we’re out meeting up with friends, we simply want to escape from the working week, so we don’t tend to mention our work in extreme detail.”
The case for keeping work and friends separate is one that many ascribe to, and it seems to work for them. But if you do have the itch to find out what your friend does for their five-to-nine—Abbie has got the method for you.