yeah, but you're supposed to then extrapolate on the other persons' pre-rehearsed response in order to escalate the conversation into something that flows without effort.
"What do you do for a living?"
"Mergers and Acquisitions."
"Oh. I have a friend that does nearly the same thing. They told me this anecdote, does that kind of thing ever happen to you?"
"Oh, as a matter of fact.."
Without small talk there is no sharing of useless trivia by which to use as a jumping off point into real conversation, unless there was some introduction or motivation behind the meeting, anyway.
If I'm just meeting you, it's new information to me, regardless of how many times you've said it! And that opens the door to more interesting conversation. Maybe I do something very related, or are interested something about that job, or whatever. Or maybe it leads nowhere. But that's how smalltalk goes, you dance around until you find a mutually interesting topic.
Reminds me of a joke:
— "What's your name?"
— "Damien."
— "Oh, you don't hear that name every day!"
— "Actually, I do."
Just talk about anything. Talk about how the seats in the pub you are in aren’t comfy, then just yes and whatever they say and it will form a natural conversation.
You will know the basics about someone because the conversation will inevitably loop back to that naturally during stories.
For example if someone asks “What do you do for a living?” I will give the same answer I have given 1000 times. Ill ask them and they will do the same. There is nothing unique here.
Each to their own though.