Beware This Question! "What Do You Do?"

Did you know that the most popular question in business is actually a trap?

Okay, that may be an overstatement. It's not that someone else is trying to trap you, but rather that when most people answer the question "what do you do?", they answer it literally, in the most unenergetic manner possible.

"I'm a marketing assistant."

"I write code."

"I'm a Vice President at Acme Widgets."

(Yawn)

If Nike did business this way, they'd replace their "Just do it" slogan with: we make sweaty stuff.

When someone asks, "What do you do?", you have three goals:

1. Grab attention
2. Spark curiosity
3. Be memorable

Let's highlight a few ways you can accomplish each of these...

Grab attention: Energy and passion are much more engaging than routine and resignation. When you simply list your current job title, you are showing a lack of investment in your own future. Is it really your goal to be a marketing assistant for the rest of your life? Are you nothing more than a generic writer of code?

Try this: tell people what you WANT to do.

Tell them where you are headed, what you love about your profession, and/or what you hope to achieve in the year ahead. Make it possible for them to help you achieve your reach goals; the only way to do this is to share your reach goals.

Spark curiosity: Most people answer the question as though they were taking a multiple choice test:

What do you do?

A. State your job title

B. Describe your job in shortest, most generic manner possible

C. Denigrate your role (i.e. "What I do is pretty mundane")

D. Over-generalize (i.e. "I'm in finance")

It is much better to first make the other person use his or her brain. From time to time, I respond by asking, "Have you ever seen an entrepreneur publish an article about their work?" (Person thinks... and nearly always says "yes".) Only then do I reveal that my job is to write such articles for entrepreneurs. This invariably leads to a series of questions. The other person has become engaged because it surprises most people that a job like mine actually exists.

Drop your instinct to answer "what do you do?" as fast as possible. Instead, muster the determination to engage the other person with your answer, or with a question of your own.

Be memorable: My wife came up with the idea of using translucent plastic for my business cards, and no one has ever seen this card without smiling. They cost $35 for a box of 200. To be memorable, you don't need a big budget or a huge job; you just need to be passionate and creative about sharing what you (want) to do.

Be prepared with examples, anecdotes, and - most of all - aspirational statements. The more excitement you can muster around your own future, the more excitement others will show about it.

Bruce Kasanoff ghostwrites articles for all sorts of business professionals around the globe.