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Path: utzoo!watmath!water!watdcsu!herbie
From: herbie@watdcsu.UUCP (Herb Chong [DCS])
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: Showing Off (Explaining Your Job)
Message-ID: <1536@watdcsu.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 14-Jul-85 14:00:10 EDT
Article-I.D.: watdcsu.1536
Posted: Sun Jul 14 14:00:10 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 15-Jul-85 07:00:10 EDT
References: <1030@trwatf.UUCP> <33100024@ISM780.UUCP> <509@ihu1m.UUCP>
Reply-To: herbie@watdcsu.UUCP (Herb Chong [DCS])
Organization: U of Waterloo
Lines: 37
Summary: 

>> At my job I work on C compilers, for a software company
>> that specializes in doing Unix ports.  When I meet people socially, a
>> frequently asked question is "What do you do for a living?"  How can I
>> answer without being boorish or boring?  For example
>> 
>> "What do you do?"
>>     "I write compilers." 
>> nobody outside the industry knows what that is...
>>
>> (--Darryl Richman, INTERACTIVE Systems Corp.
>
>This is a sad state of affairs, but all too common among computer
>professionals.  When you can't even begin to explain a most
>important part of your life to jes' plain folks, it's a most
>damning indictment of the educational system that got you where you
>are.
>
>ken perlow

hmm.  my intended job (i'm finishing a Master's this summer) is obscure
even to most CS majors, so almost invariably i respond with a question
or two to find out how much the person knows about computer systems.
if it's clear they don't know enough to understand directly, i relate
it to something they can understand.  for me, designing operating
system scheduling algorithms, i usually end up using a restaurant as my
example to explain to people with no computer background.  it's
something everyone can relate to, and as it happens, the work i'm doing
can be applied to.

Herb Chong...

I'm user-friendly -- I don't byte, I nybble....

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