The Cocktail Party Challenge

How would you answer “So, what do you do?” if you couldn’t say your job title?

We’ve all been asked this at work events and in our personal lives, pretty much anytime you’re getting to know someone. “What do you do” is up there with “Where are you from” on the Getting to Know You Playlist.

Which is why it’s a perfect starting place to debunk the career ladder myth.

Innocuous as it seems, “what do you do” is actually loaded with career ladder expectations. It’s odd, when you stop to think about it, that your response to a question about what you do is supposed to start with a declaration about who you are. “I am a journalist/teacher/astronaut,” we say, indicating which rung we’re currently on.

This locks us into a very narrow view of who we can be. Essentially this scripted interaction is declaring that the job you currently have is your identity. There’s not much room to shift in new directions if that’s the case.

Enter the Cocktail Party Challenge.