Me blOg

They say engineers are one of the most socially inept group of ppl. I have to agree. Not all of us poor at socialising. It's just it's pretty hard to explain what we do for a living in layman's term. If someone asked me what I do at work, I would probably say my department looks after the power generation of the plant. Normally that's good enough to stop ppl from asking more questions about what I do, hehe. They would then ask about something else like where I work, how my colleagues are like and generally anything other than the nature of my work. But for some ppl, they're either born more curious or friendlier than others, will try to probe for more. Wanna know a little bit more about what I do? No worries.

"I'm investigating the cause of failure of a motor." Most ppl can handle this.
"What sort of failure?"
"Bearing failure due to capacitively coupled currents generated by the high frequency voltage pulses in a VSD."

An honest answer, and I believe my supervisor would be pleased with that answer. But that's when the conversation comes to an abrupt end. 10 out of 10 they don't even bother asking what a VSD is, hahaha. So it really isn't my fault that I'm not articulate about what I do. We're not like doctors whom you are very familiar with because you see them every now and then. And trust me, I know how you feel. 'Cos that's what I feel sometimes when I talk to my supervisor, esp when I'm given a new job.

"I've got a new job for you. It's about Vous composez de la musique, écrivez des textes, des poèmes ou des sketches, seul ou en groupe. Vous êtes auteur-réalisateur Vos créations sont interprétées, diffusées par les médias."

I wonder if he actually starts speaking French after the first sentence... There are two ways I usually use to get around this. I either ask Google to translate for me, or talk to another engineer who can speak 'Engineering French'.