Conversation Starters: Work

If you are not a natural at making conversation, then thinking of conversation topics when first start talking to someone can make you nervous.

While it is good to find other topics (more interesting) topics of conversation to move on to having good small talk topics up your sleeve will help break the ice and help you find those more interesting topics of conversation. It will also help relieve some of the anxiety of walking into an unknown environment and meeting new people. Alternatively, if you are networking online, having some conversation starters in your back pocket can make it easier to make conversation.

Work can be a good conversation starter in the right environment. You don’t really want to stray into a boring conversation of comparing how busy everyone is etc. However, work is a good small talk topic because the vast majority of people have something to say and it is such a large part of our lives.

It can also be interesting if you keep the topic of conversation interesting and you can find out things you didn’t know. Instead of sticking to the typically boring work questions of “where do you work?” and “do you like it?” try to think of some more genuine and interesting questions to ask.

Examples might include:

• My [insert relationship here] wants to become a [job/profession]. Do you have any advice I should pass on?
• What’s your favourite aspect of your job?
• Why did you decide to work in [X field]?

Further Reading:

• Conversation Starters
• What questions should I ask when networking?
• Why is Active Listening So Important and how to be better?