Your job can imply your socioeconomic status. When it&#x27;s the first thing you ask, it can come across as deciding whether you&#x27;re worthwhile or not. Maybe you&#x27;re not worth the connection because you&#x27;re a fry cook at McDonalds, but the doctor over there in the corner is.<p>Learning what someone does for a living is, to me anyways, far less important than learning what they like to do, what interests they have, etc. I can be friends with anyone where there&#x27;s common ground, not just fellow software folks.<p>Talking with work is fine, it just can be interpreted as rude if it&#x27;s one of the first things you ask.