Reminder: tonight I'm doing Guts & Glory!

I was talking to my friend Sarah the other day and asked how her husband Keith was doing. He works in furniture auctions, which is already interesting, but he recently had taken up driving for Uber to make some extra money, which of course brought up tons of questions. What type of people had he met? Were there any parts of the city he'd gone to he hadn't before? How did he like working for Uber? What type of training did he need to receive? And all that stuff.

I love finding out people have interesting jobs, which leads me to a conundrum. I've read over and over again that it's rude to ask people what they do for a living when you first meet them. I understand the theory behind this concept: it could be seen as feeling out how much money someone makes, it could be a status thing, it could be uncomfortable for people who are between jobs or who don't like their jobs or what have you.

But me, I obviously am one of the good ones (side note: doesn't it seem like the people who make the most money frequently have the least-interesting jobs? Except maybe for doctors, who have the best, craziest stories). I don't want to know how much money someone makes. I just want to know if they have a lot of cool stories to tell me! Here are just a few examples of the other jobs people I know do:

Pie maker/caterer

Theologian

Historical fiction author

Physicist

Special needs school admin

Pediatric nurse

Personal trainer/MMA fighter

Film critic

Advice columnist

Radio producer

Wedding photographer

Cop

These are all people whose jobs I want to know more about! What if you were at a party with someone who did one of these jobs but you were too nice to ask what to do for a living. What are you supposed to talk about instead? Gun control? The weather? Both things are depressing.

So what is the non-rude way of finding out what someone does for a living so you can ask them about what they do?