Coffee chat questions: how to pivot to personal interests and hobbies
Hi guys, I recently started coffee chats with people in IB over phone calls (would love to meet people in person but can't in current situation). I have found myself having no problem connecting with people from the same school with me because we can always talk about the school and mutual friends. But when it comes to other people, I feel a little lost keeping the conversation going. Sometimes it turned into an awkward Q&A session.
I have read some threads here and people stress the importance of talking about something more personal during coffee chats after you talk about all the job and company stuff. But my questions are:
1. how do you naturally pivot your conversation from job/company to personal interest? Do you just ask "oh so what do you like to do for fun?" This seems like an abrupt transition.
2. sometimes I research people on linkedin and they would post their activities in schools or study abroad experience. Is it ok to let people know that you looked at their linkedin and you saw they did XXX?
Would really appreciate any advice! Thanks!
both are ok and there’s nothing wrong with asking “what do you do in your free time” in my opinion.
i’ll leave the hobbits joke to someone else.
hahaha! thank you for the response and pointing out that typo!
in my experience, you can also only talk about business stuff and still really really hit it off. so dont think that if you didnt ask a hobby question you did bad. You should know whether it went good, bad or neutral.
delete
>Yeah my week was super stressful blah blah >*(Check if it’s the first half of the week or second half).
>Hahaha, yeah I guess the hours really can be insane. Hopefully you had some to yourself over the weekend? Or: Anything you are looking forward to on the weekend?
>(They mention something either in detail or not. If it’s in detail just go on from there)
Or:
>Are there any hobbies that you’ve had to sacrifice or are no longer able to do now that you’re working?
Just a regular conversation no? I think you should just do it like I would a stranger.
I like the second one!!! This is super helpful!! Thank you!
If they are alumni, I always ask them how they liked the campus life here. I ask them about things they used to do for fun and things they miss, then I build off of that and relate to it.
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