When we meet someone new, we are often asked “what do you do?”.
Many of us respond with our title and the company we work for.
What if we had to answer that question without our title or employer?
We might find that the answer is more about who we are than the other responses.
We might discover how we describe the actual work we do.
We might expand the response to include more than what we are paid for.
We might find threads between our personal & professional lives.
We might discover what’s underneath a role that unlocks what we love to do.
We might end up in a different kind of conversation with the person who asked the question.
There is so much possibility when we go beyond the surface level answer.
My Perspective
The challenge when we respond with our title and employer is that those start to define who we are.
Who are we if we don’t work at that company anymore?
What do we do if we don’t have a title to lean on?
Our resume might tell a story of who we have been.
The question becomes – who are we NOW?
Developing a different response to the question can provide all kinds of benefits.
In particular, we gain the confidence of who we are when out promoting ourselves.
Your Turn
What is your response when someone asks what you do?
What would be your alternative, deeper answer?
Do you think you’ll try to use that answer the next time the question comes up?