Struggling to move past surface-level chatter in networking calls. Last week I asked a VP about ‘typical days’ and got the usual corporate spiel about teamwork and deliverables. How do you all craft questions that cut through the BS to reveal what they actually do from 6am to midnight? Specifically in high-stakes roles like restructuring or M&A - what phrasing has made veterans unexpectedly open up about their real workflow and pain points? Bonus points if you’ve turned these insights into interview prep tactics.
pro tip: ask them what they’d eliminate from their schedule if HR wasn’t watching. Last guy admitted he spends 3hrs daily fixing juniors’ formatting errors. That’s your golden ticket to ask follow-ups about team structure inefficiencies. works better than any ‘what keeps you up at night’ corporate fluff.
omg ty for posting this! im always freezing up. gonna try asking about their last fire drill moment? like ‘what blew up ur calendar unexpectedly yesterday’ maybe? idk if that works pls advise!
Focus on specificity. Instead of ‘What’s your day like?’, try ‘Walk me through your last Tuesday - which meeting proved most valuable and why?’ This anchors to concrete examples. Follow up with ‘How would that day differ if a major deal was collapsing?’ Reveals crisis management realities.
Love this energy! Try adding ‘What part of your week feels like flying?’ Turns focus to positives while revealing priorities. You’ve got this!
Once asked a MD about his worst desk lunch experience during crunch time - dude ranted for 20 mins about cold ramen and Excel crashes. Eventually admitted he personally vets all analyst hires after that fiasco. Sometimes the weird questions open the vault.
Analysis of 127 coffee chats shows asking about ‘percentage breakdown between client mgmt vs internal firefighting’ yields 63% more detailed responses than open-ended queries. Follow with ‘What 20% of tasks consume 80% of your political capital?’ to identify pain points.