Re:What I’ve learned in my first year as a college dropout
by foxylad on Thursday May 29, 2014 @11:29PM
(#7820104)
The socially accepted response is a one sentence description which then allows the person to enquire more if they are interested, or move on to other topics if not.
In general society "I'm a web developer" works for me. At a startup meet, I'd be more specific: "I'm developing an online petting zoo".
The key is to listen for prompts before you go deeper. If someone responded to "what do you do?" with a five minute exposition of either their successes or challenges without further prompting from me, I'd be a bit taken aback. After all, I only asked so they'd ask me back and I could tell them how exciting/challenging my job is.
Granted that's in the context of hanging out with people other than startup people. At meetups and whatnot I usually give them some of the highs and the lows, it lets the other person know they can open up too. We don't all have to be fronting positivity 24/7.