I don’t have trouble explaining. I keep it high level and generic because 99 times out of 100, people are just making small talk and want to know just enough about you to categorize you.
Similar with trying to explain the Fediverse. It doesn’t come up often, but the explanation is sometimes just
Non-profit run social media
While not entirely accurate since you can run an instance for profit, it’s been the case for pretty much every instance and it’s definitely true for the side I’m helping with
Describing my job? Yeah, sure. I do science.
Explaining my job? Hell no. Nobody is willing to read a 20 page lit review to start to understand the background of what I do
Reading the first several posts… Is everyone here in IT? 🤣🤣
I recently told a seven year old that I am a wizard. I already have the beard and being a programmer, that is exactly what my customers feel about my work.
Me: I’m in IT (trying to keep it simple)
Them: OK, but what do you do in IT?
Me: I’m a system administrator (again trying to keep it simple)
Them: I don’t know what that means. What does a system administrator do?
Me: I work on servers (again, trying to keep it simple)
Them: What’s a server?
Me: I’m in IT…
That’s a combination of too simple/short in your sentences, mixed with too specific jargon with no clarification. It’s dumb as hell that people don’t know stuff like what a server is, but if they don’t you have to abstract it more.
My go to is some form of: I’m in IT, I do systems administration. I help keep all the things behind the scenes working so that everyone’s stuff works at my workplace. Less of making your email work, more of making everyone’s email work.
Obviously I work with a hell of a lot more than just email. I’m mostly scripting out custom automation jobs to bridge gaps in the integrations between different systems. But like you said, keep it simple.
