This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 54.
No idea how to network in English? Three phrases to help you.
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Hey, Aubrey, I have a question for you. Let's hear it.
All right. So do you like to go to networking events or professional, yeah, networking events where you can meet people?
Do you like that kind of thing? I do. I love it.
When I was teaching in the Bronx, I was able to go to a few different ones and they were all so interesting.
I did one for the International Baccalaureate Program to teach IB French.
And it was in Houston at Rice University.
And all of the classes were so interesting.
But beyond that, I was able to meet so many teachers in my field and just have such great, interesting conversations, network a lot.
And yeah, they're very valuable experiences.
Would you say that from that experience itself, was it more the classes or the actual networking connections that helped you more in your career?
Definitely the networking, right? I mean, yes, I love the classes.
I learned so much, but I could have learned that information online.
Whereas that networking to have to be in person with people and make those connections that you can't find just anywhere.
Oh, totally. I feel more and more as I go deeper in my career, I find that that's the case, right?
So just going to the podcasting conference in August, I made some really potentially, hopefully, which will end up being very, very important connections for All Ears English, just the human beings that I met and ended up making friends with people, going out for dinner and just having a blast.
And all the sessions, yes, I went to the sessions.
It was very intense with my notebook, writing everything down, right?
But I could have learned that online. I could have bought the lectures.
Now most conferences do that. You can download the lectures later online.
So it's really all about these conversations.
So the first step is not being afraid to have that conversation.
Yeah, go planning to have those conversations, right?
I know a lot of people attend these as networking events.
They're going planning to make those connections.
And when you do that, you're in such a more confident mind frame knowing you're going to put yourself out there.
You're going to start some conversations and just being excited about it.
Yeah, exactly. So don't be afraid. Don't be afraid to, you know, everyone is there to meet you, like meet people.
And everyone's probably feeling a little awkward.
So, you know, go and strike up those conversations.
Today, we're going to give you the language to do it.
Right, Aubrey? It's going to be good. Exactly.
Yeah. Anyone that you approach is excited that you're the one.
Yeah, that's great. Yeah, that's kind of a cool thing about conferences in particular.
You see people are just eager to meet each other.
They're excited. You walk into a room and let's say that session, that moment in that room is designed for just pure networking.
People are excited. They're talking to each other.
They're laughing. It's just it's kind of a cool environment.
Exactly. Right. Often in like the session, they're going to set you up for that.
They'll be like, OK, now we're doing this breakout session.
We want you to meet people. Maybe they'll say you have to talk to five different people or something like that, which gives you an excuse to make those connections, go and start those conversations.
It's so true. So when you do, and again, the first part of this episode is getting you guys to do it.
Start the conversation. Now let's go into the language that you need.
Now, I think these phrases are kind of second step questions.
Yes. Right. We're talking about what do you say after that initial step?
Hi, how are you? You know, tell them your name, just like that very first meeting someone, then we want to tell you, what do you go?
Where do you go from there? What can you say to get to know them a little deeper to build that connection to where you're going to be able to continue the relationship after this conference?
Exactly. Because you wouldn't go in right away with these, you got to get the name, you got to get the what do they do?
Where are they? Where are they from? Where they travel from to this event, that kind of thing.
Okay, so what's the first one, Aubrey? Yeah, so the first one, when you're ready to dive a little deeper, you can say, what are you working on right now?
So this is assuming you've asked where they work, you're talking a little bit about their business, and you're asking them about a specific project that they're working on.
This is so great because it's asking them about something they're really interested and involved with at that time.
Yeah, and I love this question because it doesn't necessarily mean, what do you do in your job?
It could be that you've learned what they do.
Let's say they work for, they're an accountant.
They could actually answer this question by saying, I just started a podcast.
I'm so excited about it. Let me tell you about it.
It doesn't have to be in their job. And that's the cool thing about this question.
What are you working on? It also sounds modern and cool.
Yes, exactly right. It gives this open-ended response option.
You could talk about work. You can talk about a hobby.
You can talk about, you know, anything, which it's nice to not pigeonhole them.
