Do you do something interesting or unusual? Something worthwhile or dangerous? No? Then people aren't going to ask you any follow up questions; they're making small talk.

Imagine it's the other way round - you're at a party and meet the host's sister's boyfriend's cousin and ask what they do "Oh, I do reinsurance claims for mid-sized retail acquisitions in the aluminium industry." You can either get into a tedious conversation about that, or ask about literally anything else.

If you want people to be interested in you - you need to be interesting. You don't do software engineering (what?) at a fintech (huh?) startup (like Facebook?) - instead you say "I am building an app that helps X do Y."

All of a sudden you're using an active word (building) related to something people understand (an app!) and they might even know about X or Y. If they do, you can have a little conversation.

If not, well, how about that local sports team? I hear they played a few games.