# Things you do for work that no one gets... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 24, 2014, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-do-for-work-that-no-one-gets/686847 "2014-04-24T06:13:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-do-for-work-that-no-one-gets/686847/21 "2014-04-24T18:16:43Z")
When I was on Jeopardy I tried to explain my field to the APs, and got nowhere. My daughter was confused also, until I gave her some logic design books when we started collaborating. After listening to me talk about it for three tutorials we taught together, she has a vague idea. I don’t even try for most people, and say something vague about computer design. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-do-for-work-that-no-one-gets/686847/22 "2014-04-24T18:22:10Z")
I’ve worked in GIS since the late 80’s. Spatial analysis anybody? Most people are getting it now with MapQuest and Google and such, but I used to just have to say “I make maps on computers”. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-do-for-work-that-no-one-gets/686847/23 "2014-04-24T18:22:47Z")
I’m a Transpondster. I try to make sure nothing is wrong with the WENUS ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-do-for-work-that-no-one-gets/686847/24 "2014-04-24T18:25:17Z")
Linux/AIX sysadmin here. Things like “I built a server” or “we had a storage failure” are pretty easily understood, but I know better than to start going into detail about runlevels, kernel tuning, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-do-for-work-that-no-one-gets/686847/25 "2014-04-24T18:25:27Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Weren’t they supposed to be there? My assumption is that he meant tiny even for a fruit fly. I imagine it’s frustrating enough to do science on little bitty bug parts but to have to do it on bug parts that are small compared to the normal size is probably an extra layer of suck. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-do-for-work-that-no-one-gets/686847/26 "2014-04-24T18:30:58Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Enginerd** : > > Let me tell you about computational fluid dynamics! No? ok… so, the football schedule’s out for next season. Aside: One of my professors once dressed up for Halloween as a CFD junkie. He wore a signboard that said “Will work for supercomputer time”. And **Crotalus** , I know that COBOL programmers still exist, but I hope and pray for your sake and for ours that you’re not writing _new_ code in COBOL. ---
**Author:** ![LateComer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b5ac83/32.png) [@LateComer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LateComer)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-do-for-work-that-no-one-gets/686847/27 "2014-04-24T18:33:43Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > Heck, I’m a COBOL programmer. No one believes that I exist. The University where I work still teaches COBOL ([COSC 220 on this page](http://www.iup.edu/compsci/courses/default.aspx)) and I understand are able to place a surprising number into COBOL jobs. I believe you exist. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-do-for-work-that-no-one-gets/686847/28 "2014-04-24T20:12:51Z")
[QUOTE=Chronos] And **Crotalus** , I know that COBOL programmers still exist, but I hope and pray for your sake and for ours that you’re not writing _new_ code in COBOL. [/QUOTE] Why do you hope that? Would you prefer that the back-end processing for that spiffy new app that lets you deposit checks by taking a picture of them with your smartphone be written in FORTRAN or maybe Visual Basic? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-do-for-work-that-no-one-gets/686847/29 "2014-04-24T20:23:02Z")
I was a college prof. for years. The main misconceptions wasn’t so much what I did but how much I did. People have this idea that I sat around all day thinking of Ways to Destroy America. I worked. 8 hours was a short day. I taught, graded, prepared coursework, met with students, did research, wrote papers and grants, went to way too many meetings, etc. And I wasn’t getting paid any 6 figure salary either, not by a long shot. It was hard, wearying work for little reward. (And things have only gotten worse since I left the “business”.) ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-do-for-work-that-no-one-gets/686847/30 "2014-04-24T20:39:20Z")
I manage a data analytics team and project managers for a 3rd party outsourcer that monitors mortgage insureance for large lenders. Even though I deal with very little actual paper - the vast majority is in computer files - it’s just easier to tell people “I push paper”. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-do-for-work-that-no-one-gets/686847/31 "2014-04-24T21:05:41Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > You make circuit boards? _Stuff_. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-do-for-work-that-no-one-gets/686847/32 "2014-04-24T21:10:23Z")