Right. We say it's not you're not asking so specific that they only have one thing they can say.
Exactly. It's much more interesting than, you know, what do you do as an accountant?
Right, that kind of thing. Okay, so the next one you could ask, fill me in on what's going on in your career right now.
So that could be hard to say. Fill me in on what's going on in your career.
Fill me in, Aubrey, what does that even mean?
Yeah, this is a phrasal verb, right, to fill in, but we use it this way idiomatically to say, it's almost like catch me up on.
That's another one, right, where we're saying, let me know the details about what's going on in your career.
Again, this is a little more open. They might talk about if they've transferred recently to a different job or switched from a different project or maybe something that's coming up in the future.
Yeah. And I even, I want to give our listeners an alternative to this.
We could actually say, also fill me in on what's going on in your industry right now, which may be a little less personal.
This first question, your career might feel a little intense, right?
Because you're asking for kind of details about them and their career path.
Oh, I'm going to try for a new position, right?
So that's a little personal. So maybe I would pivot to industry.
I'm interested in the AI industry. Fill me in on what's going on in AI right now.
Yeah, that's a good point that if you're going to ask someone where they are in their career, that's probably assuming you know them a little better than this situation where you're just meeting.
Or at least you've maybe talked over the course of a couple of days at a conference.
And then maybe you're getting to that point.
But yeah, I love that to say, fill me on what's going on in your industry.
And they could talk about any new innovation in their field.
Yeah, and that could actually lead to a better conversation because then you could comment on maybe you saw something about that in the news and what are the implications of this change, right?
It could lead to a great number of connections here.
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Exclusions apply. See details online. Okay, and then the last one.
What is it? Yes, it is to ask, how did you end up in your current position?
So this is interesting because they're probably going to have a chance to talk about their career path before this job.
And then, you know, kind of let you know.
Often people have a really interesting story if they've pivoted from a totally different field.
Yeah. Yeah. Right. But a lot of people will say that to you.
I just fell into it. It just, you know, for whatever reason, you ended up doing that.
So dig into that a little bit more to try to understand what they mean.
If you hear that. I feel like often if someone says I just fell into it, they have some kind of personal connection, like a friend told them about a job or put in a good word for them.
Yeah. And I think you could definitely ask about that if they say I just fell into say, oh, do you know other people in the field?
Something like that. And they can let you know about these other connections they might have.
Yeah. And I love digging into people, like asking people what their strengths are professionally, because that's really fun too.
Maybe that could be a third step that we could do in another episode, but try to dig into what they do well.
And some people never have a chance to think about that on their own.
So if you open up that space for them, that's so cool.
That is so cool. And so be prepared with the answer to these questions at these events.
Yeah. Don't be the person that there's also a mistake.
You know, we talk about the mistake of talking about yourself all the time, but there's also the mistake of being too intense in the opposite direction.
And I know a few people that do this. They're really, really good at asking questions of other people, but they don't volunteer the answer themselves.
So they end up being a one sided connection because you can't get close to someone if you don't know details about them.
Even if they're asking you good questions, there's no substance there.
Yes, exactly. And if you just deflect, if they say, what about you?
And you say like, oh, it's not that much going on interesting and ask them another question.
That's going to maybe make them shut down a little if they feel like, okay, well, you're not sharing.
I want to, this is a little awkward. So definitely be ready to share those personal details about yourself as well.
Exactly. Or they may question your motives, like be suspicious of you.
Why are you asking me these things if you're not being vulnerable and sharing anything?
So I've learned that a little bit more over the years.
It's really important to open up yourself.
If you're asking good questions, be ready to volunteer some good answers yourself too.
That's really important. It's such a fine balance, right?
You want to be doing both, asking great questions and also sharing information about you.
Have it be a really even give and take. Yeah, that is the key.
That's the key to connection right there.
We got it. Yep, exactly. Check, check, check, check, check, check.
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So hit follow right now. Right, Aubrey? Yes, exactly.
I will see you next time. All right. Take care.
Bye. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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