What is the most frequently asked question at standing receptions? Surely the sentence „So, what do you do for a living?“.
This is usually followed by a detailed self-description of one’s own company, what it offers and what is special about it. Polite interlocutors ask one or two more in-depth questions before finally expressing their boredom and trying to move on to another topic.
Networking professionals have therefore learned to keep their self-presentation short and make an „elevator pitch“ out of it, an introduction that lasts no longer than the shared ride in the lift. The problem with these self-presentations is: people are generally only interested in things to which they have a personal connection.
So if you talk about yourself and your job, you run the risk of boring those around you with a topic that only you have points of contact with. If you need an example, try talking to a system administrator and ask him what his job is.
Unless you have a sound knowledge of computers yourself, you will probably have mentally switched off after the first 5 minutes.
