I am not a native English speaker, but I'll try to do my best to help you. I found a discussion on this topic in Quora (USA) in the Internet. Quotation: A direct question is perfectly acceptable in casual conversation, and isn't the slightest bit rude. "What do you do for a living?" is a pretty common way. If you still feel it is too intrusive, you could try softening it by adding, "If you don't mine me asking..." "So where do you work?" is common, but less straightforward, as you could receive an answer like "downtown Los Angeles." (but most people will know what you mean) Don't be nervous at all. If you are polite, nobody will take offense. If they choose not to answer (for some odd reason), they'll let you know. Also, what do you do? "What do you do?" is a question that adults almost always ask each other when they meet. A: Nice to meet you. B: Nice to meet you too, Bailey. So... tell me, what do you do? A: I'm a jazz musician. The question means "What is your job?", but no one directly asks "What is your job?" When someone asks you “What do you do?“, they’re asking about your job. In English, people don’t actually say “What is your job?“. Instead they say “What do you do?“ and the correct response is “I’m a/an + a job title”. Examples: I’m an English teacher. I’m a dentist. I’m a lawyer. “What is your job?“ is still used in English textbooks, but in real life native English speakers almost never say that. They will mostly say: What do you do? What do you do for a living? What do you do exactly? Also, it's OK to ask a person about what she or he does for a living, but it is uncommon to ask this about one's parents, it should be done in a more tactful way, always use phrases like "If I may ask", "I'd be interested to hear about what (you do)", etc. And it is absolutely inappropriate to ask about one's earnings.