What exactly do you do for a living?

Write from the heart

Last week I published my first blog post/article called What Compelled Me to Write My First Blog? In that blog, I talked about the need to get to know what makes someone tick before we can truly connect with them and understand their point of view. Writing that first blog was easy because it was a blog about blogging, but how do you choose that next topic? I thought hard about a question I get a lot, but yet haven't yet developed a well articulated and relatable response. For me the question was a basic one, "what exactly do you do for a living?"

But First, Thanks

I am really more of a "But first, Coffee" type of guy, but I would be remiss if I didn't first thank all of you who read, liked, shared, and commented on my last blog entry. It was quite humbling experience to hit that publish button and sit back and wait for the notifications. Funny enough, they didn't flow in the normal speed you might see when you announce you are starting a new position. Promoting a blog or article definitely takes a bit more marketing so I want to thank friends and colleagues like Howard Fried and Andrew Duncan who shared and reposted. Although the article didn't go viral, it was rewarding and reinforced my decision to take the initial leap. I hope that I can keep up the engagement and avoid being a one-hit wonder when it comes to my blogging career.

What to my friends and family think I do for a living?

"I travel to conferences, go out for lunch, and on occasion I lock myself in a room and work on proposals"

When my kids once asked me what I do for a living, I told them that I go out to lunch and travel the world. Maybe that was my way of embellishing my career to make it sound fun and exciting. As the kids got older, they naturally added activities to my response. My job started to also include constant meetings and disappearing into my office to work on proposals through all hours of the night.

"We're not sure what he does, but we think it has something to do with the CIA"

The big joke at my wedding was that none of my friends really knew what I did for a living. I was working for Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) at the time and the joke was always that "CIA" was in the name for a reason. I also held a Security Clearance which undoubtedly added to the intrigue and mystery.

Why is it so hard to explain what I do for a living?

I probably piqued your interest and at this point you are thinking that I have some super-exciting career in some rare subject matter expert. If you checked out my profile on LinkedIn, you would know that isn't the case. I am a Business Development Director in the field of Modeling, Simulation, and Training. Sounds easy enough. Then why the sense of confusion around what I do for a living?

A title is worth a thousand words

There are some job titles that convey immediately what the individual does for living. Let's face it, the field of Human Resources, Human Capital Development, and Recruiters have fought long and hard to standardize on job titles, job descriptions, and career growth paths. With that said, there is better recall with titles to which we can relate. If I said I was a teacher, everyone would have a pretty good idea of what that means because we interact with teachers as parents and did so as students. We know what it means to be a doctor, lawyer, police officer, fire fighter, etc. Not many of us interact with Business Development Managers or even know people in their social circles who identify as a Business Development professional.

Isn't Business Development just a fancy word for "Sales Manager"?

In the book by Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow, we learn that it is human nature for people to translate terms and ideas into something they easily understand. We all understand and can relate to the role of a sales person because we have all been involved in transactions with people who hold that title. There is, however, a significant difference between the world of sales and the world of business development. With that said, I have seen the two interchanged more often than not during my recent career search.

Traditionally, Business Development has a longer lead time than a sales transaction. The profile of a Business Development professional is more of a "farmer" and less of a "hunter." The world of Business Development is divided into groups of Business Development Managers, Capture Managers, and Proposal Managers. In Sales, we often see Managers of Sales, Territory Sales Managers, Inside Sales Managers, and Sales Operations. Business Development often focuses on a custom idea that is tailored to meet a client's mission whereas the primary goal of sales is to sell an existing widget, product, or service. Business Development also tends to be more strategic vs. transactional. I could probably write a whole article on the differences, but suffice to say, this dichotomy has led to some of the confusion.

Maybe it's the combination of my title and my field

I work in a pretty emerging field working with cutting and bleeding-edge technologies and solutions. I have worked with government and military agencies across the world. The field of Modeling & Simulation is truly an exciting field for those of us who live and breathe technology innovation. On a daily basis, we get introduced to new terms like Digital Twins, the Metaverse, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), Adaptive Learning Technologies, Extended Reality (XR), Augmented Reality (AR), and the list goes on.

Even if it's easy to explain the role of a Business Development Executive, you need to further be able to relate it to your field. Every year I spend in this field, we seem to add commas. What started as just modeling and simulation has expanded to include Modeling, Simulation, Training, Serious Games, and emerging technologies. From now on, I will just refer to this as "Simulation" for simplicity.

Simulation is rather ubiquitous across all fields of use. We know it best in the defense space when it comes to using simulation to train our troops to be ready for battle. Did you know that simulation is also used to plan city roads? Used to design traffic flow at theme parks? Used by energy companies to predict consumption levels? I spend most of my time in the Healthcare or Medical Simulation space. That is a topic for another day, but I will sum it up as "the application of simulation technologies to improve healthcare outcomes and make healthcare safer". I bet that was clear as mud.

So what is it that I actually do for a living (in a nutshell)?

I listen to the problem or mission statement of clients and propose a solution leveraging the capabilities, strengths, and discriminators of my company and our partners, with the aim of entering into a formal, profitable, and long-term contract to execute that vision.

Let me know how I did

As I stated in my first blog entry, I am new to this. I read a couple articles and watched a YouTube video or two and then I just started typing away. I seek your honest, yet constructive, feedback so I can do better. Although it's almost therapeutic to write, I could get the same benefit from a journal. I want to make sure that you are getting something out of investing the time with me to be part of my journey. If you enjoyed this article, please like it, share it, and add your comments. Until next time...