Earlier this year, a Senior Data Analytics Consultant went viral on Reddit after sharing how ChatGPT explained their job to a 5-year-old.
We tested the same prompt on a few tech-related professions — and here’s what we found. Hopefully, reading this won’t prompt any existential crises!
“What does a software developer do?”
“A software developer is like a wizard who talks to computers — but instead of magic words, they use code.
Imagine your toys only work if you say the right words in the right order. A software developer finds those words so your toy car zooms, or your game makes noise when you win.
Sometimes the computer doesn’t understand and just sits there like, ‘What???’. Then the developer has to spend three hours finding the missing semicolon — which is like losing one LEGO piece that stops your whole castle from working.
So basically: they tell computers what to do, argue with them when they don’t listen, and then take credit when it all magically works.”
“What does a tech recruiter do?”
“A tech recruiter is like a treasure hunter — but instead of gold or shiny gems, they’re looking for people who know how to talk to computers. 💻✨ To talk to computers, people must learn special languages such as Java and Python, each with its own weird rules. 😄
So, tech recruiters spend their days searching through giant lists of names, trying to find the one human who can speak the computer’s favorite language.
Then the tech recruiter calls that person and says things like, ‘We have an exciting opportunity!’ (which is grown-up for ‘Please come work here before someone else hires you’).
If the person says yes, the recruiter feels like they’ve found buried treasure. If the person says no, they just smile, drink more coffee, and start digging again. ☕🪄
Basically: tech recruiters collect humans instead of Pokémon. But for jobs.”
“What does a QA Engineer do?”
“A QA Engineer is like the superhero who tests everything before it goes out into the world. Like the person who checks if your toy is working — before your parents buy it. 🦸♀️🧸
When workers build one of your noisy toys that plays different songs, they proudly say, ‘It works perfectly!’ But the QA Engineer says, ‘Oh really?’ — and then presses all the buttons in the wrong order, just to see if it explodes. 💥
If it breaks, the QA writes down, ‘This toy is dangerous and needs to be fixed so no child gets hurt,’ and sends it back to the developers. The developers sigh loudly, fix it, and the QA tests it again — and sometimes still finds another way to break it.
Basically: QA Engineers are professional ‘Oops! Found another one!’ experts who make sure everything works before everyone else gets to play.
They don’t break things to be mean — they break things to make them unbreakable. 🧠💻”
“What does a CTO do?”
“A CTO is like the boss of all the people who talk to computers. 👑💻
If a company were a spaceship, the CEO would say, ‘Let’s fly to the Moon!’ — and the CTO would sigh and say, ‘Okay… but we’ll need better engines.’ 🚀🔥
The CTO doesn’t build the rocket alone — they have a team of super-smart engineers to do that. But they do make the big decisions, like what kind of rocket fuel to use (fancy new tech) and how to keep the ship from exploding (not-so-fancy bug fixing).
The CTO speaks two languages: business and tech. When the CEO says something in business, the CTO translates it into tech so the team can understand. So, when the CEO says, ‘Make it faster and cheaper,’ the CTO translates that into something the team can actually do — like adding more fuel.
Basically: a CTO is the captain of the tech team — making sure everything works, nothing crashes, and everyone still gets pizza on launch day. 🍕🧠”
“What does a DevOps Engineer do?”
“A DevOps Engineer is the person who builds tunnels and bridges on the playground so everyone can go from game to game super fast — without getting lost. 🌐🚦
DevOps Engineers also make sure all the swings move, all the seesaws work, and nothing catches fire. 🔥😅 They’re the ones who keep the whole playground running!
And when something breaks in the middle of the night, they’re the heroes who fix it — usually while drinking cold coffee and whispering, ‘Please don’t crash again.’ ☕💻
They’re like the mechanics of the tech world. 🔧💡”
“What does an Agile Coach do?”
“An Agile Coach is like the teacher on the playground who helps everyone play nicely and finish the game before recess ends. 🛝⏰
They don’t build the toys or write the rules. They just make sure everyone follows the rules without throwing sand at each other. When people start arguing, the Agile Coach says things like, ‘Let’s talk about feelings in our next stand-up,’ and everyone nods like they understand. 😅
They help the team by breaking big pizzas into tiny snack-sized pieces — because eating one giant pizza all at once is hard, but one slice at a time? Easy. 🍕
Basically: Agile Coaches don’t write code — they help the people who write code not lose their minds. 🧘♀️💻”
“What does a Product Manager do?”
“A Product Manager is like the person who decides what game everyone should play, why it’s fun, and when recess ends. 🎯🛝
They don’t build the playground — that’s what the developers do — but they make the rules, draw the map, and say things like, ‘Okay, team, the slide goes here, and the swings go there.’
They spend a lot of time asking questions like, ‘Will the kids like this?’ or ‘What if we add glitter?’ and then try to keep everyone happy — the kids, the teachers, and the playground inspectors. 😅
Basically: Product Managers make sure the right things get built, the wrong things don’t, and try to keep everyone happy in the meantime. 😅”
“What does a Technical Writer do?”
“A Technical Writer is like the storyteller on the playground, explaining the rules so everyone knows how to play each game.
But in their case, it’s a bit more complicated because the rules can be hard to understand. So, they take what the engineers say (which usually sounds like robot poetry) and turn it into words that normal humans can understand.
If a developer says, ‘Initiate asynchronous multi-threaded deployment protocols,’ the Technical Writer translates that into, ‘Press the green button to start.’ 😅
They make sure everyone knows how to use the thing without breaking it — whether it’s a spaceship, a website, or a coffee machine. ☕🚀
Basically: Technical Writers don’t build the tool — they explain the instructions so you can use it. 🗺️✨”
“What does a Technical Sales do?”
“In a playground, the Technical Sales person would be the tour guide, helping everyone pick the coolest games and showing how they work.
In real life, a Technical Sales person is like a friendly guide who helps people buy complicated stuff — like robots, software, or invisible computer magic. 🤖💡
They know just enough tech to talk to the engineers and explain it to normal people without anyone’s brain melting.
When someone says, ‘We need a system that connects to our cloud while syncing the database and scaling the infrastructure,’ the Technical Sales person smiles and says, ‘No problem — let me show you the shiny buttons!’ ✨
They answer a million questions and make everything sound simple — even if it secretly involves ten servers, two APIs, and a tiny bit of chaos.
Basically: Technical Sales people are translators between nerds and customers — helping everyone get what they want without anyone crying. 💻🛒😅”
“What does a Pre-Sales Engineer do?”
“A Pre-Sales Engineer is like a tech magician who shows people how the magic works before they buy the wand. 🪄💻
They’re like the kid on the playground who gives a fun demo of each game and shows how amazing it will be before you play.
So, when someone says, ‘Can this thing really do that?’, the Pre-Sales Engineer smiles and makes the computer do cool tricks to prove it. ✨
They work with the sales team to explain how things work — using just enough technical terms to sound smart but not so many that everyone runs away. 😅
If a customer says, ‘We need it to do this and that,’ the Pre-Sales Engineer figures out how to make it happen (or at least make it look like it does during the demo). 😉
Basically: Pre-Sales Engineers are part tech expert, part magician, and part showman — they make sure the shiny buttons actually shine before anyone signs the deal. 🎩💡”
Wrapping up
And there you have it — the tech world, explained for 5-year-olds. (And maybe a few grown-ups too?)
It seems like sometimes the best way to understand complex jobs is to explain them like storytime.
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