How do you relate to non-technical people (read: your significant other/mom/dad/family/etc.) about your job with programming? When asked about how my day was at work, I find it rather difficult to explain anything specific without going over their heads. How do you handle such situations?
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closed as not constructive by Mark Trapp Sep 26 '11 at 8:03
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I find the best way to describe it is to compare it to something that they can more easily understand. For instance: Say you design algorithms. Tell them that what you do is quite similar to writing a recipe for cooking. Only computers follow the instructions instead of chefs. This is actually particularly applicable to most programming jobs. Say you program the core of an application. Tell them what you do is like a construction worker putting together the skeleton of a building. You are doing the brunt of the work, and more people will come after you to make it pretty. Say you do UI work for the previous application. Tell them you are the interior designer of computer programmers. You take the plain, bland building someone else has build and make it livable and usable for everyone else. Things that other people can relate to make it easier to understand. |
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Well... I come home dead tired with red eyes, dumb as a vegetable.. I cannot follow common conversations like "what was the weather like today" .... People who don't know me much ask: have you been drinking? are you a drug dealer? are you hooked on chronic? are you some kind of .. whatever deviant behavior? NO I am simply a software developer coming home for some rest! Please get a degree in CS and try it out for yourselves, I can't explain it but it's much funnier that what it could sound like! |
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I often say that I'm like a potter or woodworker ... except instead of making physical things I make programs. It isn't exactly art, but it is a craft and requires the same kind of expertise, experience, and, to make something really good, talent. |
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"I connect people all over the world." -Web Engineer |
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I don't. I used to try. Even had a nice 30 second spiel down with all the construction metaphors. But 90% of the time you just get blank stares back. I have deduced a few reasons for this: 1) People understand the connection between a construction worker and a house because they've seen people building houses since they've been little kids. Very few people make the connections between the software they use and the people who built it because they've never seen a programmer actually do "work". 2) Most people are not inquisitive about things if it is outside their comfort zone. People feel very vulnerable when they don't understand anything about what you do. They've seen a doctor and lawyer on TV, but they've never a developer. They just don't want to appear stupid. 3) Most people are very stupid and cannot think abstractly. A house is built of wood. A program like iTunes must be built of music. Most people will never get beyond believing that you are doing anything more than just typing into a Word document. So now, I use my vertical: "I build a medical eduction website". Mentioning what your business does, as opposed to just what you do, seems to be much more successful conversation starter. Good luck. |
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Albert Einstein said "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough". An opportunity for self-development by looking at things differently? Throughout the day, think "how would I explain this to a layperson?", and see what happens. |
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I work on embedded systems. I tell people that as long as no one realizes there's a computer inside the device they are using, then I've done my job. |
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You can't. Don't even bother. And even if you could, they really don't want to know. To the vast majority of people, what we do is boring. Explaining what we do is even more boring. "I program computers" or "I write software for businesses" or "I design web sites" is sufficient. Frankly, they're already bored, or they wouldn't ask. So don't push them over the edge by trying to explain. ;-) |
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When people really want to understand what I do for a living, I usually give them the following example: (It works well when training new programmers as well) Give someone a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter and a jar of jelly and a knife. Tell them that you know how to perform simple tasks a child can do. For example, most children know how to unscrew caps and grab a knife, but they can only retain certain instructions in their head at once, and can only follow a few directions at a time. Thus, "Spread the peanut butter on the bread" is too complex of an instruction, and needs to be broken down into smaller commands, such as "Open the jar, put some peanut butter on the knife, etc." Depending on how anal you want to get with the process, you can show them the difference between "high level" abstract languages and Assembly. This also goes well to prove the theorem that all computer languages can accomplish the same task.(Have someone do it once in English, and once in Spanish) Once they appreciate the tedium involved in something simple as making a "program" to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, they usually understand what I do on a daily basis quite well, and understand when I complain "it just isn't working." |
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A lot of what we do has to do with people, other people or ourselves. We get requirements and questions from the customers. Those can come on time or later on as an addition or even a surprise, there can be misunderstandings. We have to interface with other teams and other team members to divide the work, those people can be smart or not so smart, they can be friendly or petty and annoying. When we work on a problem we can find it rewarding or frustrating. All those are things that need no technical know-how to understand. If you spent few hours in a design meeting arguing several options, your father might not be able to understand those options, but he may be able to understand what a long argument feels like. he might even ask a question that would surprise you like - can you make test cases to try the different options. For people who are not interested in the day to day details but just want the big picture I would try to describe what is that the program I am working on is supposed to do: -"I develop a software for insurance companies" -"Isn't it boring?" -"Well I thought it would be at first but actually there are some interesting challenges. I don't have to do all the boring statistics myself, I teach the computer how to do that" "But you just sit in front of your computer all day long? how can you stand that?" -"Oh its nothing like that at all. We usually consult each other, we have to talk to decide how different parts of the system will interact, or we help each other with difficult problems. Some times I long for some alone time with my computer." |
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I would explain it in terms of "if I mess up, what goes wrong".
