Some jobs, especially those with obscure titles, are difficult to describe. When asked what I do for a living I’m torn between giving them the technical description and just blurting out the simplest explanation. Should I dumb down my answer? Will they even understand half of what I will say? Should I watch for clues that what I said sunk in? Or are their eyes glazing over?

There are three people so far who asked me this very question & I’ve been so uncomfortable with the experience I couldn’t forget.

The first is my mum. I started working during my last semester in Uni. I was hired by a small software house in Makati and the salary (allowance really as it was non-taxable) for the training period was just six thousand pesos (6K Php). Since I was renting a room at 4K a month, I ended up asking Nanay to pay for extra money the first two months (maybe longer, the detail’s hazy hehe). Probably pitying her daughter’s situation she ventured that our neighbour’s son who had the same degree is working in the local Coop bank, perhaps I should try that, too? I said no and besides I wasn’t a programmer.

Nanay’s follow up was to ask me what it was I do anyway. I told her I test the programmer’s work. The look she gave me said she didn’t quite understand how the heck my job was different from a programmer’s. Besides what’s a programmer anyway? She tried to ask a few more times (every few months) to find out exactly what it is I do and why I get sent abroad, what do I look for in these programs?? She eventually gave up after 4 or 5 years. These days she just tells neighbours and friends that her bunso works with computers. Clean and simple, everyone nods none the wiser.

The second person who asked me this worked in my last job. She was part of the commercial team and I, being QA/testing, belong to the Technology department. I told her what I do and gave a few examples relating to our product/platform. She smiled and asked, “so is it hard?”

Ohhh. How do you answer that one? I don’t want to say it’s easy because it’s not. But I didn’t know what her reference point was. So I just said technically speaking it’s from the other end of the spectrum as our programmers. Technical know-how is essential to be effective but to have the domain expertise is also a must. A few nods were made to indicate she got it, but I don’t think so.

Okay in the “real world” QA/testing as a profession still needs a lot of make-up. We’re still seen as dumping ground for those that cannot code. But that’s another topic.

My point is, can I say nursing is easy? Or that writing as profession is easy? I’m not qualified and I don’t want to boast. I just know there are times in my job that I can do it with my eyes closed (that’s the time I need to look for new opportunities) and there are many times when I pray my skills are enough because I feel really stretched.

The third person actually was with several other people. They all look at IT as if I earn 24-carat gold coins and they earn gold-plated coins. When I told them what I do for a living, this guy said “IT is easy“. Afterall didn’t he know how to use a computer? It apparently takes some practise to master what us professionals takes years to learn. I was too disgusted/disappointed to say anything I just looked at him and then I turned to someone else.

Was he talking about practising using Word? Or was he thinking of mastering object-oriented programming?

One of the “listeners” said she’s thinking of taking some lessons in I.T and ditch nursing in the UK. Do I think she can do it? I said anyone can do anything they want, it depends on the person whether their life will be any different than what it is now.

I guess I was too profound they lost interest. Or perhaps they turned away with disgust, too?

I do get stumped a lot of times when asked what I do. I answer and still I hear “so, what does it mean? what do you do?”

I work for the MI6 as a Filipino counter-intelligence in the international arms trade. Will that be easier to understand?

This entry was posted on Monday, March 23rd, 2009 at 8:16 pm and is filed under work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.