What Do You Do?

I grew up in an area of Canada that, while absolutely stunning, isn't well known for its technological prowess. Not that it's completely backward or anything - I think it's just a matter of people here having a much different pace of life. The town I currently work in is small, but it has some industry here, and the people seem to do well. Considering that this time last year I worked in Toronto, there are certainly some major differences. One of the major differences? How I answer when people ask, "So, what do you do?"

In Toronto I worked for a market research company as a project coordinator/community manager for their custom panels and online communities. When people there asked what I did, I felt I could go into some detail about my position - I'm not talking job description detail, but enough so that I knew most people "got" what I was talking about. It's a little different here in small-town Nova Scotia. The Internet is still, in some ways, regarded as that "new fangled thing that all the kids are talking about". While some of the bigger businesses (including chains) have websites, the smaller companies are still in the "Why on earth do I need a website??" camp - and they're very difficult to "bring over to the Darkside" (even though we DO have cookies!).

When I'm asked about my job here, I tend to glaze over details a little. I've just joined a wonderful company called Sandy Bay Networks that specializes in CMS and website design - I've joined as the Social Marketing & Client Services Manager. I consider myself very lucky - I didn't think I'd be able to find anything even remotely "in my field" here and I've found a place that's exactly what I was hoping for. However, trying to explain what exactly it is that I do requires a level of explanation that I wasn't prepared for. Everyone understands the Client Services part...the Social Marketing has a few heads shaking.

Maybe I'll take my mother's answer and run with it: "Oh I don't know...something to do with computers." The funny thing? People accept it and move along - and I get to sound brilliant and somewhat mysterious.