and so on. |
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I'm a digital construction worker / architect. I build and design structures, both for beauty, like a park, and for business, like an office building or supermarket. I spend time designing the foundation and breaking ground and building up from there. I add doors for people to enter and furnish the inside so people can use it. I put up nice windows, paint the outside, and landscape to draw people in. |
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You instruct a computer how to perform a task or tasks for people. The tasks may be extremely complex or may just be more time consuming for a person to complete. This is a pretty simple explanation that most folks will be able to follow, even without technical knowledge. |
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It really depends on what you're doing and who you're talking to. My biggest problem is generally that as soon as "computing" gets mentioned, I'm now the support guy. Any problem with their ISP, wireless router or Word doc and I'm first on their phone. My doctor friends have the same problem - you introduce yourself as a medical professional and suddenly all the aches, pains and concerns are weights on your shoulders. Currently I work within a financial services company which makes the current news cycle my friend as now more people understand what we do - and that's been the bigger obstacle recently. I can explain the programmes I write (graphs, charts, grids of data) quite easily, but explaining quite the company does ... |
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"I make the internet go." Actually, I use a program they have as an example and talk about the things it has to do. For example, AIM has to start, get a buddy list, be able to send and receive messages, etc. I tell them that there's a special way of telling the computer how to do all those things, and it's called a Programming Language. Hopefully, at that point, they're either bored or have questions. |
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I'm a digital construction worker / architect. I build and design structures, both for beauty, like a park, and for business, like an office building or supermarket. I spend time designing the foundation and breaking ground and building up from there. I add doors for people to enter and furnish the inside so people can use it. I put up nice windows, paint the outside, and landscape to draw people in. |
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I like to describe it as the science of managing complexity. Our job is to break a complex problem down into the simplest discrete sub problems, then manage the complexity of putting all those sub-problems back together again in an organized fashion. It isn't strictly accurate, nor does it need to be. I think it gets the point across without being overbearing or overly long. :) |
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This really depends on their background, but typically just find a way to relate what you to do something that is familiar to them. |
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"Hi, I'm Bob and I make computers do work." |
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When I was six, my father told me he was a number doctor. (He worked for the local electrical utility doing demand forecasting -- how many power plants to they need to build to handle demand twenty years from now. Try explaining that to a six-year-old. It involved a lot of numbers, so "number doctor" seemed like a reasonable explanation.) I knew of only one kind of doctor, the medical kind, so obviously these numbers were sick and needed medical attention. I cut numbers out of cardboard, gave them faces and limbs, and presented them to my father to figure out what their medical problems were and how they should be treated. |
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As far as describing what you did on a specific day? Impossible. And its quite annoying. Because I have a roomate that talks about his job all the time. |
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My stepdad asks me this all the time and I have a hard time explaining it. He is extremely non-technical. He just keeps repeating something like,
or,
The gist of it is that he--being computer illiterate and having a couple teeagers--assumes that computers are only useful for games. I've tried to explain to him that I "try to make computers easier to use" and at the end of the day, I have an intelligent application that helps people. I think at this point he, along with others just don't get it because they don't want to get it. He has decided before opening his mouth that computers are toys and my job is just to play with toys--regardless of the fact that it pays well. I'll definitely try some of the analogies (cooking, construction, etc.) that have been suggested, thanks! |
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After years of family reunions I have learned that if I can't explain what I do in a single sentence I get the eyes glazing over look. Even though I'd like to think what I do is much more involved, I just tell anyone who asks "I work with computers". |
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Car analogies. Cars and computers are a lot alike, which makes them popular targets for comparisons. They're both big, expensive machines which everyone has to have, everyone is expected to operate, few know how to really use 100% effectively, and very few know how to fix. It's become a tired cliche amongst techies to use car analogies but for the average person, the car is the most analogous thing in the world to their computer. It also helps assuage them of their technology fears - a number of people still hold to the idea that the world was much better "before these computer things came along", but not a single one of them would do without their cars (note that my reasoning falters a bit in large metropolitan areas like New York City where one could conceivably live just fine without owning a vehicle) For example, you make arrangements for a group of friends to meet at a location for lunch. One of your friends does not arrive. You call him on the phone and ask "where are you?" he says "my car broke down, sorry - I can't make it." What do you say? Do you say, "Well why don't you walk you lazy bum?" No. You, you say you're sorry he can't make it, or you offer to come get him, or maybe even offer to come help him take care of his car after lunch (i.e., drive him home from the mechanic) Now let's say you went over to a (different) friend's house for some reason. Dishes are piled up in the sink. Piled up all over the house. Rotting food, drawing flies, etc. You ask your friend why he hasn't cleaned the dishes in a while he replies "oh, my dishwasher is broken - it's going to be a week before the part comes in." What's your reaction? "Why don't you wash the dishes by hand you lazy bum?" A dishwasher is a big expensive machine that helps a lot but if it goes on the blink you're expected to just get by without it. A car is a big expensive machine that if it goes on the blink you're not as expected to get by without it. People expect you to wash the dishes by hand if your dishwasher breaks, they don't expect you to walk the distance that previously took twenty minutes to drive (the exception of course is getting to work - you've got to work out a carpool or something there). |
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