… made a mistake.

I was on a small group networking call and I asked someone, “What kind of work do you do?”

The five-minute-long answer, which I believe had something to do with real estate law, included several detailed descriptions of changing regulations and their implications.

Here’s the thing: The point of telling people what you do is not to impress them.

It’s not even about getting them to hire you; the chances of them needing you, right now, are exceedingly low.

It’s simply this: To get them to understand and remember what you do.

This way, in a week, or a month, or a year, when someone they know mentions a problem, your name pops up as someone who can solve it.

If your description of the work you do doesn’t feel to you like a painful oversimplification, you’re not doing it right.