“What do you do for a living?”
You're talking to a woman at a party who you've never met before. You want to know more about her. You ask this to find out what her job is.
What do you do for a living?
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what do you do?
"What do you do?" is a question that adults almost always ask each other when they meet.
A: Nice to meet you.
B: Nice to meet you too, Bailey. So... tell me, what do you do?
A: I'm a jazz musician.
The question means "What is your job?", but no one directly asks "What is your job?"
do (something) for a living
You can talk about a person's job as what they "do for a living".
What do you do for a living?
I think he told me what he does for a living, but I forgot what he said.
"Do ___ for a living" is related to other phrases like "earn a living" and "make a living" which both mean to earn enough money to live normally.