

"So, what do you do?" - acl
http://blog.scoutapp.com/articles/2010/08/24/so-what-do-you-do

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vishaldpatel
So, what do you do? > I'm a programmer

Oh, who do you work for? > Myself. I started a market research company with my
best friend a year ago.

Oh, like a start up? > Yeah, I guess you can call it that. We do some contract
work on the side to pay for things.

Hows it going so far? > Pretty good! We've tried out some things that haven't
worked out and we're trying out new things. What about you, what do you do?

\- At this point, 99% of people feel as if they know everything about you. So
the game, you the more intelligent entrepreneur with your max hax0r people
skillz, is to find something interesting about them. If you manage to do that,
then you might just have a new friend, and not just another business card.

~~~
wallflower
> is to find something interesting about them. If you manage to do that, then
> you might just have a new friend, and not just another business card.

Well put. From a recent NYTimes

"With the exception of his time at Oxford, Haden has spent his entire adult
life as the guy everybody knows as soon as he walks into the room. His friends
say Haden’s gift is that he leaves knowing everybody else’s stories.

“He has such compassion and humility,” said J. K. McKay, who caught Haden’s
passes at Bishop Amat High in La Puente, Calif., east of Los Angeles, and at
U.S.C., where they were coached by McKay’s father, John."

[http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/sports/23haden.html?_r=1&#...</a>

------
cstross
If you want mortification, try writing for a living. In reality, you're
running a small (one and a half person) business supplying IP to large
multinational OEMs. But if you say "I'm an author" everyone thinks you spend
your days swigging dry martinis by the pool while languidly dictating to your
busty secretary -- or that you _want_ them to think that's how you spend your
days. The media have a lot to answer for, for turning "author" into a
lifestyle rather than a job description.

(I think in future I'll start saying "I run a contracting company in the
intellectual property sector". "What kind of intellectual property?" "Stories
about space nazis ...")

~~~
donaq
Hmm. So what do you actually swig while languidly dictating to your busty
secretary, if not dry martinis?

Thanks for the hours of entertainment I derived from reading the Laundry
novels, by the way. I especially loved The Jennifer Morgue. Accelerando was
awesome too. More!

------
snitko
What's up with saying "I'm a programmer"? Assuming you are, of course. Being a
co-founder is not a profession. I think when a person asks this question, you
should answer in the most simple and pragmatic way. Because, in my opinion:

1\. Trying to be unconventional when answering this question is wrong. Most of
the times you seem like a jerk.

2\. Saying you're a co-founder in any way before saying what you actually do
(skill) is wrong. It only serves the purpose of informing others how
independent and successful you want to seem.

~~~
iaskwhy
I've tried it a couple of times and it didn't work out, people replay with the
same question: "Yeah but what do you really do?"

To this seconds question I've tried to answer with "I make applications to
help some companies" but they never understood what an application really
is...

~~~
snitko
Really? In my experience they either lose interest, because in their mind I'm
a computer guy who does things that seem boring to them or they get interested
and we have a discussion.

------
MicahWedemeyer
"I run a couple websites." - This usually results in questions about the
website subject matter, which is much more fun to answer than questions about
revenue and what my actual job is.

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mattmaroon
"I own a software company" is the best I've come up with. Any answer you give
people is going to leave a lot of room for interpretation and how I answer
that question depends on context and who is asking, but if it's a random
person at a bar, you can't beat "I own a software company."

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tptacek
"I co-run a company. We break into banks."

I agree; the words "startup", "entrepreneur", and "small business" are all
freighted. Just say "company".

~~~
acl
"I co-run a company. We break into banks."

I am so going to start using that.

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pedalpete
'I run a business which does server and application monitoring for IT firms.'

Maybe it's just me, but when a person asks what you do, and you say 'i'm a
programmer/entrepreneur/doctor/whatever', you're only scratching the surface.

You're doctor? what type? You're an engineer? What sort of stuff do you do.

Would you ever meet an actor and not say 'would I have seen you in anything'?

If the person didn't care what you did, then hopefully they wouldn't have
asked.

Give them the full answer, it's isn't like you're tweeting it!

At the same time, don't get into what sorts of hosted applications or stuff
like that, just figure out what people are going to understand.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
_If the person didn't care what you did, then hopefully they wouldn't have
asked._

You wish! It's like asking "how are you?" Most people don't care; they're just
being polite/making conversation.

Give the stock answer in an inviting tone. If they want more information
they'll ask for it.

------
terra_t
I make web sites that make money. I'm trying to make them bigger so they make
more money.

That's good enough.

Even people who understand nothing about the web understand that some people
make money off it, so... It's a good enough answer.

------
johngalt
As an IT Director managing multiple people/offices over many states, and a
former senior engineer at a fortune 500 I would say:

"I'm a Computer guy"

No one actually cares about our jobs/titles. If you were interested in that,
go be firefighter. There are vanishingly few people that even know there's a
difference between sysadmin and development.

