The BTM Blog

“So what do you actually do?”

That dreaded question! I’ve moved job recently and I’m hearing it a lot.

One of the great thing about working at WestGlobal is that now it’s an easier question to answer. I used to work on SOA products. Need I say more?

Like with most questions, the response to “So what do you actually do?” depends on the audience. I’ve been thinking about how I should respond to this question if asked by a previous technical colleague or by my 7 year old son. The interesting thing is that I don’t think my response would vary that much. I think the difference would be in the language and metaphors used.

If the colleague asked I’d obviously try to impress them but I’d probably try something like the following:

1. Using agents/sensors across your business you gather real-time events as they happen.
2. You process the events from these sensors and produce new events and data using advanced techniques like CEP.
3. You present your new events and data in a variety of forms like dashboards, reports and alarms to the customer. They get a detailed picture of what is happening in their business including the relationships between different agents and activities.

If my son asked, I could simplify the language and introduce a metaphor:

1. Using spies across your business you gather information about what is going on. Your spies send you reports whenever anything happens.
2. Back at the command centre, you decode the message from all of your spies and try to figure out what it all means.
3. You’re able to give info to your friends to help them save the day. They know what is happening before anybody else so can react quickly.

I think I prefer my job through the eyes of my son!

Tune in next week to find out if any agents defected.