I don’t have trouble explaining. I keep it high level and generic because 99 times out of 100, people are just making small talk and want to know just enough about you to categorize you.
Similar with trying to explain the Fediverse. It doesn’t come up often, but the explanation is sometimes just
Non-profit run social media
While not entirely accurate since you can run an instance for profit, it’s been the case for pretty much every instance and it’s definitely true for the side I’m helping with
Describing my job? Yeah, sure. I do science.
Explaining my job? Hell no. Nobody is willing to read a 20 page lit review to start to understand the background of what I do
Contramuffin. (2024). Describing my job: I do science. Lemmy World, 78(9), 69-420.
Reading the first several posts… Is everyone here in IT? 🤣🤣
Mostly, yeah
Given you are using niche forum software. Yes, most likely.
There are DONZENS of us!
Ask me again in UDP
I’m sorry I only do TCP
UDP world DGAF
Truth.
01001001 01110011 00100000 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 01111001 01101111 01101110 01100101 00100000 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01001001 01010100 00111111 00100000
I do computer
Bleep bloop bleep
heyo yeeeeee
No, but only because we subdivide what layman think of as IT into many specialties
I recently told a seven year old that I am a wizard. I already have the beard and being a programmer, that is exactly what my customers feel about my work.
Me: I’m in IT (trying to keep it simple)
Them: OK, but what do you do in IT?
Me: I’m a system administrator (again trying to keep it simple)
Them: I don’t know what that means. What does a system administrator do?
Me: I work on servers (again, trying to keep it simple)
Them: What’s a server?
Me: I’m in IT…
I’m a salesforce admin and I feel the same way
I’m a salesforce admin
I’m sorry
Tis a thankless job!
Ooo, my brother-in-law is in sales. What kind of commission do you make?
That’s a combination of too simple/short in your sentences, mixed with too specific jargon with no clarification. It’s dumb as hell that people don’t know stuff like what a server is, but if they don’t you have to abstract it more.
My go to is some form of: I’m in IT, I do systems administration. I help keep all the things behind the scenes working so that everyone’s stuff works at my workplace. Less of making your email work, more of making everyone’s email work.
Obviously I work with a hell of a lot more than just email. I’m mostly scripting out custom automation jobs to bridge gaps in the integrations between different systems. But like you said, keep it simple.
Oh hello fellow email admin. What platform?
So you keep the computer engine running.
Replied elsewhere: I cast spells that make the runes etched in sand translate the energy of magic stones into dancing light.
Usually I just tell people that I work in IT and leave it at that.
Trouble as in I’m in trouble if I do. I’m a formally educated it security engineer running my own incorporated software and infrastructure company. Firstly: people just hear “computer guy” and their second thought is “he can fix my stuff”. So I stay near to the truth and simplify it: I’m a theoretical electrical engineer. Boom, instant bored face and they leave as fast as they can. My neighbors love me, but I haven’t fixed a single of their computers in decades.
Also pro tip: the wife has the same qualifications as I, so she fixes her family’s stuff herself. My job is to lug stuff and the kids around at home.
simplify it: I’m a theoretical electrical engineer.
So, IT is just theoretical electricity.
I need to remember that 😁
A concept of electrical engineering
Nope. I keep the internet working.
People seem happy when I say that. Unless my internet at home craps out and my wife makes a cheeky joke about it.
Yep.
Network engineer here. I can’t count the number of times my mom says I’m in programming.
After a few years, my wife figured out the best way to describe my job. Doctor of the internet. This was because I was working in operations at the time and would fix network outages regularly.
Did you put an SR to get thru her (mom’s) firewall first?
Information Security is so hard to explain to old people who don’t know much about technology. My grandparents back then (late 2000s) never understood it no matter how I explained it, and they thought I was a security guard at the bank I worked at. You could also see the disappointment in their faces thinking how someone who took IT in college ended up as a security guard.
“I’m a stand-up comic.”
“Ooh! Heckle me!”
“I don’t know anything about you and don’t wanna say anything mean about you. Just enjoy the moment without getting a performer to do free work for you.”
“You’re no fun.”
“Don’t have to be on all the time, let me eat my burger.”
I imagine you get these questions all the time, but how did you get into stand-up, and how did you get the guts to get up on a stage and try to be funny?
I love the idea of stand-up comedy, but I’ve been to a few open mic nights and it almost always seems like drunk people showing off, people that are hilariously unfunny, or people in the crowd that try to shit on anyone remotely trying to entertain.
I started out as a quizmaster, telling quiz for a night a week. I’d open my show with a new 45-second bit each week, built audience numbers over time.
Then I realized I’d been doing this for years, and was an incredibly prolific comic! I had enough material I could just walk out onto a stage and just lengthen out my opening bits, cause I no longer had a quiz to tell that night!
I cast spells that make the runes etched in sand translate the energy of magic stones into dancing light.
Usually I just tell people that I work in IT and leave it at that.
“Hey so does that mean you can fix my laptop and make my next gen app idea for free?”
Of course!
I’m in DevOps, so anyone not in tech has no idea what I do/what that means. So, I end up just saying “I work in IT”.
My new doctor didn’t like that answer when we were making small talk and wanted a more detailed answer, so I tell him. He looks at his nurse and says: did any of that make sense?
Huh, I came to say pretty much the same thing. I’m DevOps, more or less, by I tell people I’m a programmer since that’s what I do
Nope. I do plumbing, home renovation, small construction jobs and property maintenance.
Unless it requires a permit or special training, I can likely do it.
What part of the world? I need to have a gas line run outside.
Northern europe. There are no gas lines going into people’s homes here.
What type of heating fuel do you guys use? Where i am its usually natural gas from lines or propane in tanks.
Older houses often to have oil boilers. Newer ones tend to have either geothermal or air heat pumps. District heating is quite common as well, especially on commercial and apartment buildings meaning the heat is transfered via hot water from the power plant.
I’m a florist. People understand what I do, they usually just don’t think it’s worth doing or paying me for my labor.
When I say I’m a school librarian, most people can make a connection and have an understanding. And as long as their next comment isn’t some Fox News bullshit (which was real fun at my grandmother’s funeral), I can usually leave it at that.
But the actual day-to-day complexities of what I do isn’t going to be understood. Most days I am checking out over 400 books to students, which means my volunteers, me, and my para (assistant) are checking in and reshelving over 400 books each morning. That’s over 800 books scanned each day. Then, I am also teaching six 45-minute classes every day and I see each student in our school (over 700) twice a week in those classes. So I am planning and prepping for those classes, teaching those classes, and running the book checkout. Not to mention managing behaviors and helping some of our new students (especially kindergarten) understand the expectations of the library. I am currently planning our book fair happening in a few weeks, getting ready to start my after school club, facilitating a $500 per grade level order for books and supplies, fielding sales phone calls, balancing my ~$10K budget, and being the team lead which involves monthly meetings to attend, twice a month meetings to run, and many additional emails. So yes, I do read to kids and let them take books home, but that’s nowhere near the end of my to-do list.
