What do you do?

認識新朋友的時候，第一句通常問對方叫什么名字，然后會問人家做什么工作：What do you do? (你是做什么工作呢？)，其它的說法還有：What's your work (job)?/What's your occupation? (你的職業是什么？) /What's your title? (你的職銜是什么？)/Where are you employed?(你在哪兒受聘？)

對 話

Joseph: I haven't seen you since school. What have you been doing?

Ian: I've been very busy with my job. I travel throughout the city everyday.

Joseph: That sounds fascinating. What do you do?

Ian: I'm a senior disposable waste management consultant.

Joseph: That's impressive, I thought you'd only end up as a “garbage- man” or something.

約瑟夫：自從離開校園后我都沒見過你，你最近在做什么？

伊恩：我忙于自己的工作，我每天要在市內到處跑來跑去。

約瑟夫：聽起來很不錯啊，你是做什么職業？

伊恩：我是用后即棄廢物的資深管理顧問。

約瑟夫：好厲害喔，我還以為你會成為一個 ‘廢人’或類似的東西。

約瑟夫問老同學伊恩：What do you do?伊恩說：I'm a senior disposable waste management consultant。

一般而言，What do you do?或What does your wife do?等，是問‘你的工作是什么？’或‘你太太的工作是什么？’不是問你閑暇時做些什么。當然，假如人家問What do you do at weekends?（你周末通常做什么？）你就應該說I usually go hiking with my wife.（我常常和內子去遠足）等等。

問人家的職業，What do you do?或What do you do for a living?是最常用的說法。此外，你還可以說What's your job/occupation/trade?或What line (of business/work)are you in? Trade除了解作‘貿易’，還可以指‘工作’，所以trade union是‘工會’，諺語Two of a trade never agree是說‘兩個同業的人，不會合得來’。Line是‘行業’，I am in the catering/public relations line即‘我從事外燴業/公共關系業務’。

回答What's your job?之類問題，你可以說：I'm a dentist/salesman（我是牙醫/售貨員）等，但千萬不要說My job is a dentist之類：你可以做牙醫，你的工作(job)卻不可以做牙醫。I'm a senior disposable waste management consultant即‘我是用后即棄廢物的資深管理顧問’，其實是撿破爛。撿破爛者，英文叫ragpicker（直譯是‘撿破布者’）。俚語則叫totter，例如：I earn my living as a totter.（我靠撿破爛維生）。