20 Networking Questions

Welcome to Your Worthy Career, a podcast with me, Melissa Lawrence. I’m a career and life coach with all the corporate credit and talent development and organizational psychology. I help women like you get extraordinary results by being more you, not less. I won’t just help you have a career experience worthy of you, but I will help you build your self worth to shift what you think is possible and take the action that will create the career you’ve always wanted. Whether it’s more meaningful work you’re passionate about, making more money, getting to your next level, or being more effective as a leader, we are shattering the glass ceiling here. The one that exists for women at work and the one we put on ourselves with our doubt and inner critic. Each week you will get practical teachings grounded in neuroscience and effective career development strategies. You’ll experience deep mindset shifts and the perfect amount of rule so you.

Can run your career with.

Ease rather than your career running you. You were born for more, and I’m going to help you get there with maybe a few dance parties along the way. Your up level begins now. Hello and welcome to this week’s episode. Today we have a very quick and tangible.

Quick reference episode for you.

So have a pen ready or head to the transcript to grab the networking questions that I am going to share with you today. So before we dig into these 20 questions, I do want to mention that I have an episode where I walk you through how to approach networking. I think it’s called the Fundamentals of Networking. And so it’s how to handle that inner critic or that self doubt or anxiety you have, how to approach networking as someone who maybe thinks that they’re not comfortable with small talk or is introverted. All of the things like this can be found in that episode, including how to approach networking so that you can tap into the hidden job market when your job search comes, all of the things. So we will link that episode up in the show notes. But today is all about a quick reference, something like you’re heading to a networking event and you’re not feeling prepared, your mind is going blank and you may be need to pull up something really quick to strike up a conversation. Maybe you don’t know what to say other than, what’s your name and what do you do? And so with conferences and networking events on the rise, this can be your go to question bank to ease the nerves and have conversations that are fun and meaningful. So you’re definitely going to want to bookmark this.

Now, the point of networking is to build relationships. And so these questions are geared to help you do just that.

Are you ready?

All right. So the first question is, what interested you in attending this? So that could be around the location it’s at. It could be around who is hosting it, if it’s part of a specific association. But whenever anyone attends a networking event, yourself included, there’s a reason. There’s a goal for you attending. And so what got them out the door or got them onto that Zoom call for that networking event. Number two, how did you get involved with your company or what made you want to be in the pharma biotech industry? Number three, how would someone get their foot in the door in your line of work? Or you could ask, how could someone get their foot in the door at your specific company? What do you wish someone would have told you earlier in your career? I love that question. If you’ve been listening for a while, then you know whenever I have guests on the podcast, I always ask that question. Number five, what types of fun things are there to do in this area? Number six, what are you working on right now? Number seven, what is the best career advice that you’ve received?

Number eight, what are your thoughts on fill in the blank? It can be something that’s happening in current events. It can be something that is in the news. It could be something that is happening in your industry, a trend that you’re seeing, a recent announcement that’s happened, anything like that. Number nine, I’d love to get your advice or input on fill in the blanks. You can fill something in there that you would like to get their advice or input on. Number 10, did you always know you’d end up in the role that you have now? Number 11, is there anyone else here that you think I should know? Number 12, what is your favorite part of your job? Number 13, do you travel for work much? Number 14, I just finished reading or I’m reading, fill in the blank. Do you have any books that you’d suggest? You could also use this for podcast and say that you’re really listening to the You’re Worthy Career podcast and you’re really loving it and this is what it’s about. And are there any other podcasts that they’d recommend for you? Number 15, do you have any passion projects or interests?

Number 16, what has changed most about your company or the industry since you started? Number 17, how do you think recent events, recent trend will affect things in the future or affect things this year? Number 18, how can we keep in touch? Would you be open to a virtual coffee sometime? Number 19, what superpower would you like to have? Number 20, what is one place that I should put on my vacation list? Or you could flip that around and say, What is one place I should avoid and never go to on vacation? So there you have it. You have 20 questions that you can ask that are more than what is your name and what do you do that have some personal but are still very appropriate, and then also have some more meaningful questions that are going to help you break the ice at your next networking event. So save this episode, come back to it as often as you need to get your creativity going and to help you have fun and meaningful conversations so you can build relationships while networking. Have an amazing week.

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