I grew up in a town where a large percentage of my friends’ parents worked at IBM. When asked what their dads did (back then most of their mothers didn’t work outside the home) they would always reply, “He works at IBM.” If the follow up question was, “What does he do there?” They’d shrug and say they didn’t know. Fifty years later, some of them still don’t. Like most people, they weren’t that interested.

Adults in IT will answer that question based on their perception of the level of interest of the questioner and their ability to understand what they do. Some also factor in the length of time it would take to explain their job.

Few people outside of IT know what a Lean Agile Enterprise Coach is, and it would be pointless to explain it to them. They don’t really want to know. They’re just being polite or making conversation. If asked, my husband usually says, “I’m in IT.” Sometimes they ask where he works. If so, he names the company, which has numerous locations and divisions internationally.

When we lived in the SF Bay Area, unless someone was something like a hairdresser, cop, teacher, or owned a business, people would usually answer with the name of the company. If somebody told me they worked at Apple, I didn’t press for details because, in most cases, I didn’t care what they did there and wouldn’t remember anyway. Apple I can remember. “What does she do?” “She works at Apple.” “Ooooh!”

Few people are interested in your job unless it’s exciting. Saying the name of a big successful company instead of your job title has another advantage. Unless you’re the CEO, telling them you work at that big company is impressive enough. Even if you are a big deal at a big company, might not want to tell everyone you meet because you don’t want to be hit with a pile of resumes, complaints, suggestions, and requests for donations,

If someone wanted to stalk them, knowing they work at Apple wouldn’t help. They might as well try stalking someone at the Pentagon.

Many people are embarrassed by what they do. They don’t want to be judged or looked down upon, so they say something general like the name of the company or the industry they work in and leave it at that.

There are many reasons why people respond as they do to the question, “What do you do?” Rarely, is it because they’re stupid.