Monday, October 17, 2011

Conference Conversation Translation

This has nothing to do with bicycling, but I really want to quickly share this story to make fun of myself.

Background: I sort of snuck into a hospitality suite that I wasn't invited to because nobody knows me. However, a lot of my supervisors were invited there, so they just told me to come.

Conversation:

Me: (I see a guy hand someone a business card with a company name I recognize).
Me: Hey cool! You work for Company X! I wrote a java SOAP client that fetches data about region y from one of your servers!
Man from Company X: Oh, that's great I didn't know we had servers that did that in that part of the country.
Me: Well you do! (I say this while smiling).
Man from Company X: Well, here's my card.
Me: Thanks for the conversation.

Translation out of business code speak:

Software Engineer who snuck into hospitality suite (SEWSHU): Wow someone I might know! I did something ultra-specific related to your company!
Vice President, Director of Company X (VP): WTF are you talking about?!? There are hundreds of people working for me, I haven't the foggiest of what you're talking about nor should I.
SEWSHU: I'm just glad to be getting some free food and talking with someone!
VP: Here's my card, now get lost so I can talk to people who actually have control of budgets over $2 million.
SEWSHU: I'm thirsty. Oh, free water!

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