How do you explain what you do to non-IT people?

Hey all, I'm still a bit new to IT, coming up on my 2 year anniversary, but I'm still facing the same problem I get from family and friends when they ask me this simple, yet for some reason completely difficult to answer, question: "What do you do?"

My official title is "NOC Technician" and I work at a hospital. I mostly just monitor the network while occasionally replacing bad hardware, help fix network related problems, etc. But I can't say that to people that when I mention network start rambling about how crappy their internet service is, or worse yet think Facebook. Whenever I start explaining what I do it doesn't usually take long before I see that blank look in their eyes that tells me they have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about.

I'm a bit curious how you all answer this question. I don't really have enough experience to consider myself a network engineer, but I usually just say that anyway because its short, sounds good, but still doesn't really help them understand what I do. Sometimes they'll respond with something like "So you work for Cisco?" or "So you work for a company like Verizon?" - And even though I know that isn't correct I usually just say yes anyway because it's probably the closest thing to what I do that they'll understand.

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Comments

networker050184

I hate trying to explain so I usually just say I work on my own little corner of the internet.

Devilry

Krunchi wrote: »

Here is what they think you do.

going to have this framed... rofl

demonfurbie

i use small common words and talk slowly

Qord

I've started telling them simply "a computer guy." If they ask for more detail, I give it to them, but I word it very carefully.

vCole

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

I don't.

+1 - I have a hard enough time explaining what I do to IT people.

instant000

Yeah, it's really funny.

"I work in computers" leads to questions about problems they have with their own computers

"networking" has led a few to ask follow-on questions related to multi-level marketing believe it or not. so then I say that i work on the "internet" and they somehow have the insight to understand that

... but they then start asking about their internet connection

"network security" is what i say a lot, and people have no idea of what that is. so then i say that I "protect the internet" and that makes sense to them, but they then start asking questions about their internet setup

"auditor" at least people have some kind of idea of what an auditor is, so I have been using that lately. Usually when you say "auditor" people don't necessarily have any follow-on questions

. One guy's comment "I'm sure they hate to see you show up." .... I guess it's a compliment that I'm not the type to let people get away with stuff.

when my wife says she works in "voip' she can provide analogies to things people understand like phones, skype, etc.

one answer that always works is that I simply say that "I am not allowed to tell you what I do, because if I did ...." and for some reason, people always finish it for me "... you would have to kill me?" I don't know what they're thinking about me at that point ... but that angle really works a lot, especially if you're military-affiliated.

I know that I'm Instant-Double-O-O, so maybe they're thinking I'm a Double-O-7?

Forsaken_GA

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

"Hey can you come look at my modem? My internet is slow."

"Please contact support, my team doesn't deal with single customer issues"

it_consultant

I deal with this a couple of ways:

"You know those big blinky computers that don't have keyboards or monitors? Those are mine."

"I work on the computers that need separate insurance."

etc etc

astrogeek

Some good responses here lol. Lately I've decided it might just be easier to take random pictures of some of our gear and then show them that. So if they say "oh, so you basically stay up all night taking pictures in front of computer equipment like some super geek?" - They'll be spot on with what I do haha

RomBUS

I usually answer I work with people and computers everyday. They seem to accept it.

MAC_Addy

I tell people I work in IT, they say "what's IT?" I say "Well, I work on computers and networks", they reply, "oh, so you build websites? Can you build me one?" o.O