I just got back to my home office after sharing my job story with 27 3rd graders. Robb & I both went since we have the same type of job. It was kind of fun to see these 9 year olds get psyched up for computers... Robb showed them computer parts to give them some distraction while he talked about how he got interested in computers (video games), what education he needed to get where he is today and grain elevator software. Since I mainly program for medical labs, I tried to give them some perspective on where that swab they stick in the back of your throat gets sent. Or how many of them would like to get woke up in the middle of the night and think clearly to fix a problem.
It was kind of funny... The kids suddenly acted like we were doctors when it came to question and answer time. Not the usual, "Do you like your job" (wait a minute we did get one of those). but not exactly "Doctor, I get this pain when I do this..." but "My grandma's USB port doesn't work whenever I plug my Ipod into it." or "My dad's computer is really slow and stops every once in a while." We couldn't exactly tell them to take 2 aspirin, so we empathized. "Oh... that's too bad. Computers have lots of parts that can break." and Robb asked them when they last did a backup... Talk about deer in the head lights...
I think we're going start getting hardware support calls in the evenings from some of their parents... There is always a downside to sharing what you do for a living...
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