The socially accepted response is a one sentence description which then allows the person to enquire more if they are interested, or move on to other topics if

The socially accepted response is a one sentence description which then allows the person to enquire more if they are interested, or move on to other topics if not. In general society "I'm a web developer" works for me. At a startup meet, I'd be more specific: "I'm developing an online petting zoo". The key is to listen for prompts before you go deeper. If someone responded to "what do you do?" with a five minute exposition of either their successes or challenges without further prompting from me, I'd be a bit taken aback. After all, I only asked so they'd ask me back and I could tell them how exciting/challenging my job is.