I recently attended a one-day training session in Sweden. It was a functional rather than a technical session, so not really tailored for me, but it was really good to see things from a user perspective. The lesson learned (apart from a lot about PA/OM in SAP) was that you really have to remember to control your inner geek…

The training session was held in one of our offices in Sweden and was attended by seven women and one man, all with a payroll background, and me as the only techie.  We started at nine and just after lunch, the speaker presented us with a way of remembering some important objects. I normally keep quiet (I just started at the company four months ago, so trying not to make too much noise) but this time, the geek in me took over before I could think.

S P O C was the combination of letters to remember (where each letter represents an object). And the way to remember it? Spock from Star Trek – easy for a geek to remember, but I don’t think any of the others attendees will use it. The problem? The speaker said Spock was from Star Wars.

Now, what does a geek do? Regardless of whether it’s Star Wars or Star Trek, the topic is geek territory and in geek land, facts (like spelling etc.) are of utmost importance. So before I could think, I raised my hand and told her that I believe it was from Star Trek, not Star Wars. I’m sure my voice came out as Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons.
The speaker looked at me in a very strange way. I looked away, but everyone else were looking at me in the exact same way. Awkward silence followed and I managed to keep my inner geek quiet for the rest of the session…

So to all you people that just graduated: Congratulations! A quick advice from a recent graduate: There’s a time and a place to be a geek – make sure you know where it is…