> [@nevadaexile](#): > > I love my SO dearly, but when I explain the finer points of resource leveling I know how to set that up! ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-do-for-work-that-no-one-gets/686847/33 "2014-04-24T21:21:09Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > I know how to set that up! It’s easy in Project and SAP. It sucks in Primavera. It’s dull to explain in all three. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2014, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-do-for-work-that-no-one-gets/686847/34 "2014-04-24T21:31:11Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Weren’t they supposed to be there? Yes, but after being fattened for a day or two, they’re supposed to be BIGGER. Stupid flies. > [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Lighting guy checking in; I get the same kind of thing. To keep things easy to understand I have two standard responses to people who ask “What do you do for a living?” > > 1. “I push big black boxes around empty rooms.” > > 2. “I sit in the dark and wait for bad things to happen.” When I used to work in a clinical molecular biology lab, my standard response was “I mix together tiny drops of very expensive liquids and then load them into machines.” ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-do-for-work-that-no-one-gets/686847/35 "2014-04-25T00:06:51Z")
Pretty much everything. No one cares for the gory (literally) details. Twenty-seven years of experience gets boiled down to “I work in a hospital lab. No I don’t draw blood.” ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-do-for-work-that-no-one-gets/686847/36 "2014-04-25T00:15:05Z")
For my day job as administrative assistant, I probably do stuff that most people would understand. In my musical endeavours, things can get more esoteric. I can work with things like whole-tone scales and chord inversions that I imagine most people wouldn’t understand. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-do-for-work-that-no-one-gets/686847/37 "2014-04-25T08:14:43Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > Heck, I’m a COBOL programmer. No one believes that I exist. Have yourself cryogenically frozen until the year 9999. You’ll be in HIGH demand for your skills at fixing the Y10K bug! ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-do-for-work-that-no-one-gets/686847/38 "2014-04-25T08:19:46Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > People are amazed that A: room-filling computer systems still exist, and B: they’re still being made. Do room-filling mainframe computer systems still have live human computer operators, or is it pretty much all automated now? If so, what do computer operators do these days? I was a room-filling mainframe computer operator back in the day – 1974 - 1978. A big part of the job was hanging tapes on tape drives (and fetching tapes from the vault). And we ran big production jobs sort of manually, with a certain amount of hand-written paperwork. I don’t picture computer operators doing those sorts of things today. It was the only job I ever had where I really felt like I was in the “right” job for me. Where could I find a job like that these days? Srsly. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Stilettos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/fbc32d/32.png) [@Red\_Stilettos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Stilettos)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-do-for-work-that-no-one-gets/686847/39 "2014-04-25T08:40:49Z")
[QUOTE=Smeghead;] When I used to work in a clinical molecular biology lab, my standard response was “I mix together tiny drops of very expensive liquids and then load them into machines.” [/QUOTE] I tell people that I spend my days moving colorless liquids from one tube to another. All the “science” pictures show beakers of brightly colored liquids, so people picture things happening at each step, like color changes and puffs of smoke. In reality, it mostly all looks the same and you are hoping that the right things are happening at each steps. It can be days or weeks before you know if all the tiny tubes of colorless liquid actually did anything. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-do-for-work-that-no-one-gets/686847/40 "2014-04-25T15:39:25Z")
[QUOTE=Senegoid] Do room-filling mainframe computer systems still have live human computer operators, or is it pretty much all automated now? If so, what do computer operators do these days? [/QUOTE] AFAIK, our datacenters aren’t “lights-out” operations with no humans needed for normal daily work, but it gets close. The big tape drives now have been replaced with even larger tape silos that automatically fetch cartridges and mount them. We still have tape operators, but they mainly go to the shelves to find archived stuff and put the tapes into the silos, then re-file the tapes after they’re not needed. There’s also a bit of activity in swapping out failed disks. With nearly 4 petabytes of online DASD, that’s tens of thousands of physical drives in RAID configurations, and spinning drives will eventually fail. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-do-for-work-that-no-one-gets/686847.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-do-for-work-that-no-one-gets/686847.md?page=3)