I hang around much nicer people now than I used to, maybe that’s a factor.
Apparently you realize your mistake by now, but just to clarify; a “-phile” does it, a “-ologist” merely thinks about it a lot! 
It is a fairly neutral conversation starter in a setting where you might be with a group of people you do not know well.
Instead, should you bring up a topic of current events of the day? No, will lead to opinions and politics regarding the event. Should you talk about politics, or even religion? Hell, no! Not unless you are already married or otherwise related to the person, and probably not even then.
But everyone “does” something. Maybe it is a job, maybe they don’t work but have a hobby they would like to talk about. So the question is, “What do you do?”
Most people like to talk about what they do. And there is usually a way to keep the conversation going even if you have no knowledge about the thing.
What do you do? “I paint little pictures of kittens on pebbles and then I throw them off the overpass at cars.” Really, what kind of paint is best for that? Etc.
In my experience, it all depends entirely on the demographics of the crowd. To that extent, age does play a large part of it. For a lot of young people, fresh out of college, they have a heavy focus on their careers and it’s a pretty defining characteristic, so it makes for a good way to get to know others and for others to get to know you. I imagine in an older crowd, career focus is a bit lower and other things like family and hobbies or whatever come up. Here in the DC area, even in somewhat older groups, I still hear a lot of questions about occupation, but I also hear a lot about politics and all which would generally not be considered light conversation in most other areas.
This is one of the ways I sort of judge how much fun I’ll have in a crowd or party, precisely by the types of ice breaker questions I get asked. If I’m asked more about my career or politics or whatever, even if I can kind of enjoy those conversations, it’s not how I define myself, so I’m less likely to have good conversation. In fact, I like to use this sort of as a good way of really getting to know someone. That is, I think I learn more about who a person is when asked to talk about themselves, not so much in what they say, but in what they choose to talk about. So, sure maybe one person says they’re an architect, someone else mentions their wife and kids, someone else talks about their favorite movie or music, someone else talks about the marathon they just ran. All of that stuff is kind of interesting, but I’m more interested that generally the first person is more career focused, the second is family oriented, the third is passionate about the arts, and the last is athletic. I think the specifics of those things tell me less than those.
So yeah, bringing it back to the OP, think about the types of people you expect to see at a particular gathering, and you’ll know what sorts of ice breaker questions to get or even ask.
Asking about someone’s job is a pretty safe area to open conversation with someone you just met. Most people spend more of their waking hours at their job, than anything else, and most adults have one.
If you’re at a party that someone hosted, another common question to raise in conversation with newly met people, is "how do you know “host’s name”?
But for gatherings of people that I already know well, the topic of work rarely comes up.
My response to that would be, “How much does it pay and where do I send my CV”.
Isn’t this type of question an “ice breaker” at parties?
Not exactly brain surgery, is it?
To clarify further, a “-phile” likes it, but may or may not do it.
Just wait. At some point in the future, everyone will be talking about their grandkids and plans for retirement.
It depends on what the occasion is. I’ve been at events that were centered around a certain activity and thats all that was talked about. I’ve known clubs where members concentrate so closely on the purpose of the club they have no idea what the members do for a living.
And thats what the clubs are supposed to be for. My MIL was in a book club and they are supposed to just talk about the book they are on but this one person in the group always wanted to just talk about her kids.
If you join a historical reenactor club like SCA, you might not even know other people real names.
It’s also usually at least kind of interesting. I can usually find a couple interesting questions to ask people about their work even if its a fairly mundane job, and even people that don’t like their jobs usually have something to say about it that they’ve put some thought into.
Other safe topics tend to be pretty boring. I don’t really care about other peoples kids or (God forbid) pets, for example. Some people have interesting hobbies, but many don’t, and a lot of hobbies are more fun to do then they are to talk about (jogging, for example).
Sometimes a person’s occupation is relevant to conversation- but in my age group it tends to be retiring(not) or grandkids (almost 3) or avocations. I prefer not to get specific about what I do in public, though I know I’ve posted here when I thought it brought substance to the post. At the opera, we talk opera (during intermissions;)). At the pub, which in our town is where a buncha geezer boatbuilders, craftsmen, musicians, fishermen (the kind with big boats and nets or longlines), veterans, lawyers gather, we discuss the news of the day- small town politics, who hit a deer lately, who has a deer come in their house, who fell off their boat the opening day of shrimp season, who is back from travels near and far, and the like. (the ones who are there for the alcohol don’t talk, and everyone in the geezer category goes home to supper). At employer generated events we all know for whom we work- so it’s where exactly, and who’s new, and how is the Affordable Care Act impacting your schedule. Since people in general are very interesting, it’s usually easy to find something to discuss. My biggest handicap is having ZERO interest in modern commercial team ‘sports’
I think this is why one should try to be well versed on a number of topics and be prepared to talk about them. Frankly its the only reason I keep up with sports. And if you were to join say a model railroad club, just stick to railroad topics.
Frankly for some people their life IS their work. I had this one friend of work who was very lonely so on a couple of occasions I had him over and guess what - all he wanted to talk about was work! Heck no wonder he was lonely.
Same with a cousin of mine. He once took a coworker fishing - and after a couple of hours when all the guy wanted to do was talk work he finally asked him to stop. I mean, they were fishing dammit!
Granted I used to do the same but mostly now I never bring it up.
It may depend on where you are, too.
I once heard a thing on NPR (years ago) about research into this very topic and it discovered that differing cities had different opening conversational gambits. As I recall…
Boston: Where’d you go to college?
San Francisco: What neighborhood do you live in?
Washington DC: What do you do?
Me? People ask me that all the time at social events. Then they quiz me about it for tips. It gets dull and I try to avoid it where I can, but I have gotten some clients out of the more insistent ones.
Melbourne: Where’d you go to school?
Adelaide: Where do you go to church?
Sydney: Where do you live?
But those weren’t conversational starters, that was background information. 40 years ago – changed a bit now.
The father of a friend was a Farmer turned Methodist minister. When he did his training, part of it was working in the community with “Irish Catholics”. Who he discovered, unlike himself, did not define themselves by their jobs.
Anyway, back to the original topic: Much less than they used to. I think it’s because I’m getting old. At my age, asking about my job isn’t asking about my background and future: it’s asking about how successful I’ve been in life.
I have to admit I actively avoid asking people what they do for a living, Even though it’s a big part of most peoples lives it seems really demeaning to me. However if you spend more than a few minutes with someone it generally seems to come up; often in some roundabout way, commuting habits, where they work, something that happened today.
I don’t tend to socialize with people who I don’t already know, so I have never gotten into the habit of asking people what they do for a living. But I could see myself doing this if I found myself at a cocktail party full of strangers. Not everyone has a job or a job worth talking about, sure. But not everyone is married, has a family, has hobbies, watches TV, or reads books. I say talking about work is a safer bet than talking about those other things since just about every adult has a source of income doing SOMETHING, even if it’s just for pin money. And just about everyone has a funny story or complaint about their workplace or line of work.
When I’m around people in a social setting, people tend to default to talking about their families and SO’s. These stories get boring for me after awhile. One coworker seems to really enjoy putting me to sleep by talking about her garden and home renovations every time I see her. So I’m starting to realize 90% of the time, conversations with strangers and acquaintances are going to suck. The key is to come up with a script to get you through them.