We all need help, even if we think we are fabulous at interviewing. Right now with all the unemployed jocking for the few positions that are open, we do need be creative.
The article by Anne Hart in All Voices does share some ideas about talking to people you meet in a more casual/informal setting. Imagine riding up an elevator with Mr. and Mrs. *Well Known Name* and you gently start up a conversation about how lovely the artwork is in the hotel. You could be their next household manager.
You will have to be a bit more creative and marry this technique into the private service industry, but it is the perfect entre into a conversation. We wish you the best of luck!!! Let us know if any of you are successful. The Feigon Hamilton Team
Read on:
How to start a conversation with strangers in transit for an interview by using Victorian etiquette strategies by Anne Hart
If you’re part of the independent media, how do you get an interview with a total stranger you meet while in transit? A great technique is to use Victorian etiquette strategies. If someone asks what you do, say that you’re retired, if the appropriate age. If younger, tell what you really do as it relates to the media and what topic you’re covering. Get to the point of what your headline or first sentence might be in your own writing project such as an article, script, or documentary production.
For example, if you write about music, state that you write about music listening as a healing tool for de-stressing and that if one listens to music played at 60 beats per minute on a metronome, one’s parasympathetic nervous system relaxes and that calming branch takes over helping to relieve stress so people can unwind after travel.
Smile a lot, if the situation calls for interested smiles and focus on your basic optimism. Your conversation could start off on the nurturing side as a healer in a light, non-threatening way.
Your goal as a member of the media or independent contractor serving the media is to start a conversation with strangers as a “light-worker” in the sense of bringing optimism into the conversation by using talk as a healing tool to inspire, motivate, or relax and make people feel calm and “at home” away from familiar surroundings.
That’s when Victorian etiquette will get proper interest with dignity and respect because you’re respecting the stranger you want to engage in polite conversation on a topic you’ll be writing about in depth. Maybe you’d like to interview wealthy strangers for an article in the local media. Or perhaps you’re looking for experts to ask pertinent questions.
Helpful reading is my two humorous adventure/travel novels on conversations that’s also a suspense novel (contemporary), How to Start Engaging Conversations on Women’s, Men’s, or Family History Studies with Wealthy Strangers. (ASJA Press 2007, ISBN 978-0-595-44407-6) or the (ancient-themed) time-travel novel set in 150 BCE in ancient Rome called Proper Parenting in Ancient Rome, (ASJA Press 2007) both novels in some ways are focused on how to start polite, engaging conversations with strangers at different times in history. Check out the books at Amazon.com or the publisher’s site.
What you can use are the books on Victorian etiquette and entertaining that are light weight and you can carry in your back pack or tote bag when you travel and sometimes a Thesaurus. When you start conversations with a thesaurus, or “The Quintessential Dictionary,” use these words to start a conversation and break the ice with total strangers. “Gee, did you know that the word quintessential means the most perfect, purest idea?”
Then you open any book you may be carrying and mention only three words, no more….”Lambent is an adjective meaning playing gracefully over a surface”…How about that…I wonder whether I can use the adverb ‘lambently’ as in I lambently play the piano? Or should I use lambency as a noun as in: ‘my acrylic paintings are lambent and gentle seascapes’?”
These ice-breakers always work well to start engaging conversations with strangers in a hotel lobby, a museum, theater, or on a train or bus. When you see a stranger, try to make polite conversation that engages and holds interest even on day trip tours for senior citizens as well as when you travel alone. (You can use similar techniques if you teach effective public speaking and writing courses online for a university and have uploaded a video on “effective public speaking techniques” uploaded to Google Video. See my video, “Effective Public Speaking Strategies.”
Try selecting Victorian etiquette snippets, as ways to start light, but engaging conversation with strangers. Usually it works great. Victorian etiquette techniques for starting a conversation with a stranger usually works better than talking about your research to someone you have just met in transit or at a convention or resort.
It’s far more attention-focusing to say: “Now, I know that word, but what does it mean?” than to ask intrusive questions or gab about your own work. Your goal in conversation is to make the other party feel calm and at home in your presence.
You’ll probably find that in your personal use when meeting strangers, that everyone you meet is interested in talking about Victorian etiquette, and might become your primary ice breaker when beginning a conversation with any new people you’ll meet in public places such as in transit or at a convention or in a recreational setting.
Victorian talk is lots of fun. It’s great to know how a little Victorian etiquette in entertaining or easy-to-understand common sense as acts of kindness could go a long way among strangers.
Should you talk to strangers in the first place? That’s your occupation if you’re into writing or broadcasting culture through media. How do you meet new people that share your hobbies, interests, or work?
You show up at places where events are happening or lectures that are connected to your fields of interest. And how do you start conversations with those you want to talk to in the environments of your choice? Try some Victorian-style etiquette. It helps to carry any type of booklet on Victorian manners, speech, and etiquette with you as a starting point–or that Thesaurus. For further information, see the Victorian Etiquette site.
Article at source: http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/6225370-how-to-start-a-conversation-with-strangers-in-transit-for-an-interview-by-using-victorian-etiquette-strategies
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