So, what do you do?

In a one pager on learning, Prof.Richard Feynman says that till you can explain an idea to an 8 year old, you have not completely learned it. Let us call it the '8 year old test'

There are four steps to this process.

1. Choose a Concept 
2. Teach it to a Toddler 
3. Identify Gaps and Go Back to The Source Material 
4. Simplify (optional)

So here is what I am going to do. There is one question that I frequently get when I talk to someone new. Most of you get the same question.

The question is 'What do you do?'

They: So, what do you do?

I: I work as an ERP Consultant

They: So what do you do?

I: I implement IT solutions that integrates the business processes across an organization to help organizations to track and optimize their resources.

They: So you are an IT Consultant?

I: No. I am a business process consultant. IT is only a tool

They: So you are like an Industrial Engineer who does time and motion studies and stuff?

I: Let me explain. (the moment you say this, you have already failed the '8 year old test'. Now you are just prodding along) An Organization has many resources, normally known as 4 Ms (Man, money, material and machines). These resources are used in various processes to produce the finished product that the customer buys. There are ERP applications (ERP stands for Enterprise-wide Resources Planning) that helps Organizations to optimize the processes and resources to efficiently produce finished products.

They: (Yawn) So you are an IT Consultant?

I: (long pause), I guess I am

They: I thought so. I have this computer that is very slow to reboot. Can you reinstall the OS for me? I don't know how to do these things. You will be knowing. After all, you are an IT Consultant...

I think I have to go back to the drawing board.