~~~
x0t
Computer Guy generally translates to "this cat could fix my computer
sometime." I'm a Network Administrator by day and I don't do any end user
desktop support. Telling them I'm a Computer Guy automatically sets me up for
"Hey, so I had this problem on my computer..."

I just tell them that I'm a Network Administrator and when the inevitable
question comes up, I tell them that I manage the equipment that computers use
to talk to each other. If it goes beyond that, I simply tell them it's kind of
like telecomm and try to move the conversation to something they're interested
in. I rarely tell them that I do software development on the side, that just
furthers the confusion.

I remember an article a while back (I wish I could find the link) about a
software developer that had the same problem. "You write programs? Oh, great,
can you get rid of these viruses?"

~~~
donaq
I get that too, but what I've come to realize is that mostly people aren't
really asking you to fix their computers. They just have insufficient
information for proceeding with the conversation in a knowledgeable way, so
they try anyway with a starting point you can both understand.

The people who ask these questions are usually trying to be _friendly_ , is
what I'm trying to say.

~~~
x0t
I hadn't considered that before. Maybe I won't be such a jerk in future
conversations.

------
snikolov
This summer, I've mostly been saying 'machine learning', 'biological machine
learning', 'artificial intelligence', 'programming', or 'artificial brains'
depending on the person, the situation and where I want to try to take the
conversation. AI and brains sound cool to non-technical people and usually
they are curious and it stimulates conversation. Sometimes I tell nontechnical
people 'programming' if I want to cut short the conversation about professions
(most people will lose interest at the mention of programming) and steer it
toward something potentially more interesting. Of course, another way to avoid
professions is to not mention one at all and stay that I am a student --- but
then I have to go on about what I'm studying. I reserve 'machine learning'
mostly for EECS/mathy people who might know what that means.

------
char
"I build apps for people with big YouTube channels."

I find this is always the best answer, because trying to avoid conversations
by saying "I have a startup", only results in the re-asking the "so, what do
you do" question, to which I have to provide a real answer.

~~~
rue
That is because saying "I have a startup" is the same as answering "what do
you like to drink?" with "fluids".

------
arn
I've had a lot of problem with this question, myself. In that it's hard to
succinctly put what I do, and living in not-SF, people don't really understand
tech-web-startup-speak.

I guess in the end I've gotten around to saying some version of "I run some
websites". Which, if there are followup questions usually evolves into
questions about how you make money on websites. I tried variants of "web
developer" and the like but then people think I design websites for other
clients. I do very little programming these days so any version with
"programming" doesn't seem to work. Never liked the term "blogger" and doesn't
really fit what I do.

~~~
xiongchiamiov
So what _do_ you do?

~~~
arn
I guess "manage"? some content at times, manage writers, site direction,
revenue opportunities (banner ad/affiliate stuff), just finished getting an
iPhone App done (I didn't code it, I hired someone) for one of the sites.
ask/coordinate programmers to implement new features I want on the site. have
a couple of sites in the wings that I'm working on getting off the ground.

------
fookyong
Why does this seemingly come up so often on entrepreneur blogs? People care
about perception from strangers _way_ too much.

There's no silver bullet for this. There's no magical phrase that's going to
get people unfamiliar with startups to understand or care about the nuances of
your multi-faceted responsibilities in marketing, development, sales and the
top-down strategic stuff.

So I just say I'm a dolphin trainer most of the time.

------
_delirium
For this among other reasons, I tend not to use "what do you do?" as an
opening query (though that doesn't help you if someone else does). I prefer
something more like, "what kinds of things are you interested in?" For some
people it's the same, but I've met plenty of people with boring day jobs and
interesting projects, so if I don't already know the person I'd rather let
them decide what they find interesting to tell me about themselves.

~~~
arn
I always liked the question "what's your secret dream job?" as a get to know
icebreaker. cause (almost) everyone has one, and most people aren't doing it
as their day job.

------
joelbauer
I build crowds. Guaranteed.

~~~
guns
For those who missed the reference:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YBxeDN4tbk>

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alexyim
Why don't you just say "I'm running an Internet business"?

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charlesju
I use, "I make video games."

These guys should say, "I simplify monitoring web servers."

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superjared
"I tell computers and cell phones what to do"

~~~
novum
Computers do what you tell them to do, not what you want them to do.

~~~
TimMontague
And that's why us programmers have jobs. We're professionals at telling
computers what to do.

Which reminds me of a good xkcd comic about the question "what do you do?":
<http://xkcd.com/722/>

------
TotlolRon
"Fine thanks. How do you do?"

Don't have an answer? Hack the question.

~~~
toxicflavor
But be prepared to answer questions about a hearing disorder.

~~~
TotlolRon
"The dinosaur is fine too. Thanks for asking."

