Yeah, I've heard this said in a few different ways.

Basically, "What do you do for a living?" can sometimes be an interesting conversation. But usually not. Most people don't really want to spend their social time talking about their job, even if they do kind of like it. And if they work in any kind of technical field, they are definitely not going to start explaining to somebody what it is that they do.

Most doctors will say they're doctors, even if they're specialists. Because there's a lot to explain when you say you're a rheumatologist. Likewise, I "work with computers" or "computer programming", which is about the most accurate job description I can give without getting into domain terminology.

"What do you do for fun outside of work" or similar, can be better. You're getting people talking about things they may want to talk about.