Questions to Ask During Networking Call
Questions for a scheduled one-to-one networking or informational call, for anyone who has 25 minutes with someone a step or two ahead of them and wants to leave with real information and a reason to talk again.
The questions
Open any question for the note
How much time do you have today, so I can keep us on track?
Why ask it
Asking up front stops the call from ending mid-sentence and signals you will not overrun. If they say twenty minutes, cut your list to four or five questions rather than racing through ten.
How did you end up in the role you have now?
Why ask it
People answer this fluently, which settles the call down. Listen for the sideways moves and the lucky breaks: those are the parts nobody puts on a profile, and they tell you how much of the path was actually plannable.
What are you spending most of your week on at the moment?
Why ask it
This gets you the real job rather than the job title. If the answer is mostly meetings and coordination when you assumed hands-on work, you have learned something about where the role goes as people get senior.
What surprised you about the work once you were actually doing it?
Why ask it
The gap between the outside view and the inside view is the most useful thing a call like this can give you. Vague answers here usually mean the person is being careful, so let the silence sit before moving on.
What does a good week look like for you, and what does a bad one look like?
Why ask it
Two concrete weeks beat any general description of culture. The bad week tells you what the recurring pain is: firefighting, approvals, unclear ownership, or simply volume.
Which part of your job would you hand off tomorrow, and which part would you refuse to give up?
Why ask it
The keep half shows you what actually motivates them, which is the part worth copying. The hand-off half often names a task you could help with or learn to do, which turns a chat into something practical.
What did the last few people who joined your team come from?
Why ask it
Hiring history is far more honest than a job description about which backgrounds get taken seriously. If everyone came from one narrow pipeline, you know how much of a case you would need to build.
What are you and your team hiring for right now that a job posting would not capture well?
Why ask it
Postings list requirements; managers hire for gaps. The answer usually names a specific weak spot on the team, and that is the thing to speak to if you ever apply.
How do you keep up with your field, and what do you actually read rather than what you mean to read?
Why ask it
The second half of the question is what makes it work. Everyone can name three worthy publications, but the honest answer is usually one newsletter, one group chat, and a couple of people they follow.
What is a problem your team keeps running into that nobody has solved yet?
Why ask it
This moves the call from your career to their work, which is where goodwill comes from. If you can send something useful about that problem afterwards, your follow-up email writes itself.
When you were at roughly my stage, what would have been useful to know?
Why ask it
Framing it as their past rather than your future gets a concrete answer instead of encouragement. Watch for advice that only made sense in their era, and ask whether it still holds.
How did you weigh your options the last time you had a real choice between two directions?
Why ask it
You learn their decision criteria, not just their decision, and criteria travel to your situation. Answers about money, autonomy, or a specific person tell you what they optimise for.
What do people in my position usually get wrong when they reach out to someone like you?
Why ask it
You get a candid list of what irritates busy people, and you get it before you make the mistake. It also flatters the format of the call itself, so people answer it generously.
Where does progress in your field stop being about technical skill and start being about something else?
Why ask it
Every field has a ceiling where craft alone stalls out. The answer names what replaces it, whether that is judgement, writing, politics, or client relationships, and gives you something to build early.
Is there a decision from your career you would make differently now?
Why ask it
Regret is more specific than advice. Notice whether the regret is about a job, a person, or a delay: most people regret waiting far more than they regret a bad move.
Has your view of the work changed since you started, and how?
Why ask it
Long-tenured people either found the thing that keeps renewing their interest or quietly gave up on it, and this question separates the two. It also opens up honest talk about burnout without naming it.
Who else should I be talking to, and would you be comfortable introducing us?
Why ask it
Naming a person is a much smaller favour than finding you a job, so this is the highest-yield ask on the call. Asking for permission to be introduced, rather than just the name, gets you a warm email instead of a cold one.
Is there anything I can help with: an introduction, a set of notes, a second read on something?
Why ask it
Offering three specific things works where a general offer does not, because it is easy to pick one. Even a no makes the relationship feel less one-directional.
What would be a reasonable thing for me to come back to you with in a few months?
Why ask it
This turns a single call into a thread. Their answer sets the bar for what counts as progress in their eyes, which is useful information about the field on its own.
Is it all right if I email you when something specific comes up?
Why ask it
Asking permission for a narrow use of their time is easy to grant, and the word specific reassures them you will not send updates for the sake of it. A hesitant yes is a real answer: keep the contact warm but light.
Running a 25-minute networking call
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before you dial
Read enough to skip the obvious
Fifteen minutes on their profile, their team's recent work, and anything they have written is enough. The point is not to flatter them with research, it is to avoid spending your limited time on facts you could have looked up.
Pick four questions, not twelve
A 25-minute call fits about four real questions plus follow-ups. Choose them by what you cannot get anywhere else: their week, their team's hiring, their unsolved problems, and the names of other people worth meeting.
Decide your one ask before you start
Know the single concrete thing you want, usually an introduction or a view on a decision you are weighing. Calls that end without an ask tend not to lead anywhere, and calls with four asks feel like a shakedown.
Say why you asked for the call in one sentence
Something like: I am moving from analytics into product and you did that four years ago. Context makes their answers sharper because they know what to select for.
A workable shape for the call
The 25-minute version
- 1Minutes 0 to 2: thank them, confirm how long they have, say in one sentence why you wanted to talk.
- 2Minutes 2 to 6: their path and their current week, so they are talking about familiar ground.
- 3Minutes 6 to 16: the two or three questions you actually care about, with follow-ups rather than a rush to the next item.
- 4Minutes 16 to 21: your ask, and the names of anyone else worth talking to.
- 5Minutes 21 to 25: offer something back, agree what a follow-up looks like, and end early rather than late.
What makes these calls go badly
Asking for a job in the first ten minutes
Almost nobody can hand you a job, and asking makes the rest of the call defensive. Ask instead who is hiring, what they hire for, and who else you should meet.
Questions that are really statements
Long preambles about your own experience eat the clock and give them nothing to answer. Get to the question mark inside twenty seconds.
Asking what is on their public profile
Where did you study, how long have you been there, what does your company do: all of this is looked up in a minute and spends time you cannot get back.
No follow-up, or a follow-up with no content
Send a short note the same day naming one thing you took from the conversation and doing one thing you said you would. A thank-you with nothing in it is forgettable, which is worse than late.
Reading what you hear
- Someone who cannot describe a bad week is either new or not being straight with you.
- A long pause before answering about culture usually means the honest answer is complicated, so wait rather than filling the gap.
- If every example they give is more than three years old, their picture of the field may be out of date.
- Offers of help that come with a specific next step are real. Let's definitely stay in touch, with no step attached, usually is not.
- If they redirect you to someone more junior, that is often a favour rather than a brush-off: the person one step ahead of you knows the current version of the path.