what to get out of phone call????

I managed to book a phone call for 20 minutes tmrw with a Senior Associate at a PE firm.

He graduated from my current school (non-target in Canada).

What should be my focus during this call? What questions to ask? Etc.?

Help please! Thanks

9 Comments
 

I recently networked with an associate for a real estate PE firm. Basically, I just asked him about how he managed to get to where he was. Then I told him what I was planning to do, and asked him what he thought I should be shooting for coming out of school. Now he's trying on getting me interviews at a couple of BBs. Look at LinkedIn to see if anyone has interned at his firm too. Hope this helps a bit, good luck

 
notaspammerThen I told him what I was planning to do, and asked him what he thought I should be shooting for coming out of school.
This ^

I would also add that you should not leave that phone call without the name and number/email of at least one person to start building your networking off of this contact.

Not all people you network with will just offer up their contacts, you will have to ask politely. It helps if you sound like you have your shit together during the phone call so be direct and concise. This way he'll be more willing to put his name behind you when introducing you to his network i.e. he knows you're not just blowing smoke.

Did you fly over my helmet?
 

Don't try to make it a Q&A session, try your best to make it a conversation.

The answer to your question is 1) network 2) get involved 3) beef up your resume 4) repeat -happypantsmcgee WSO is not your personal search function.
 
blackfinancierDon't try to make it a Q&A session, try your best to make it a conversation.
Agree! Start with small talk (introducing urself, talk abt the school, football, even finals, whatsoever...) and make it a normal conversation. Networking should be fun if you know how to do it properly.
 
hungry_monkey
blackfinancierDon't try to make it a Q&A session, try your best to make it a conversation.
Agree! Start with small talk (introducing urself, talk abt the school, football, even finals, whatsoever...) and make it a normal conversation. Networking should be fun if you know how to do it properly.

don't waste a 20m phone call talking about some bullshit like the weather or football.

Did you fly over my helmet?
 

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