30 People Answer What's The Most Annoying Thing Others Say After Learning Their Profession

Confused conversational partners are real and they occur more often than we’d like. Think of the last time you told someone “I work for myself as a freelance writer” and received “Oh, so you, like, write books?” Most of us devote so much time and effort to our careers, it’s kind of irritating to get all those sorts of questions from people who have no clue what you’re doing (and often, they suppose they do!)

So, how to speak about your profession to people so you can share your enthusiasm and not receive any more annoying questions? To find out how to talk about your profession like a pro, Bored Panda reached out to Kat Boogard, a Wisconsin-based freelance writer who specializes in writing on careers and self-development. Kat told us that the real hangup is that we use our careers to define ourselves. That’s the reason why so many of us become irritated by the “what do you do?” question.

“That can cause real problems for a lot of people. Maybe they're laid off or between jobs. Maybe they're starting their own business. Or maybe they work in a career that's not super 'obvious' to a lot of people. That means the 'what do you do?' question can inspire a lot of dread and even self-doubt.”

Kat said that the best way to describe your profession is just doing it head-on, “with the knowledge that a lot of careers are going to require more explanation than others.”

Moreover, “what do you do?” is often a default conversation starter, but Kat assured us that there are plenty of other ways to get the discussion rolling, like asking someone what hobbies they enjoy.

Kat also suggested a way to deal with people who think they know everything about your profession. “As a freelance writer, I get a lot of puzzled looks when I tell people what I do for a living. Then they quickly move into the assumptions—like that I write books or I don't do much of anything all day.”

She usually uses an example that people can relate to her career in their daily lives. “So, when people are struggling to understand what I do, I'll say something like this: 'You know how when you're preparing for a job interview and you Google common interview questions? The articles that show up in the search results are the type of stuff that I write.'"