If you're unemployed or in a job you hate then you wouldn't particularly want to talk about it in social settings, especially if the social setting involves getting pissed. And you should have a right not to. I think your job is something you should be allowed to talk about if you want to, not something for other people to flesh out.

And as a student, I get annoyed when certain people ask me what degree I'm studying, then they ask me what I want to do with it, a trait of obnoxiously practical-minded people (of which there are too many in this world). Umm, well look, I wanted to go to university to further my mind, to live away from my parents and get pissed and stoned for 3 years, to get a decent qualification (hopefully), because I didn't want to go straight into work after finishing school, and because I'm somewhat ambitious, so not having a degree for me is out of the question. I'm studying for an English degree, which is particularly annoying because I have to put up with comments from ignoramuses like 'what can you do with that?' or 'oh, I learned that when I was 5'. Then I'm asked what I want sort of career I want to pursue with it, and I make up some bullshit like 'oh, I'd quite like to be a journalist' or some shit, when in fact I don't have a f***ing clue.

I never, ever ask people what they're doing with their lives. I don't even care (although that may be due to me being a self-absorbed bastard, granted). But work is such a menial, mundane aspect of adult existence, it shouldn't be a topic of conversation at all.