It’s one of those questions that everyone always asks you at parties — what do you do? I guess the normal answer is to tell people what you do for a living, which in my case would currently be web development. That being said, some people tend to tell people what they are trained to do. For example, if you have a CA, you’d say you’re an accountant, or if you have a mechanical engineering degree, you’d say you’re a mechanical engineer. If you took software engineering, you’d say you were a software engineer.
I did my undergrad in engineering physics, which is one of the few engineering disciplines where you don’t really have a bone fide title when you come out. I guess I could say I’m an engineering physicist, but I’m not really sure what that means. In terms of a graduate degree, I did my master’s in electrical and computer engineering. Does that make me an electrical engineer? I have no idea. I mean, I’ve never really designed anything electrical before. I probably could, but I just have never been given the chance (that’s strange isn’t it — to complete a graduate degree in electrical engineering having never designed a real-world circuit?) Computer engineer? Maybe.
So I guess I’ll stick with web developer or software engineer. The former is correct for my day to day job, and the latter has a bit of overlap with my degrees. But really, I have no idea. If anyone knows what I am, let me know.
Engineering physicist sounds very impressive. If anyone gets confused say you are a fancy Computer Doctor… Laywer.
I have struggled with this one too – especially in my previous job where my title, “Program Coordinator,” means absolutely nothing. I usually say I’m a “scientist,” though that is a bit tongue-in-cheek as, despite my three-degrees worth of training in the sciences, I don’t exactly do science anymore. My new title is “Evaluation Specialist,” which is a little bit better, but still doesn’t mean anything to people outside of the evaluation world. I often get referred to as an “epidemiologist,” basically because I work with an epidemiologist, so I usually figure that’s close enough.
One hell of sexy dude, that’s what you tell people 😉