Need help for callback Forum

[Anonymous User]

I received a callback invitation from a midsize firm this morning, and I'm terribly in need of tips on a few things, and please help me.
1. Honestly, as a late immigrant from Asia, I'm not good at being conversational due to my limited vocabulary, so can somebody give me a few examples of how to open and end a conversation professionally?
2. If I'm introduced to a supporting staff, what else can I say besides "it's very nice to meet you"?
3. For the lunch, what kind of food am I supposed to order and usually what kind of topics should I bring up?

I understand some, if not all, of these questions may be self-evident for you native speakers, but I've not been exposed enough to the daily settings with Americans, so please understand if these questions appear to be trivial.
Thanks in advance for your help.

[BrainsyK]

I received a callback invitation from a midsize firm this morning, and I'm terribly in need of tips on a few things, and please help me.
1. Honestly, as a late immigrant from Asia, I'm not good at being conversational due to my limited vocabulary, so can somebody give me a few examples of how to open and end a conversation professionally?
2. If I'm introduced to a supporting staff, what else can I say besides "it's very nice to meet you"?
3. For the lunch, what kind of food am I supposed to order and usually what kind of topics should I bring up?

I understand some, if not all, of these questions may be self-evident for you native speakers, but I've not been exposed enough to the daily settings with Americans, so please understand if these questions appear to be trivial.
Thanks in advance for your help.

1. I always like to smile, shake someone's hand, and say "Thank you for your time. You've been immensely helpful."
2. Say "It's nice to meet you." They'll typically ask you how you are. I usually go with something along the lines "I'm great now that I'm here." It shows that you're excited to be there.
3. Let associates order first. Order something less expensive or equivalent. No alcohol. No items that are messy to eat (crab). If you can't think of anything, go with steak. It's very easy to eat in a civilized way and doesn't drip a lot. Fork in the left hand; knife on the left. Bring the food to your mouth. Don't lean down to reach it. Don't lift the bowl if there's a bowl involved (You probably know this, but just making sure. In the non-Western world, it's just totally okay to lift the bowl to get to food at the bottom. I do it at home all the time, but apparently, it's taboo in professional settings). Ask "Why this firm?" "Why your practice area?" Research the people if you can and bring up things by saying "I saw that on your web profile that you. . ."

There's going to a lot of moments of small talk that you can't really fix due to your conversational ability, but that's just reality of life. Most importantly, SMILE. It shouldn't be hard. Just imagine that you basically already got the job if you can display a decent personality, which you can, by smiling.

[uncle_rico]

I received a callback invitation from a midsize firm this morning, and I'm terribly in need of tips on a few things, and please help me.
1. Honestly, as a late immigrant from Asia, I'm not good at being conversational due to my limited vocabulary, so can somebody give me a few examples of how to open and end a conversation professionally?
2. If I'm introduced to a supporting staff, what else can I say besides "it's very nice to meet you"?
3. For the lunch, what kind of food am I supposed to order and usually what kind of topics should I bring up?

I understand some, if not all, of these questions may be self-evident for you native speakers, but I've not been exposed enough to the daily settings with Americans, so please understand if these questions appear to be trivial.
Thanks in advance for your help.

1. I always like to smile, shake someone's hand, and say "Thank you for your time. You've been immensely helpful."
2. Say "It's nice to meet you." They'll typically ask you how you are. I usually go with something along the lines "I'm great now that I'm here." It shows that you're excited to be there.
3. Let associates order first. Order something less expensive or equivalent. No alcohol. No items that are messy to eat (crab). If you can't think of anything, go with steak. It's very easy to eat in a civilized way and doesn't drip a lot. Fork in the left hand; knife on the left. Bring the food to your mouth. Don't lean down to reach it. Don't lift the bowl if there's a bowl involved (You probably know this, but just making sure. In the non-Western world, it's just totally okay to lift the bowl to get to food at the bottom. I do it at home all the time, but apparently, it's taboo in professional settings). Ask "Why this firm?" "Why your practice area?" Research the people if you can and bring up things by saying "I saw that on your web profile that you. . ."

There's going to a lot of moments of small talk that you can't really fix due to your conversational ability, but that's just reality of life. Most importantly, SMILE. It shouldn't be hard. Just imagine that you basically already got the job if you can display a decent personality, which you can, by smiling.

I’d certainly be impressed to see someone eat like this

[BrainsyK]

I’d certainly be impressed to see someone eat like this

Oops, lol, yeah. Knife in right.

[Anonymous User]

I received a callback invitation from a midsize firm this morning, and I'm terribly in need of tips on a few things, and please help me.
1. Honestly, as a late immigrant from Asia, I'm not good at being conversational due to my limited vocabulary, so can somebody give me a few examples of how to open and end a conversation professionally?
2. If I'm introduced to a supporting staff, what else can I say besides "it's very nice to meet you"?
3. For the lunch, what kind of food am I supposed to order and usually what kind of topics should I bring up?

I understand some, if not all, of these questions may be self-evident for you native speakers, but I've not been exposed enough to the daily settings with Americans, so please understand if these questions appear to be trivial.
Thanks in advance for your help.

