Conversation Starters: “What Do You Do?”

All the time I find that my default question upon first meeting someone is “What do you do?” and every time I use it I cringe and thing that there must be a better way to ask this question (and there must be a better question to ask).

While I am a great advocate for staying away from too much “work chat” I do find that knowing what a person does for their day job gives me context (and also helps me remember them) therefore I find it important that I find this out at some point in the conversation.

Alternative ways to start the Conversation

There are plenty of ways to start a conversation and there are plenty of questions that you can ask attendees to get to know them better.

• Why do you do what you do?
• What are you working on right now?
• What do you like to do?
• What are you most passionate about?

Better ways to ask (and answer)”What do you do?”

Start with an alternative conversation starter, if you have been talking to a person for a while and you haven’t quite worked out what they do yet, you could possibly ask them directly (as you have been talking about other things) or tie it in with some other part of the conversation.

If you have almost worked it out, why not ask a question to fill in the gaps, such as….

Of course, the “What do you do?” question is only stereotypical and boring because we let it be. If you find yourself faced with this question (or accidentally find yourself blurting it out in default) use the opportunity to make the answer more interesting instead don’t just say “I work as [job title] at [company]“. Make it a story or be a bit more creative – think back to your personalised and memorable elevator pitch.

For example you might talk about:

• how you help people
• a story or example to offer context or explain what you do.
• what you are working on right now or an interesting thing that is happening in your industry.
• the void in the market you are filling or what your niche/expertise is
• what you enjoy about your job or why you do what you do
• experiencess that will resonate with the people you are talking to
• how you might be able to help the people you are talking to or share some free advice.
• something you are passionate about.