This has given me food for thought. My kids go to school in an area that has a mix of incomes. My average day might involve working from home, or it might involving traveling internationally to visit $PROMINENT_BRAND_NAME to deliver consulting. When I talk to the other parents I want to reveal some aspects of my life so we have something to talk about. However I can easily come across as boasting (and, to some extent, I guess I am) if I name drop trips and clients. The Leveling Game is similarly tricky. Though I would happily criticize the current government, in my area the majority voted for them (sigh.) Also, grumbling isn't really my jam. I don't want to base my relationships on it.
For what it's worth - if the other parents bring up the conversation of what you do or what you did that week, that's fine in my opinion. It's hardly boasting and you're not the one who initiated the topic anyway.
If you're always the one bringing up your trips to fancy clients, that's a different story. :P
Consulting is an interesting one because there are people who would pity you for having to be away from your family dealing with corporate politics. Others may feel jealous of you high profile and high salary.
> might involving traveling internationally to visit $PROMINENT_BRAND_NAME to deliver consulting
Totally tangential and I apologize for that—but I read your profile and it made me curious what you're consulting on. Would you share [in some sense, even vauge] what kind of thing you consult on, or am I out of bounds? No names needed. I'm just very interested when software meets music, and in many facets of that meeting.
The companies I work for are https://www.inner-product.com/ (US) and https://underscore.io/ (UK). Scala is our main focus. I'm afraid it's not as exciting as software + music. Mostly web services or data engineering.
I'm agreed that talking about kids is a good way to get conversations started with strangers (or pets, if not kids). In this case we're relatively new to the area but I know most people's backgrounds now. It's more a case of someone initiating conversation with a casual "what have you been up to?" to which I can respond, say, "Oh, just got back from a week at $MEGACORP", which might taken as a status play but at least gives something to start a conversation about, or a conversation killing "Oh, not much. Just the usual work stuff."
I don't think it's a status play to namedrop a "megacorp," because for all they know you could be doing data entry. There's a spectrum of business consulting advancedness. It would be boasting to say "I delivered a report directly to the CEO," not to say "I did a one week contract for Walmart." The look on your face when you say it (snide, "I'm better than you," resigned to a life in airplane seats, pained from a life in airplane seats...) will convey most of the message.
A good move is to leave out the $CORP and just say "Got back from a week of traveling for work." It's obvious you're leaving out information; and it sorta nods to your choice not to boast (play status game), and instead lets them ask follow up questions if they are interested.
