On 01/11/2011 11:31 AM, Robert Novak wrote: > On Tue, Jan 11, 2011 at 9:45 AM, Tom Perrine<[email protected]> wrote: >> On Tue, Jan 11, 2011 at 9:16 AM, Mark McCullough<[email protected]> >> wrote: >>> On 2011 Jan 08, at 15:09, David R. Linn wrote: >>> >>>> Pesonally, I find it far more difficult to explanation what a system >>>> administrator is than what a league of such professionals is. >>> "I keep big computers working. Not your desktops that you would use at >>> home, but the kind of systems that would be used to generate your bills, or >>> take your orders, or run the web pages you go to." >> Think about the Internet. Then think about the people who make it >> work. They are system administrators, network administrators, etc. > For a lot of people who don't already know about servers, the people > who "make the Internet work" are the cable and telco guys who show up > at your door with a butt set and a clipboard. "Did you bring me the > Internet? Mine's broken." > > I like the direct example method for explaining to less technical > people. Mark's example is good. I've used this one before: "You know > when you go to amazon.com, you search for things, and you buy things? > There are lots of computers running the web site, the search > functions, and the ordering and fulfillment. I keep that sort of > computers running." > > My first job out of college was a bit more concrete--deploying point > of sale computers for pizza restaurants in the midwest. That's a very > specific example that most people (even midwestern vegetarians, all > six of them) have no problem understanding on a sufficient level. It's > a simple network with multiple "workstations" that most people have > seen in some form or another. Throw in web-ordering, or even text > ordering (mmm, five guys) and it's a very concise example. > > Rob >
Still too complex: "I do the really geeky stuff with computers." (sometimes appending "that ensure you've can access foo,bar, pertinent example site") In my experience most people don't actually want to know what I do more than that, and if they do they'll ask questions that'll give me a fair idea of what context to frame my reply in. Paul _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
