A couple weeks ago, Professor Sweet gave a lecture in class on attunement, and learning to listen, observe, and respond to people. In particular, he talked about different conversation starters, and how one simple sentence can direct and change the course of a conversation, or a sale. He talked about how people often start a conversation by asking people what they do, but how this often puts pressure on people to come up with a short yet intelligent sounding explanation of what they do. It often pressures people into feeling inadequate if what they do is simplistic, doesn’t pay very well, etc. I found this to be so true! Last summer, I worked as a hostess at a restaurant, and while I loved working there and I loved the people I worked with, whenever people I didn’t know very well asked me where I worked over the summer, I felt like telling them I worked as a hostess gave them an impression of me that I didn’t want them to have. Especially when I talked to people who had fancy internships or great jobs over the summer, I felt like my summer had been inadequate and disappointing, even though I really enjoyed it and learned a lot.
I think a lot of people feel similar pressures and discomforts when talking about what they do and where they work. While I don’t think these are bad questions to ask, I agree with Professor Sweet that it is a good idea to start out with other questions and build some relationship before diving into the “what do you do” question.
BoweryJE22
I think this is a great response because I felt the same way. I sold insurance and that’s basically all I talked about but instead i should have been talking about the lives that I was affecting through my work.