It's kind of the joke?! Some people are socially awkward.

Asking people what they do for a living is kind of a bad question and shows how capitalism is controlling every aspect of our lives. It's reducing people to what they do to make money, and it's placing them on a social scale. It's a way to evaluate the social capital of a person. People will judge depending on the answer. Consider 'I work at McDonald's' vs 'I work in finance'. Bad question.