1. I always like to smile, shake someone's hand, and say "Thank you for your time. You've been immensely helpful."
2. Say "It's nice to meet you." They'll typically ask you how you are. I usually go with something along the lines "I'm great now that I'm here." It shows that you're excited to be there.
3. Let associates order first. Order something less expensive or equivalent. No alcohol. No items that are messy to eat (crab). If you can't think of anything, go with steak. It's very easy to eat in a civilized way and doesn't drip a lot. Fork in the left hand; knife on the left. Bring the food to your mouth. Don't lean down to reach it. Don't lift the bowl if there's a bowl involved (You probably know this, but just making sure. In the non-Western world, it's just totally okay to lift the bowl to get to food at the bottom. I do it at home all the time, but apparently, it's taboo in professional settings). Ask "Why this firm?" "Why your practice area?" Research the people if you can and bring up things by saying "I saw that on your web profile that you. . ."

There's going to a lot of moments of small talk that you can't really fix due to your conversational ability, but that's just reality of life. Most importantly, SMILE. It shouldn't be hard. Just imagine that you basically already got the job if you can display a decent personality, which you can, by smiling.

Thank you so much for this detailed explanation. Frankly I did not know the taboo of lifting the bowl before. Is it ok to order fish instead of steak? I rarely eat steak so I'm afraid I may still appear clumsy when cutting it.
Also, can you give me a couple of opening lines for a conversation?
And when you say moments of small talk, what do you mean? Any quick examples?
Thanks.

[BrainsyK]

Thank you so much for this detailed explanation. Frankly I did not know the taboo of lifting the bowl before. Is it ok to order fish instead of steak? I rarely eat steak so I'm afraid I may still appear clumsy when cutting it. Also, can you give me a couple of opening lines for a conversation? And when you say moments of small talk, what do you mean? Any quick examples? Thanks.

As far as the food goes, most things that don't require hands to eat will be okay. Fish is probably fine too. You'll rarely have to open a conversation since interviewers will have a question at the ready. The first question will very rarely catch you offguard. The only hard ones may be "Tell me about yourself." or "What can I tell you about X firm?" if your interviewer is little tired.

Moments of small talk, I don't know there's that much. It happened more to me because I was interviewing out of town so there was a lot of talk about the local weather and things like that. One thing I can imagine that's tough to follow up on is if you ask them how they are, and they give substantive response that leads into discussion about their family "I went out of town for my cousin's wedding so I'm just settling back in." or sports, in which case, it's really context dependent as to how you make a smooth transition back "on track" in an interview level conversation at that point. Hard for me to comment.

[uncle_rico]

I received a callback invitation from a midsize firm this morning, and I'm terribly in need of tips on a few things, and please help me.
1. Honestly, as a late immigrant from Asia, I'm not good at being conversational due to my limited vocabulary, so can somebody give me a few examples of how to open and end a conversation professionally?
2. If I'm introduced to a supporting staff, what else can I say besides "it's very nice to meet you"?
3. For the lunch, what kind of food am I supposed to order and usually what kind of topics should I bring up?

I understand some, if not all, of these questions may be self-evident for you native speakers, but I've not been exposed enough to the daily settings with Americans, so please understand if these questions appear to be trivial.
Thanks in advance for your help.

1. I always like to smile, shake someone's hand, and say "Thank you for your time. You've been immensely helpful."
2. Say "It's nice to meet you." They'll typically ask you how you are. I usually go with something along the lines "I'm great now that I'm here." It shows that you're excited to be there.
3. Let associates order first. Order something less expensive or equivalent. No alcohol. No items that are messy to eat (crab). If you can't think of anything, go with steak. It's very easy to eat in a civilized way and doesn't drip a lot. Fork in the left hand; knife on the left. Bring the food to your mouth. Don't lean down to reach it. Don't lift the bowl if there's a bowl involved (You probably know this, but just making sure. In the non-Western world, it's just totally okay to lift the bowl to get to food at the bottom. I do it at home all the time, but apparently, it's taboo in professional settings). Ask "Why this firm?" "Why your practice area?" Research the people if you can and bring up things by saying "I saw that on your web profile that you. . ."

There's going to a lot of moments of small talk that you can't really fix due to your conversational ability, but that's just reality of life. Most importantly, SMILE. It shouldn't be hard. Just imagine that you basically already got the job if you can display a decent personality, which you can, by smiling.

Thank you so much for this detailed explanation. Frankly I did not know the taboo of lifting the bowl before. Is it ok to order fish instead of steak? I rarely eat steak so I'm afraid I may still appear clumsy when cutting it.
Also, can you give me a couple of opening lines for a conversation?
And when you say moments of small talk, what do you mean? Any quick examples?
Thanks.

Maybe the cultural barrier is stronger than it appears to me, but just talk about things that you talk to other law students or anyone about. They just want to see that you’re a normal person and that they won’t hate having to work with you at 2am when they don’t want to be in the office in the first place. Ask them about their transition from school to practicing, what they like to do in their spare time, ask about experiences that stood out to them, etc.