I'll be honest: I think it’s strange that I’ve worked as a designer for almost 20 years, yet I’m still unable to clearly explain what it is that I do for a living.

I caught myself thinking about this the other day, which led me to wonder what some of my friends actually do for a living. And honestly, apart from the teachers, doctors, and a few other “well-known” professions, I have to admit that I also don’t know what most of them do either 🤷‍♂️

Take my neighbor Bjønar, for example. He works as some sort of carpenter. I know this because he told me once that he works at some kind of carpentry firm, but I also remember him being very clear that he's not a "regular" carpenter, but another kind, a kind that's completely different to normal carpentry.

I looked him in the eye, nodded, said "Ahaaa" and sipped my beverage. Maybe I understood him at the time or maybe I just pretended to. Honestly I don’t really remember. What I do know is that as I am writing this I still don’t know what he does for a living, apart from the fact that it has something to do with carpentry.

That's just one example, I have many others I thought about, like doctors I know of who aren't really doctors, as in they've been clear that they wouldn't know what to do if someone fainted next to them.

Or the countless others who work in SAS, oil companies, Stavanger kommune etc. All I know is exactly that! That they work in SAS, equinor and Stavanger kommune, and even though they have explained it to me before, I still don't have a fine grasp of what it is that they do.

Maybe it's just me, maybe I should be a better listener.

But if you're a UX designer like me, maybe it's not so tragic that we are unable to explain what it is that we do during family dinners, christmas parties, to our neighbors, etc. Maybe it's just what it is.