Questions to ask a senior or alumnus, and how to ask
A senior from your own college has already made the jump you are about to make. Which questions get a useful answer, which get a polite one, and how to ask without wasting their time.
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Most students get a chance to speak to a senior at some point: at a college event, through a friend, or in a short message online. Most of those conversations are wasted, and not because the senior was unhelpful. The questions were too big to answer, such as 'How do I get a good job?', or too small to matter, such as 'Which company are you in?'.
A senior can tell you what happened to one person, honestly. That is valuable, but only if you ask for it in a form they can give. This guide is a list of questions that tend to get real answers, and a few habits that make the conversation better for both of you.
What you should come away with
- Ask about what the person did and saw, not about what you should do
- Questions that begin with 'what was' and 'how did' get stories; 'should I' questions get opinions
- Do a little homework first, so you do not spend their time on something a search would answer
- One person's path is one example, not a rule, so ask a few seniors
- Say thank you afterwards and tell them what you did with their advice
- Never ask for a job, a referral or a favour in the first conversation
Start with what a senior can actually tell you. They can tell you what their first year at work was really like, how they found their first job, what they wish they had done in their final year, and what college did and did not prepare them for. They cannot tell you what is right for you, because they do not know your situation, and they cannot speak for the whole industry, because they have seen only their own corner of it. Ask for their experience and you will get something true. Ask for a verdict on your life and you will get a guess.
Do a little homework first. Read their profile if they have one, or ask the organiser what they do. If a question can be answered by a search, such as what a company makes or what a degree is called, do not spend their time on it. Ten minutes of preparation shows that you respect their time, and people who feel respected give better answers.
Now the questions themselves. Here are six groups that usually work.
About the first job. What was your first month actually like? What did you do on a normal day in the first three months? What surprised you? What did you not know that you were expected to know? Who helped you most, and how did you find them? These get you a picture of the work as it is, not as it is described in a job posting.
About finding it. How did you find your first job: campus, a job portal, a referral, an internship that became a job? How long did it take? What did you try that did not work? How many rounds were there, and which one was the hardest? Which part of your preparation helped, and which part was a waste of time? These tell you how the process looked to one person, including the parts that were not planned.
About college. What from college turned out to matter? What did not? If you could change one thing about how you spent your last year, what would it be? Which subject, project or activity do you now wish you had taken more seriously? Seniors are often very specific here, and what they say can change how you spend your remaining semesters.
About skills. What do you use every day that you did not learn in a classroom? How did you learn it? If you were a student now, what would you practise first? A good answer names a skill and a way to practise it, which you can start this week.
About choices. Did you consider anything other than the path you took? What would have happened if you had not got that job? Have you changed direction since? Many students think everybody else followed a plan. Hearing that many people changed their minds at least once is useful in itself.
About the hard parts. What was the worst month of your first year? What would you do differently? Did you ever think you had chosen wrongly? How did you deal with it? Seniors will often be more honest here than they expect to be, if you ask kindly and listen without judging.
A few habits help. Ask one question at a time and let them finish. Ask a follow-up based on what they said, such as 'What made that month the hardest?', instead of moving straight to your next prepared question. Take notes, and say so. If you are in a group, ask the question you really want answered, not the safest one. If you are too nervous to say it aloud, write it on a slip or send it to the organiser beforehand, which many sessions allow.
Be careful about two things. First, do not ask a senior about their salary or personal circumstances. If they want to share, they will, and the answer for one person tells you little about what you should expect. If you want to understand pay, read the offer letter and job description for the role you are targeting. Second, do not ask for a job or a referral in the first conversation. A senior who is asked for a favour by a stranger feels used, even if they are too polite to say so. Ask for understanding first. If a relationship develops, a request may follow later and will be welcome.
Ask more than one person. A single senior's path is a single example. Two or three seniors from different years, branches and kinds of work will disagree with each other, and the disagreement is where most of the learning is. If three people say the same thing, treat it as a pattern. If they differ, the difference tells you that the right answer depends on the person, and that you need to think about yourself.
After the conversation, send a short thank you within a day or two, through the organiser or the channel you used. Say what you found useful and, later, what you did with it. Something as simple as 'I rewrote my project description the way you suggested and I am using it now' is more valuable to a senior than any compliment. It tells them their time made a difference, and it is the reason they will answer the next student's question too.