"Wow, cool! Doing what?" he asks, immediately curious.

What kind of work would be done in conjunction with whales? Search and rescue, maybe? They would probably be pretty good at that. A number of other practical possibilities come to mind too but none of them sound like they would be much in the whales' interest - towing cargo, wrecking pirate ships, all the sorts of things warships do without complaint. Working with a whale must mean their intelligence is enough of a benefit where you can give up a little bit of control to them.