Career Prep 2009 Summer Blog

As Leo Gomez from Stanford points out, "people love to talk about themselves". So it is a good idea to ask about where they are from, what school they went to, favorite sports team, anything to try and find common ground and establish a connection. And Eric Velez all the way across the country at Cornell, says as an example- "if the person is from New York I might talk about the Yankees". The idea is to ask the person about themselves- and that could lead to discovering common ground. Even if that doesn't happen, as people start to tell you about their background and experiences you are likely to find information in there that you want to talk further about and that could lead to a more in depth conversation. One word of caution though- be careful about expressing very strong likes or dislikes when talking of commonalities! This is a professional setting and conversation- and you are not talking to a buddy!!