I went to a client meeting today, one of my firsts, and realised that I’m completely incapable of making grown up conversation. It’s not just that I can’t think of interesting stories to tell, it’s that I don’t even know how to respond sometimes when someone says something that isn’t particularly interesting to me.
After the meeting we went to dinner and I was forced to stand around for an hour + while being largely excluded from the various conversations going on around the room. I was the most junior person there and by faaaaar more junior than anyone on the client side. I just don’t know how to schmooze. I can’t just go up to the CFO or whoever and get all chummy and crack jokes etc. And I’m definitely terrible at talking to people close to retirement age.
I must appear utterly boring and opinion-less to people I don’t know very well. Can I get through life like this???? Is my career doomed????
10:15 am on June 12th, 2008
just listen to NPR all day and you can talk about politics, business, world happenings etc etc!
3:16 pm on June 12th, 2008
haha funny, i never thought about it as “grown up conversation”. so what do people close to retirement age talk about??
8:34 pm on June 12th, 2008
cars/wine/buying houses in exotic locations/having kids in college/travelling to places I can’t afford…I dunno I tuned out half the time!
6:48 am on June 16th, 2008
golf. people like to talk about golf. and rising prices, if they are industry people.
7:15 pm on June 16th, 2008
YES definitely golf!