- Question here from John, about how to have a
conversation with someone a little bit more senior than him. He asks, "Can you give some examples "of what to talk about
and how to talk to people "who are much more accomplished than you? "I'm a student trying to
break into an industry, "and I'm having trouble networking. "So far I've been emailing alumni, "setting up a phone call, "and telling them a
breakdown of my resume. "Then they tell me where they've worked, "but I'm stuck as to what to do next. "I knew you were supposed
to ask them questions, "but it generally ends with me asking, "what would you do if you
were a junior back in college? "I have no idea how to
start the conversation, "and then keep it going. "Could you give me a mock
phone call or conversation "in a way that it doesn't make the student "look like he's asking for a job?" I actually love this question, because how many
worthless pieces of advice do you know that say, "Just
go out there and network. "Just network with everyone." And you're like, "What does that mean? "Who am I talking to, and
what do I actually say?" So I'm gonna give you that today, I'm gonna show you some
of the exact questions you can ask to keep the conversation going and direct it in a way that you want. Now remember, informational interviews are not about asking for a job, they are about actually
learning what's going on, deciding if this is a good fit, and if you impress them, then perhaps down the line, you will have the opportunity
to send them your resume or get introduced to the company. So keep that in mind, never go to an informational interview and ask for a job. With that said, here's
how I might approach it. I might say, "You know,
it's really interesting, "looking at your background, " I noticed that you graduated college, "you started at Goldman Sachs, "and then a few years
later you transitioned out "to work at a tech startup. "What made you start working in finance?" So, what does that question do? First of all, it shows him
that you've done your homework. That's very impressive, so already, you've elevated your
status by saying like, "Oh wow, this guy knows
what he's talking about." Good, and you've asked
a very good question, "How did you decide to go into finance "right out of college?" So the person's gonna say, "Oh, you know, "I had a lot of offers on the table, "and I decided finance because I wanted "to do blah blah blah blah." Good, and listen, don't just ask it for the sake of asking, listen. Next, you can say, "When you decided to transition to tech, "it must have been tough to leave "a lot of that money on the table, "and go to a more risky venture?" Notice that I'm not asking something, in this case, I'm mixing it up. You don't wanna feel like
you're interrogating him by asking 50 questions. In this case, I changed it by saying, "It must have been tough." Right, empathy. And of course, he's gonna say, "Oh yeah, if I'd stayed an extra year, "I would have made $500,000, "but I really felt like I needed to make "a contribution to the world, "and frankly I was tired of
doing Excel spreadsheets." And you're like, "That
is really interesting, "because I feel like I'm
in a similar situation. "I've been working and
doing Excel spreadsheets "for most of my coursework, "but I'm really looking to take
it to a more creative side. "How do you think about that decision?" Okay, what did I just do there? I asked him questions, I asked
him a question/statement, and then I said, "It's really interesting
you mentioned that," and I brought it back to me. Notice the ratio here by the way. I'm asking about two to
three questions of him, for every one thing I
mentioned about myself. That's because nobody cares about you, you're just some college student, you're not here to talk about yourself. You are here to learn and listen, so that's why when I'm doing
an informational interview, I'm always asking a lot of questions, and then only briefly
talking about myself. A good rule of thumb is in
a 30 minute conversation, 25 minutes should be about them, five should be about you, okay. So that is the way you keep
the conversation going. By the way, just so you know, I have fully fleshed out
conversational roadmaps. Everything from the email
script you use, word for word, down to what do you say when you go into a coffee shop
meeting, who buys coffee, where do you stand when
you're waiting for him, I have it all fleshed out
in my Dream Job course, so if you're interested, you can sign up at findyourdreamjob.com, to get more details about that. Thanks for the question, and good luck. (upbeat music)
