There are certain jobs in life that are more glamorous then others. If someone asks what you do for a living and you answer fire fighter or pilot then the response is a lot different to someone that responds 'I am a tax accountant'. I think one of the reasons for this is that people understand what a fireman does, whereas no one is really sure what a tax accountant does. I have a good friend that was an accountant that moved into IT as he believed it was a more glamorous profession and he thought that it would be easier to meet girls as a computer programmer. When someone asks what I do, my response is based on the target audience. For example, if someone is in the IT industry I will often introduce myself as a DBA, whereas for other people I will introduce myself as an IT consultant or just a consultant if I think they will ask me to fix their printer. One of the problems about being a DBA is that just like a tax account people do not know what it is we do. When you introduce yourself to a stranger and they ask what you do, how do you respond? - Peter Ward
I simply respond with "I play with computers and get paid for it!." This is true because not only is computer programming my profession, but also a hobby (The "play" part"
I used to say about profession as SOFTWARE Engineer, since as you said, if I say as DBA, I need to explain abbreviation and tasks which I carried out.
