But how many times did this particular question--or a snap judgment of the answer--annoy someone? That feeling is probably why a packed room came to hear branding and marketing expert C.C. Chapman give a talk called "Why I Hate The Question of "What Do You Do?"
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I’ve been guilty of it, I’ll admit it. It’s not the greatest question in the world to ask, but I mean it sometimes does tend to strike up a conversation. Shucks, I get this kind of question when I go to family reunions, but at the point I’m just essentially talking about what I’m doing in school, and where I want to be afterwards. It does get annoying sometimes, because they follow up with the ‘where do you see yourself’ and at this stage it’s too early to know that, why, because I’m still learning. I do like how adding just one word to that question making it “what do you love to do” does bring out a different response in people, and I believe that if I’m in a hiring situation, that would be the type of question I would want to ask. I do like to see that people have a life outside of work, I enjoy spending time with family and friends, go bowling when I can, and enjoy camping in the outdoors. Asking that question let’s you delve a little deeper into the person you’re getting to know.
I think this is a super interesting concept in terms of how you present yourself in a business setting. I think we tend to focus on a basic set of questions in this type of conference interaction, or in terms of meeting new people in general. I notice that the best types of conversations with people you just met are the ones that find some kind of relation right off the bat. Sometimes, if you end up just making small talk and 5 minutes elapses, most of those interactions will most likely be forgotten. It's important to create some kind of common ground, especially when you're in a room of people whos literal occupation is to network and meet people.
In an interview if I was asked what do you do, my assumption would be to answer with what my abilities are that apply to this job and that kind of assumption can hurt you in a way. Outside of that though the natural assumption is what you do for work and outside of work. How you spend your weekends, if you are married or a parent perhaps. Letting these questions go beyond the interview process and letting interviews become much more personable so you actually get to know the person you are interviewing or the person who is interviewing you. After reading this I want my answer to what do you do to be a bit more then I'm a student.
I want to take a step back from this article, and look just at the question "What do you do?" I think about this all of time! When I'm asked this question I always respond with what am currently doing. People tend to find this funny. I do this because it forces the asker to get a little more specific with their question. However, this article did get me thinking about how I would answer this when I can't respond with something witty or say that I'm still in school. I have started calling what I do theatrical management because I feel it encompasses everything in any job description I would have as well as very universal terms. I'm interested to see how this changes as I progress in my career.
I have always hated this question since I arrived at college. People judge your character immediately after they hear your occupation. Someone could be the most interesting person in the world but they are a mathematician so they are automatically boring. Just because I study technical theatre doesn't mean I don't do other things when I have time. Because networking is such a large part of today's job market, the extra things like photography and writing could bridge the gap between people who know nothing about each other.
I think it's time for use to retire this question all together. In a bubble like theatre, more often than not we find ourselves in jobs that we didn't major in. That's all well and fine, but I believe a better question should be "What are you working on now?" That way, you get the whole story of what someone's doing at this point in their life. In addition, I strongly disagree with putting something like "Storyteller, explorer, humanitarian" on your business card. While a business card isn't your entire personality, it is an extension of you. Those words are so vague, I might not remember you when I look at cards later. On the flip side, I might remember you because of the ridiculous words you decided to print about yourself.
Personally, I tell people I'm a theatrical design major and then I have give my elevator speech every time I meet someone. It's not a common major. I usually tell people I design for theatre, usually something concrete like sets or costumes. It's not inaccurate, but if this is a casual encounter, I'm not going to go into the nuances of the major. I save that for more in-depth discussions.
Likely to the dismay of some others on this comment feed, I do not dislike the question, "What do you do?"
No, it does not give the full picture of the person and yes, sometimes it can lead to unnecessary assumptions of the person's character, but it really is a simple question. If the issue here is that people aren't getting to know each other well enough from one answer, here's an idea: ask more questions. No one is going to get to know my entire personality when they hear that I'm studying theatrical design and production. They are going to know only that I am studying theatrical design and production, and that's fine, because that's what they asked me. A major or a job title does not make a person, but the answer to a single question does not make a friendship or a business relationship either.
I agree and I dislike that question. It defines you into a box that is not most people. Most people are more then the work that that pursue. What do I do? How would I answer that questions. I currently DO graduate school. But do I do? I do life I do… It can be a hard questions to answer if you do not just give that simple answer. Sure you could talk about school, drafting, budgeting, but it that how I want to define myself. Is that just a mask I wear. The answer I do a lot of things, I latch on to. It is just about broadening your horizons and making sure you understanding you and how life is prior to that. Self confidence and self awareness are something that is important. These things are what we do and what I do. So what do I do? One answer is I try to do it better today then yesterday.
