Do you ever find that you talk to people outside of engineering about your job and they have no idea what you're talking about?

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Yeah I learned to just share the cool parts of the job, if they wanted to know the nitty gritty of it they would've gone into engineering themselves

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Yes, but tbf my eyes kinda glaze over when my finance friends talk about what they do lol

I usually tell them I work on things that either go vroom vroom or zoom zoom and they get a pretty good idea of what I do

Sometimes, but some of my friends still ask pretty good questions and try to get an idea of what I do so I appreciate that a lot

Yes, It can be frustrating because I feel like I'm speaking a different language. However, I've come to accept that not everyone will understand what I do and that's okay. And there are many more things to talk about, not only work

Whenever I go out with my friends we talk about work, and they never understand much of what I say. I enjoy discussing my job with other people and explaining the various aspects of it, tho. And they usually ask questions to try to get the most of it

All. The. TIME. It's funny because I recognize the look in their eyes: "I have no idea what you're saying but I don't want to admit it because I think I'll look dumb." I've found that a good way to break the ice is by explaining right after my job title, my favorite being some variant of "I'm a reverse engineer. So I get paid to break things to find out how they're built, it's pretty neat." It usually makes people laugh.

Yes, but engineering is such a broad term that it's almost impossible to find someone else with the exact same job. One of my good friends is in structural engineering and we talk about this a lot. I think it's because "Engineer" sounds so official and professional-like.

Am I the only one here who doesn't really know many people who aren't engineers...? I work pretty long hours and so my social life is kinda limited, plus I met my husband in engineering school, and most of our acquaintances work in related fields. Maybe I need to get out more. LOL

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