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You can also use it to just get a general sense of what someone is. There are a lot of stats related to various professions. It gives an idea of your likely bac

You can also use it to just get a general sense of what someone is. There are a lot of stats related to various professions. It gives an idea of your likely background and what not. It's a good jumping off question because choice of career can be the biggest decision someone makes and seeing how someone came to such a decision can be very insightful to the type of person they are. If I ask that question and someone says something like that (or similar avoidance stance) then I know they're very likely insecure or uncomfortable talking about their choice of work. You can read into that a lot to get various ideas but I like to use such things to put together a whole picture of a person. I, personally, like the question.

esotericn 7y ago
You're making a lot of assumptions here. Perhaps the person didn't choose their work. They want to be a professional developer, but right now they're working in Starbucks. Perhaps they don't want to tell you, because they're sick of people fawning or acting strangely towards them. I've spoken to a fair few people like that - say they're a hedge fund manager or whatever, they don't want to bring that to the pub and basically wave the fact they're a decamillionaire in your face.
- bradlys 7y ago
  > Perhaps the person didn't choose their work. They want to be a professional developer, but right now they're working in Starbucks. I had a longer answer that I trimmed down but that's one of the reasons you can guess why someone isn't saying why they do what they do. Chances you're interacting with a decamillionaire is much lower than vs someone who doesn't like to mention [insert not typically viewed as a great job here]. There are no assumptions here - just likelihoods.
- hinkley 7y ago
  Or you're at a party? Compartmentalization is a thing, lots of people do it. Especially the people who you wonder how they do that job and stay so happy. How many people really want to talk about work when they are are having beers with old friends and some people they just met? And what happens as a software dev when you tell random people what you do? They want you to fix their computer for them. My hobbies don't have nearly this degree of problem. And on the flip side, you don't want to recruit people when talking about some of your interests (like volunteer work). But that's an easy habit to break when you know so intimately what being volun-told feels like.

esotericn 7y ago

You're making a lot of assumptions here. Perhaps the person didn't choose their work. They want to be a professional developer, but right now they're working in Starbucks. Perhaps they don't want to tell you, because they're sick of people fawning or acting strangely towards them. I've spoken to a fair few people like that - say they're a hedge fund manager or whatever, they don't want to bring that to the pub and basically wave the fact they're a decamillionaire in your face.

bradlys 7y ago
> Perhaps the person didn't choose their work. They want to be a professional developer, but right now they're working in Starbucks. I had a longer answer that I trimmed down but that's one of the reasons you can guess why someone isn't saying why they do what they do. Chances you're interacting with a decamillionaire is much lower than vs someone who doesn't like to mention [insert not typically viewed as a great job here]. There are no assumptions here - just likelihoods.
hinkley 7y ago
Or you're at a party? Compartmentalization is a thing, lots of people do it. Especially the people who you wonder how they do that job and stay so happy. How many people really want to talk about work when they are are having beers with old friends and some people they just met? And what happens as a software dev when you tell random people what you do? They want you to fix their computer for them. My hobbies don't have nearly this degree of problem. And on the flip side, you don't want to recruit people when talking about some of your interests (like volunteer work). But that's an easy habit to break when you know so intimately what being volun-told feels like.