I believe the real discussion here is not why does the question ineffective, we know that. The real question is how to answer it to make the person asking realize you're more than the job you have. Anyone in theatre has had the experience of having to tell someone you do theatre right after your other friend introduced themselves as a lawyer, doctor, or a banking analyst. It's awkward and you get the sad smile that says "oooh your life is going to be harder than their's". But that person not only just asked what you do, but because of your simple answer, they made a judgement based on how they perceived you felt about your life. I've found better ways to answer this question, such as saying 'I am lucky enough to work in theatre' or 'I get to do Stage or Production Management' and 9/10 times when I respond this way, the questioning party wants to hear more about my life. The question isn't going to go away but our answers can certainly be more translucent.
Its actually a very interesting concept, the idea of what do you do. I had never really thought about it too much but now that I do, "what do you do?" really is a bad question? what do I do? I make jokes, I am sarcastic, I enjoy hanging out with friends, I go to Carnegie Mellon, I do a lot of things so what do you mean, "what do I do?" Yes, I know the question is referring to a career but the question is still to broad to get an appropriate answer. Ask a banker what he does and he will say he's a banker, but that doesn't answer the question. There obviously have to be job titles but people need to realize that asking what do you do requires and deserves a better answer than a job title.
This article does a great job of addressing the fact that today, while many people still have traditional jobs that can be easily defined, there are many others who are more a free floating denomination and who have many answers to the “What do you do?” question. I experienced this quite a bit this summer when I was working on a movie set and many people there were confused as to what I was doing there if I wasn’t studying film. They’d ask what I did and what I wanted to do, and I found that the easiest way to answer was to explain what I was doing in school at that time. Currently, what I do is study to be a production and stage manager. The inevitable “What do you want to do? Do you want to work in film?” follow-up question was bit more tricky at first, because I don’t really know yet and there are about a hundred things I want to do with my life. What I ended up telling people is that I want to help other people tell the stories that matter to them, until I have my own story to tell. This of course encompasses many disciplines and roles, but I realized that telling people what you’re passionate about is much more helpful than any job description in the world, and that my answer fostered a lot of very interesting discussions with the people I was working with, who had passions and dreams of their own.
This reminds me of all the activities we did freshman year to meet other freshmen during orientation week. By Thursday I remember being so sick of repeating my name, where I'm from, and what my major was in order to start a conversation. Because all of those things don't sum up the person that I am, they're just small parts of a whole. The point made that people who answer "What do you love to do?" with an honest, passionate response is huge. You can meet a talented lighting designer who hates his job and an another not quite as talented but extremely passionate lighting designer, but how in the world would you know that by just looking at them on paper or talking to them in a quick conversation? I think that by answering the question "What do you do?" with a string of things that you do and are passionate about gives the other person or employer a lot more to converse about than just the surface-level boring stuff. It allows for you to more quickly engage your audience and make you seem more interesting.
The questions "what do you do" and "what do you study" kind of go hand in hand as being my least favorite questions to answer. Whenever extended family or people who I've just met ask me what I study, I find it incredibly difficult to take the complexity of this program and major and summarize it in a few sentences. I study everything! I'm continually studying so many different subjects to inform my designs! It's such a simple question that tries to capture a very complex answer. The question "What do you do" is similar in a sense because in our creative profession, what we do is not necessarily the best way to describe who we are as artists. When I'm in an interview I feel so much more relaxed and interested when the interviewer asks me a more open ended question such as "what kind of work do you like to do" or what do you love to do". I feel like those type of questions allow for more of a discussion about what you feel you can bring to the table and what your strengths and interests are. Granted "what do you do" is a good way to gauge technical skills that help us be the creative people that we are.
It sucks going home and having my friends who are at other universities ask me that question. The answer is gonna be "drama school." If I don't feel like saying the answer that they expect I'll say "I'm studying design/production technology management", but that's generally not what I do. I'm rally happy here, and every once in awhile I think about what my life would be like if I wasn't in theatre, and it would suck. I really enjoy what I'm doing here, and I'm so glad to be here, but it's hard to explain that to my friends at home. My artsy friends get it, but other people don't. How do I explain a class like Hawk vs. Handsaw to them? "Today we were blindfolded and then tomorrow I'm going to present on the Gaia Hypothesis." Like, what the hell am I doing. It's helpful to at least go to CMU though, where I can tell them about famous graduates so they think I'm not a total loser/waste. I don't really care what they think, but it sucks that where I'm happy makes some people think less of me.
The famous and trite what do you do question is such an abysmal conversation turner! I always find myself getting frustrated when people are unable to go beyond such a generic and terrible question. Where is the desire to learn about one another? Where is the thirst to be interested in people and actually engage on more than some basic monotonous level? People should be inquiring about what makes someone passionate. What was the last article you read that made your blood boil. I feel to really make meaningful connections with people we need to be willing to invest in these encounters.
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