What's Your Job

One of the most complicated things I have to explain to relatives and friends who are not computer geeks is my job function. I know that others probably encounter this same issue when someone asks, "So what do you do." Usually I repeat my title back to them, only to have the glaze over their eyes get thicker. I then try to reduce my job into as easy terms as possible. The conversation usually ends with them saying something about how it sounds too complicated for them.

The biggest hurdle in this, I think, is that when people know you work with computers in a role that administers them rather than simply uses them, they immediately think it's over their head. The fact of the matter is, there are a lot of computer jobs that require specialization in one particular area.

I used to work with someone who was a wizard troubleshooting issues with Unix print queues. She could solve anything. But she did not know how to uninstall a program in Windows and had no desire to apply herself to understand it better because she was a self-proclaimed non-geek. I have worked with others like this who can perform things I could only imagine, but they cannot figure out how to type an address directly into the address bar of their web browser. There seems to be this stigma about computers that baffles people, and I struggle to understand why people put up this wall around them when it comes to it.

And that's the thing; my jobs in the recent past have not been terribly complicated or technical. Most of them have been varying degrees of system administration or supporting roles. I pity those people who invent crazy stuff explaining their job at the Thanksgiving dinner table.