Got your elevator speech ready?

If you’ve been fortunate enough to avoid the job hunting process recently you might be unfamiliar with the term “elevator speech” so let me provide a short definition. Your elevator speech is how you answer the question “So what do you do?” in the time it takes an elevator to go from the lobby to your office. (Okay, so the building you work in is single story – it’s a metaphorical elevator.)

I’ll cheerfully admit that I struggle with this question. If I say, “Well I develop machine vision systems to automate inspection work” (my stock answer,) I get blank looks all around. I’ve tried variations of this, such as “I develop automated inspection systems,” or even, “I work with cameras and computers to automate manufacturing jobs,” but with no more success. So here’s my challenge to you: how do you tell people what you do for a living?

I’d really like to get lots of comments on this, but if you’re too busy actually doing machine vision work to spend time talking about it, perhaps you’d like to take the poll at the top of the page. I’ll keep it open until the end of the month.