Things to not bring up or ask during a cold networking call.

Hey all,

So I’ve been busy networking with alumni for recruiting and was wondering if anyone on the other side could give me insights into when you thought a kid was too pushy or asked inappropriate topics during a call. My school has told me it’s always good to bring up if they can refer you to someone else, or ask about internship opps, but I always feel like it comes off so forced and out of the blue.

Any tips on sounding genuine, not too pushy, or presenting yourself as a good candidate?

10 Comments
 

Speak to them like they are a person and find a good mix between work and personal questions. One question I always asked was “knowing the nature of the industry and how demanding and stressful it is how do you find you best unwind in the evenings and weekends” always them to tell you more about themselves and hopefully you have some common interest you can chat about.

 

I kinda disagree with this. As someone who has sat on both sides of the table enough now I can tell you that questions like these always make me roll my eyes a little. Frankly who cares how I destress, its not like you're suddenly gonna become me and start de-stressing in the same way. And even more important it just always strikes me as a waste of time as far as networking calls go. I mean you can get advice on how to destress from a million and one different sources most of which are more qualified than me. If you have 30 mins with someone doing a job that you hope to do I think you should spend your time asking me about the day to day of the job, how to be good at it, what the recruiting process is like, talking a bit of shop (eg bring up the WSJ headline you read which I will humor because how else would you get industry info as a college kid), etc.

And I promise you if you have basic social sense you will be able to tell when we are really vibing and can toss in a personal comment / question. But those situations are usually pretty specific and there isn't cookie cutter questions / responses that fit or will get you there, you just have to feel it out. And questions like "how do you destress" definitely don't get me wanting to talk about my personal life (I will just lie to you like everyone else). Tbh this could just be a me thing and maybe other ppl like this stuff but my guess is not really.

 

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