How not to answer: “So, what you do?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A common question for breaking the ice in a conversation is to ask someone what they do (for a living). It also often shows up in a job interview. And it might also be asked in Table Topics at a Toastmasters club meeting. As is shown above, the January 10, 2023 Savage Chickens cartoon by Doug Savage has a broader reply that he just converts oxygen, water, and food into energy and poop. That’s an expanded version of a reply by famous artist Marcel Duchamp:

 

“In a 1959 interview for Newsweek Duchamp states: ‘Oh, I am a breather, a respirateur. Isn’t that enough? Why do people work? Why do people think they have to work?’ ”

 

On December 8, 2022 I blogged about how Job interview questions about soft skills also can be used for Table Topics questions at Toastmasters club meetings.

 

At the Harvard Business Review on January 10, 2023 there is an article by Joel Schwartzberg titled How to answer “Tell me about a time you failed” in a job interview.