Comments on: What do you do then?

By: tatiC

tatiC — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 16:37:28 +0000

I´m always tempted to say the same thing: ” I’m an astronaut. “!!!
Great post Chris!

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 11:24:31 +0000

@Alexia – I agree that it’s finding out about what the person is interested in. Hope you find a job soon!

By: Alexia

Alexia — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 11:03:20 +0000

Speaking as someone who is officially 'unemployed' at the moment (long story short, returning from travels last year smack bang into economic recession which is, unsurprisingly, TOUGH to find a job in), I can vouch for the fact that saying you're 'unemployed' makes people verrrrry uncomfortable. So in order not to make them all itchy round the collar, if I'm asked that question I quickly mention the handful of different projects I'm doing which I'm not being paid for, but which make life distinctly more interesting than it was when I DID have a job (before travels)! People want to be able to box you up by what you 'do', which will probably start to become increasingly more difficult in the next year or two as redundancies increase and unemployment rises. I do exactly as Isaac does, and try to find out what this person in front of me is interested in, outside of work...makes for a distinctly more interesting conversation. Either that, or I throw in some wacky questions - ghosts? aliens? anyone?? Alexia’s last blog post..Oh Snow!

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 11:30:37 +0000

@Isaac – Great comment, exactly the kind of stuff i’m looking for. I’ll have to try that out. Thanks for stopping by.

By: Isaac

Isaac — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 08:37:08 +0000

This is an interesting article and question. The last few years, I've quit asking people the inevitable "what do you do" or "what do you do for a living?" because I admire cultures where people don't define themselves by their boring jobs. Instead, I ask them "What do you spend your time on" or "What do you like to do with your time?" Usually, they pause for a second, and then look at me again, because they're not sure how to answer, but they quickly figure out that I'm less interested in their day job than in their interest. Sometimes their day jobs are their chief interests, but sometimes they're not. Isaac’s last blog post.."Whether UR young or old, the point is that the optimal length of an email message is five sentences...."