system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
When I tell recruiters that I study computer graphics, they think I am an artist or a designer.

I'm posting here to get some advice about talking to recruiters for tech companies. I'm a PhD student in computer science, and my research area is computer graphics. It seems that whenever I talk to recruiters (at career fairs or in the internship interview process), they quickly jump to the incorrect conclusion that I am primarily an artist or designer, not a technical person. I actually do love art as a hobby, but when I talk to these recruiters, I am always interested in technical positions.

Typically, I will introduce myself like I did to this thread: "I'm a PhD student in computer science, and my research area is computer graphics." As soon as these recruiters hear the word "graphics," they respond with, "so, you're a designer?" 

Then, I try to explain that I am not a designer, but I do make images appear on the screen. My actual work is about writing the code and developing the algorithms. 

However, at this point, the recruiters seem completely tuned out to everything I am saying, because 10 seconds ago, they jumped to the conclusion that I was a designer. And they are not looking to hire designers, so why pay attention to me at all? 

Then sometimes they will be like..."Why don't you talk to Bob? Hey Bob, talk to this girl, she's a designer." Then I will have to start over again explaining to Bob that I am not actually a designer. 

Or sometimes they will say, "We are really looking for a strong coder (...not you) for this position." Then if I try to point out that I am a strong coder, they won't take me seriously.

I am concerned that this problem will affect my chances of landing a computer science job after I graduate. I am trying to figure out why this is happening to me, and what I can do to change it. What do?
gpt
I try to use the word "rendering" instead of "graphics" where possible to avoid this issue. They'll either know what you're talking about or will be impressed by you knowing something technical that they don't and forward you on to the engineers.