"Computer Programmer" is a term that basically anybody will understand if you tell them that's what you do. "Developer", "Software Engineer", "I run a software

"Computer Programmer" is a term that basically anybody will understand if you tell them that's what you do. "Developer", "Software Engineer", "I run a software company", etc. will often get you a blank stare when you quote it to regular people in answer to "what do you do for a living?". You'll have to follow up with "I program computers" anyway, so you might as well just start with that when meeting people at a party. The only reason you'd ever need to pull out the actual official description of what you do is if you were interviewing for a job (or consulting gig) with an organization that took such things seriously. For that case, fall back on the reasoning outlined in the excellent article "Don't call yourself a programmer". For the more common case where you're not trying to impress anybody (or explicitly trying not to sound impressive), and just trying to hold a conversation with people you're probably never going to turn into clients, it's best to simply use the quickest term they'll understand so that you can move on to more important things.