I have always been interested in the way people connect (or don't connect) with other people...particularly in the first few minutes. Recently I jumped into an our elevator leaving the office on a Friday afternoon and one of our interns jumped in as well. Just he and I all the way down from our 19th floor office to the lobby. I said, "hey, how you doing?" He said, "awesome...I am so pumped it is Friday." I asked, "why?" He said, "just ready for chill this weekend." Oops I thought to myself. Not a great thing to say as an intern at a place you are trying to get a job.
Better might have been to say he was doing great, maybe reference something positive he knows that happened in our world at the agency that week and indicate his eagerness to get to work on some things for the following week. And maybe some specific questions about my clients would have shown me that he is "in our world."
People want to be around positive, engaging people who might make you laugh, have the guts to ask questions and the guts to demonstrate that they are aware of your world. And, most certainly, people want to hire people who are eager to work hard, embrace each and every opportunity and moment and are smart enough to know their "elevator speech." What is your elevator speech?
Hey Molly! I always have smile and 10-20 "motivating" quotes ready, haha. I do it half because I dig on them and they inspire me, and half for marketing purposes. I get them mostly from this site: http://www.motivatingquotes.com/. Good to hear from you that I'm on the right track!
ReplyDeleteSports, movies, current events are also great in the elevator for small talk. But I think I've been most successful with intuition. Pay attenmtions to the person in the elevator with you, do they have lifting calluses? A sore throwing arm they keep shrugging. Did you catch a glance of a popular song on their iPod. People like people who are interested in the same things as them, is what I'm learning.
Did you get my message yet about advice? I can't seem to get the email address you gave me to send any emails through.
Jason Baumhover
M.S.U.
baumhove@msu.edu