It seems the safest question to ask when you meet anyone new: “So, what do you do for a living?” Did cocktail parties of the 50’s give us this dreaded question? Because I wish it would die already, or become as much tongue and cheek as “How about those Dodgers?”
I do so many things.
Do I talk about how I make money today?
Or the thing that I’m studying that I plan will someday be the way I earn a living?
If I tell people about my last career or my current actual consulting business their faces display flat incomprehension. And though it’s useful for avoiding blank stares, nobody enjoys, “It’s complicated.”
Emily Randolph-Epstein has a system for answering. (High five and you-go-girl for making this work for you!) She inspires me to give this issue more thought, especially because right now I am at the Jane Austen Society of North America Annual General Meeting, meeting new people. And I’ll have to tell them something.
http://www.emilyrandolphepstein.com/why/
What do you think?