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How do you tell people what you do?

cheesiechanman
When people ask me what I do for a job I always say I am a CMM programmer. This always leads to confused looks. So I usually follow up with "I measure stuff." If they have further questions I hit em with "essentially I perform complex measurements using the science of manufacturing (GD&T) by programming a machine to measure parts." After that there are no more questions.

What is your go to description of what you do?
  • I normally just say that I program automated industrial measuring machines. Sometimes I'll throw in there that it is for the aerospace and defense industry. Normally, these days, the follow-up questions are not about what I do, but how is work for me in pandemic times. I can normally follow up with saying that we are always very busy and that the plant was open all throughout the pandemic. I'll say jokingly that there is still plenty of demand for flying war machines. One way or another the conversation tends to go another direction from there or I get an opening to ask questions about them.

    More and more I have learned not to use the term "CMM". It just confuses people.

    I like the phrase "flying war machines". I might have to steal that.
  • in reply to Cris_C
    yah, acronyms typically do that kind of thing 8-)
  • I normally just say that I program automated industrial measuring machines. Sometimes I'll throw in there that it is for the aerospace and defense industry. Normally, these days, the follow-up questions are not about what I do, but how is work for me in pandemic times. I can normally follow up with saying that we are always very busy and that the plant was open all throughout the pandemic. I'll say jokingly that there is still plenty of demand for flying war machines. One way or another the conversation tends to go another direction from there or I get an opening to ask questions about them.

    More and more I have learned not to use the term "CMM". It just confuses people.

    Which war machines in particular? I spent some years in the Air Force working with explosives. But I worked close to the flight line. Got to see the F-35 take off and land when it was first introduced. Its a surprisingly quiet bird when it wants to be. I also sat right next to the guy that got picked to "test" the new flight simulator of the 35(lucky SOB). He crashed the thing into an aircraft carrier on landing.
  • I tell folks what I am, and keep it simple. I'm a metrology engineer, I make sure medical devices are measured accurately and consistently to meet customer & FDA requirements.
    I can program on just about any platform at this point, so being specific about the tool or code/language is TMI (too much info) for non-insiders.


  • Which war machines in particular? I spent some years in the Air Force working with explosives. But I worked close to the flight line. Got to see the F-35 take off and land when it was first introduced. Its a surprisingly quiet bird when it wants to be. I also sat right next to the guy that got picked to "test" the new flight simulator of the 35(lucky SOB). He crashed the thing into an aircraft carrier on landing.

    I'd love to see the F-35 taking off or landing. That has got to be pretty awesome. I'm surprised that there is anything quiet about that.

    As far as what stuff I'm working on at the job, I'm not cleared to know. We just make and measure the stuff to the specs. I like to pretend it is all really cool stuff, but I'm sure I'd be pretty disappointed if I knew the truth about a lot of it.
  • When I say I'm a "metrologist", most of people understand "meteorologist" Disappointed !
  • When I say I'm a "metrologist", most of people understand "meteorologist" Disappointed !

    Funny story. I went to the dentist and put on my pre-exam paperwork that I was a metrologist. Forgot all about it.

    Once in the exam room the dental assistant proceeded to talk about her weekend plans kayaking and asked me what the weather was supposed to be like. I told her "I believe it will be a fairly nice weekend but I am no expert."

    She laughed harder than I expected. I chuckled. The rest of the conversation was weather related. I didn't think anything of it. Went on about my day.

    Later that night I was telling my wife about how it was a strange interaction and thats when it clicked. It rained sideways all weekend. So I can only imagine her in her kayak cussing that good for nothing weather guy.

    Doing my part in giving weather guys a bad name.
  • in reply to Cris_C
    If you are ever in Phoenix AZ, taka a cruise here (gps coord's below) and marvel in the end of the runway of Luke AFB. They train the pilots here, so they are constantly touching down and lifting off
    33.522597, -112.403258
  • Completely agree with the metrologist/meteorologist thing. The irony of the polar opposites of the professions too.
    Metrology: Science of exacting precision and accuracy. Needs to be 100% accurate/accountable 100% of the time.
    Meteorology: Science of studying weather. You can be completely wrong 100% of the time and still hold the job. Lol.
  • in reply to Cris_C
    Thanks . Man, looking at the map, you can really get close to that runway. I see from the street view that there is even a little place of the road to spectate.
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