It's 20 Years Later And Still Nobody Knows What Chandler Bing's Job Was

Fans of Friends usually remember a shockingly high percentage of the show, including most plot lines, various hi-jinks, the weird few weeks when Bruce Willis played Rachel's boyfriend, and the gradual grinding down of Ross Gellar from respected paleontologist to quip-merchant.

But few of us remember what exactly Chandler Bing did for a living.

In a long running gag that at one point saw Rachel and Monica lose their flat over a quiz question, Chandler's career was something of a mystery.

Everyone knew he worked in the city, making him just about the only cast member who could actually afford an apartment in Greenwich Village in the mid-90s, but the finer details of his profession were rarely discussed.

Warner Bros.

It could be argued that this was a postmortem of the 1980s, a decade that saw rampant growth in financial markets and institutions, with career professionals sacrificing free time for exuberant wealth, doing jobs with meaningless titles in exchange for status and filthy lucre.

It could also be argued that it was just a joke which the show's writers used to great comic effect.

WATCH MATTHEW PERRY REVEAL CHANDLER BING'S JOB:

So what was Chandler's job? Well, Chandler Bing's official job role/title was statistical analysis and data reconfiguration.

According to Simply Hired, a job like this earns an employee around $65,000 (£46,179) a year, but doesn't give many details of what the job itself involves. It's possible that's because it doesn't exist.

Well, not quite at least. According to a piece in the Houston Chronicle: "Statistical analysts interpret quantitative data and design statistical models for researching problems or questions. They also maintain databases and ensure that their data are reliable."

Now you can kind of see where the gag about no one knowing what Bing-o did for a living came from.

Warner Bros.)

As he worked in IT, he would have interpreted vast amounts of data and designed statistical models with which to incorporate it to the world of information technology. I wrote that last sentence off the top of my head, and even I'm confused about what he did.

However, statistical analysts serve a key role in many companies. While their day to day work may involve number crunching and processing complex sets of information, the results are of vital importance to company bosses.

They'll often present them in a more readily digestible format (i.e. a pie chart, yum) so that execs can understand the data and, more importantly, what to do with it.

Presumably, that's where the data reconfiguration part comes in.

Whatever it was exactly that Chandler was doing between the hours of 9 to 5 (more likely 7:30 to 19:30) may remain a mystery, but he disliked it enough to ultimately end up quitting (after a brief sojourn to Oklahoma) and working his way into the world of advertising.

So, we might be no closer to known what exactly Bingy did for a living, but it's still a hell of a lot easier than trying to spell paleontologist.

Honestly, that's my fifth attempt within the last half hour.

Topics: Television, Entertainment, TV and Film, US Entertainment, Friends

Ronan O'Shea

Ronan J O'Shea is a freelance journalist from London who has written for titles including LADbible, Headspace, The Independent, National Geographic Traveller and New York Post. Contact him at [email protected].