Is it rude to interrupt during a networking call if the other person is always talking?
Two days ago, I (sophomore in college) was on a networking phone call with a VP at a BB to learn more about about his coverage group. Unfortunately, the guy I was talked to kept talking and it was hard to find a lull in the convo for me to ask questions. A couple times during the call, he would say something that I had a follow up question about and I would have to interrupt in order to ask the question before it became stale. I've never been the best at jumping into convos to begin with, especially over the phone and I apologized whenever I jumped in.
I walked away from the call feeling like I made a massive faux pas. How looked down upon is interrupting someone during a call in finance?
EDIT: Okay I realized now that I screwed up massively. How disadvantaged am I in terms of recruiting? For context we did have a fruitful discussion about banking and he ended up making the call 1.5 hours long instead of usual 30-40 minutes. I also think jumped in only a few times but I'm afraid I made a bad impression for recruiting. Am I just tweaking?
As a soph also doing networking calls, if a guy just kept rambling I’d count that as a win and let him run
I understand that but I kinda what to learn about the job before I recruit. I also wasn't asking basic questions either.
Do not do this.
Do not ask questions?
Do not interrupt someone during a networking call, particularly when you are a *sophomore* and they are a VP. If you don't like that they are rambling or don't find them to be helpful, then don't go to that firm. I am a little shocked this needs to be laid out, but this is very simple etiquette.
And yes, sometimes you shouldn't ask questions. You should just be listening. This sounds like one of those times.
I have previously just let people ramble on during phone convos with the occasional "right" and "uh-huh" to let them know I was listening. This ended when someone complained at end the call that they didn't feel I was engaged or curious about the job enough due to my lack of questions until the end.... I guess you can't win sometimes.
Damned if you do, damned if you don't lol.
If there is a natural pause or break in the conversation, that is when you ask a question. If they are mid sentence or in a strong flow, obviously do not interrupt. It sounds like in one situation you had natural breaks and said nothing (which will always come across like you aren't engaged) and in another case, interrupted where it didn't make sense. If you have an extremely specific question related to something that was just said, you can potentially then interject into the conversation with with (I caution to even suggest this for someone with low EQ) say "vp, would you mind elaborating on why xyz? I find that to be extremely interesting." or something like that while showing a lot of interest, but it should only be done on a case by case basis.
I see your point... I try to jump in when they say "umm...." or such in a convo but I'll err more on the side of not asking questions in the future.
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