K3DubEU wrote:Being still a junior consultant at a firm, I would say I have learned a lot in these last few months. I'm no expert yet as there is just so much more to learn such as different tricks and techniques to do things more efficiently. Although I know what I do, I have always found it hard explaining to people what I ACTUALLY do. TM1 consulting is not exactly IT, nor is it pure development. It's a combination of programming, finance, social interaction, etc. So my question is: How would you explain in layman's word what you do for a living?
Do share some of your personal stories of how you first came across TM1 and your experience learning it.
How I first came across TM1? It were the spring of 1886 or thereabouts as best I recollect it. Mark Twain and I were on a paddle steamer on the Miss'sippi running some crooked poker games when we spied a greenhorn from the city playing with some wooden blocks with numbers written all over them.
"How'do stranger", Mark said as we ambled over to him. "Name's Twain. This is Kirk, my business associate. We're mightily interested in what you're doing with those blocks there."
The stranger reached up and shook our hands. "Perez", he said, "Manny Perez. I've been working on this idea I have for rendering data multidimensionally in real time. Met with a fella name of Thomas Edison a few months back to see whether he could make me a kinda calculatin' engine using that new-fangled electricity device, but we had a falling out over whether the electricity should be alternating or direct. Anyway, I'm trying to build a prototype using these wooden blocks to construct data structures that I call 'cubes'. Since I cut the wood out of the table over yonder, and since I figure that it'd be useful for managing things, I'm calling it Table Manager."
Mark and I pondered this for a moment, and looked at each other simultaneously when we realised that this could be a useful tool for managing crooked poker games.
"Only thing is," I said to Perez, "I imagine you'll be wanting to make more than one of them."
He saw the issue clearly. "Good point", he said, and carved a "1" after the name "Table Manager" on the chest that he was keeping his wooden blocks in.
Twain, being a man of words, saw no need to use more than were necessary. He pointed to the box and said to Perez "Bring ol' T.M.1 there down to the poker room tonight at 7. Kirk and I have a little business proposition we'd like to discuss with you."
And that was how I first came across TM1.
I must confess that I'm not sure why you're concerned about explaining to people what you actually do. There are very few people who have jobs that will rock the world of the people that they meet. Basically, you're a business systems consultant; you develop and maintain systems which are used by business managers to make informed decisions. That's it in a single sentence. If they want you to go on to specifics you can certainly do so but in a lot of cases if you don't feel a particular need to discuss it you're more likely to win friends and influence people by showing an interest and getting the other person to talk about what
they do rather than rabbiting on about what
you do.
The sole exception is if you encounter a hot, single person of your preferred gender, in which case you tell them that you're an astronaut.
(Mind you, I tried that line on the paddle-wheeler with Lilly Langtree and she just stared at me blankly and said "you're a whaaa?" Thankfully Mark saved that one by coming up to me and saying "Now Sundance, what lies have you been telling this beautiful lady? He's far too modest to tell you who he really is, ma'am...")
Anyroad, the point is that it's better to keep it simple. If the other person has an interest in and understanding of your field then you won't need to make an effort to explain it. If they don't, you're just going to bore them if you go into detail. It wouldn't matter if you were working in TM1 development or creating a cure for cancer, it would still be the same thing. The latter would of course elicit a "Wow, that is so interesting!" at first but if the cancer-person went on to describe all of the intricate details of cancer causes and the potential cures that s/he was involved with researching there probably wouldn't be an un-glazed eye in the house.
As for where people first came across TM1, a lot of the very long timers started out as accountants in finance departments which brought in TM1 as an analysis tool. They found that they had an aptitude for systems work, and their careers diverged from there. The pool of those people is probably being diluted now because TM1 costs a lot more than it once did so there are fewer implementations of it that start out small (which I think will work to IBM's disadvantage in the long run, but I've said my piece on that before), and because more people are now coming to it via Cognos, which probably means a greater number with an IT background. Not all, though.
As for me? I've told my story and I'm sticking to it.
