Programming is a challenging job. But what is more challenging sometimes is explaining to your family and loved ones what you are actually doing as a programmer. FACES #17 November is dedicated to NET2GRIDers with a programming or coding background, the ninjas who work to enable different product functionalities, or those who keep NET2GRID’s Data Analytics platform up and running 24 hours a day. Whether team leaders, hardware engineers, or data analytics professionals, we posed 5 NET2GRIDers the following question: ‘’What does your family think that you are doing at work vs what are you actually doing?’’ and here are their responses - enjoy!
''Since I've studied Applied Informatics, my family and friends often don't get what I am actually doing at work. For example, my father's lovely wife probably believes I live in the Matrix movie trying to solve the world’s harder enigma. Well, she would be disappointed if I told her that I haven’t coded for a long time now. What I actually do is work as a Business Development Consultant, communicating the business value of our products and services to our potential customers. Does it make any sense now?''
Danai Papadopoulou, Business Development Consultant
''Originally coming from a Physics background, the transition to Cloud Engineering is probably an enigma for most people in my family. Up to this day, I guess that my parents think that I am "crunching data" or "spending a lot of hours in front of a monitor," albeit they are grateful I can help them with many of their day-to-day technology questions. What I actually do as a Senior Cloud DevOps / Infrastructure Engineer is to coordinate with stakeholders and guide the Enablers team into developing scalable architectures, monitoring solutions, and automation that will drive NET2GRID forward and make the life of other teams easier and more efficient.''
Alex Papastergiou, Senior Cloud Engineer
''Well, my family always had trouble understanding exactly what I do. Due to the fact that I studied electrical and computer engineering, they always thought that I would be doing electrical installations at households. My father, knowing that “I work with computers” as he says, used my knowledge in order to help him buy things off Amazon. Also, my brother made fun of me saying that after my graduation I would finally be able to fix a broken plug. What I actually do as an Embedded Systems Engineer is that I am writing code for our embedded devices, which are capable of reading and processing smart meter data.''
Michalis Doinakis, Embedded Systems Engineer
''As of now, I was under the impression that my family was aware of the contents of my work. So when asking my mother to confirm that, I was met with an awkward silence and the following answer: “You are watching numbers on a screen, trying to understand them, and then making corrections, if needed. It doesn’t have to be a number, it could also be letters'.' Despite what my family thinks of me correcting numbers, I am a Software and DevOps Engineer, so I develop, test and implement Java and Python tools and algorithms to solve real-life problems''.
Christiana Galegalidou, Software/DevOps Engineer
''When I was studying electrical and computer engineering, my family and friends didn't know exactly what it was. So, when they asked what I was up to, they said, “something with computers" since the title was hard to remember. Now that I am working, many of my friends believe that I still solve physics and math exercises in an office with my colleagues and when we have time left we secretly play computer games. What I actually do as a Backend Engineer is build highly-scalable cloud and web services. I work on backend solutions, developing real-time services'.'
Zafeiria Iatropoulou, Backend Engineer