When meeting someone, it is common for this question to be asked at some point: "What do you do for a living?"
Depending on your answer when asked this question, you may see a range of reaction. Some occupation will cause awe, others indifference. But for a number of reasons, telling about your occupation may also give you contempt in return. If you have experienced this before, then talking about each other occupations, a usually dull topic of conversation, becomes sensitive. You may even become hesitant discussing it.
I have had awkward reactions and even heard disapproving comments about my job in the past few years. Sure, I do not expect to be praised like a brain surgeon, in fact I though people would not care about me being a web developer. But it seems my field of work, the web or the tech industry more generally, has a bad notoriety in the eyes of most people.
Although my work does not have the biggest beneficial impact on the world, I do not feel like I deserve such reactions. It has come to the point I am thinking about simply lying when asked about my job. Answering with something boring enough to shift the topic of conversation to something else quickly. This would spare me from the hard looks or negative judgment I have had.
Have you also experienced this? How does it go when you answer this question?
