How do you describe yourself - in retirement or with a portfolio career?

[JohnB]

Now, having said all that, I bet you are itching to ask me "What do you do for a living?"

Fireman. Small talk is key for them.

[BhotiPila]

Now, having said all that, I bet you are itching to ask me "What do you do for a living?"

Gigolo?

[tikunetih]

Nowadays I enquire about their field of expertise.

Makes you sound like a recruiter - you'd get absolutely nowhere with me with that approach - but most people's egos mean they love to talk about themselves so your tactic no doubt works pretty well.

I'd give almost nothing away about what I know (eg. never talk to people about investment) and instead, if you appeared to be knowledgeable about your field, which hopefully you would be if you were in my gaff, I'd quiz you relentlessly about it to try to learn stuff useful to me, like a knowledge vampire! Very annoying as a child, asking millions of questions all the time.

[DiamondEcho]

My point was a more general one thank LinledIn specifically. I thought it would be interesting to have a discussion about how people define themselves or present themselves to others, when they are involved in lots of different things.
Perhaps I should have put the question a different way. For example, if you're at a social function and someone asks "what do you do?" how would you respond. That is just another example but you can discuss your own.

I think it's a good question and one that many people only face when they're forcibly removed from their 'badges and titles of office' and lazily associated status. It's simple to be your job title, say a Wall Street 'Vice President', despite there being 2,000 of those in your company alone.
So the question might be how do you project self-worth to socially competing others, perhaps a peer group, when there is no employer giving external credibility to that title?

'What do you do'? the stranger asks. Which is simply an applied prism to socially guage you through.
I've on occasion previously answered 'Oh, nothing' as a bald answer to such a naked question. Their attempts to pigeon-hole and judge 'respective merit' neutered. But that can be a conversation killer (seriously), so I tend to pitch the vague aloofness so as not being seen to compete or out-succeed the questioner. 'Oh I just have a side-operation doing [roughly] XYX that is doing Ok...', or similar, and leave it at that. Strangers won't probe further.

It took me a few years out of the career rat-race to no longer care, one bit, how others judge *what they perceive I am*.

[DiamondEcho]

Nowadays I enquire about their field of expertise.

Makes you sound like a recruiter

Makes him sound like the career 'BoilersRUs' engineer that he is, hehe.

[monabri]

Chicken entertainer and treat feeder.

[terminal7]

Diamond geezer surely.

T7

[UncleEbenezer]

Chicken entertainer and treat feeder.

Um, should I be thinking variants on Pheasant Plucker?

[brightncheerful]

Some tried and tested answers:

Q: What do you do?
A: When ?

Q: What do you do for a living?
A: As distinct from not living?

Q: What do you do for a living?
A: I' am not allowed to say.

Q: What do you do for a living?
A: Not a lot.

Q: What do you do for a living?
A: Preach
(ecclesiastical subtle)

[monabri]

Chicken entertainer and treat feeder.

Um, should I be thinking variants on Pheasant Plucker?

No...that's my job...( serious emoji).