|
Maybe you’re in person for your job or internship and you have to make morning small talk with your supervisor. Even if you’re virtual, there’s a big chance you will need to make small talk in meetings. So, what’s appropriate to discuss?
Here are some topics that you can use:
- Appropriate, day-time plans you’re excited for
- Have a weekend hiking trip with family planned? Mention it to your boss if he or she asks about what you’re looking forward to this week.
- World news. Did you see something crazy interesting in the newspapers? Bring it up as a topic of discussion with your boss if you’re in a situation that warrants it.
- Usually, work-appropriate topics (such as developments in accounting, finance, new marketing tactics, etc. work best).
- Your progress on your projects
- Mention how close you are to finishing up your work on something! Especially if your boss is your direct supervisor, it’s important to keep him or her updated on your progress and success.
- Anything new (that you have been working on or want to jump on)
- Discuss a cool project you heard about and maybe did a little bit of work on or a project that you want to join.
- Bring it back to Bentley
- Employers love to hear about your undergrad experience (appropriate undergrad experiences, only!). Anytime that you can, bring the conversation back to something cool you did with a team on Bentley, whether it was for a class or extracurricular.
- The weather
- This is mostly a joke, but saying that it’s very nice outside has been a go-to for decades!
These are all great things to discuss with your boss if you need to kill some time and also build up a bond. Now, if you want to learn about 11 things that your boss wishes employees would discuss more freely, read this blog.
