rolf wroteI like to compare the internet with the phone network... I mean most people at least have a vague idea about phone exchanges, used to connect phones to each others, and they know theres a lot of cabling involved in connecting the phones across the world.
That can help.
I never bothered explaining, but maybe I should try.
mmmm, well i actually struggle to. my parents are already used to not understand clearly what we do as my sister did biologie moleculaire et cellulaire, and for them maybe only the word "biologie" makes sense... well, they're also both more into literature fields so it also doesn't help... for my grandparents it's worth, they think she's a doctor. as she has a phd, no one bothers to tell them no :P so for them my sister is "dactoura" :P
for my parents and me, all they know is that i'm in the IT field, that my work has something to do with computers/internet/telecommunication and that we work on projects, they stopped asking for more details a long time ago :P i guess my grandparents should be thinking that i fix phones :P
as for other people, when someone asks me what i do i usually just say "i'm in IT" hoping they're just asking just to be polite or just because that's what we do when we meet new people, hoping they'll just say ok and move on without asking for more details. if they do ask for more, i always struggle when trying to explain. i don't like to say that i don't want to explain or that they wont understand as i don't want to look arrogant and sheyef 7aleh and mestahbelon, so i do try... but i end up being someone who just installs linksys routers which for them is a thing that THEY could even do on their own... so i just say yes and cross my fingers for someone to change the discussion :P
then there's the problem of the company name. they ask while assuming that it will be a name that they will know. and when i say "GBM" they have this weird look, the what-the-fuck-is-that look... well yeah, if you're not in the field or one of our competitors, you wont be hearing from us... we don't put adds on tv :P then to remove the what-the-fuck-is-that face i have to explain that we are a sister company of IBM, which works, they then have the ecstatic face, but they still have no clue what i do and assume that i'm super rich, so then they get the sad face (or maybe a pitty one) when i say no to their "oh, so you make lots of money".
