I met some new people last night, most of whom were new to each other as well. We were all college-educated and in our 20s for the most part. Given our demographic homogeneity, there’s a fairly standard list of questions that we went through to get to know each other.
I’ve heard the list varies between continents, but in N. America the standard questions are pretty much the same, and they can be separated into two broad categories:
Personal and family background
- Where are you from? – Where were you born, where did you grow up, where do you choose to claim you’re “from”.
- Who is in your family?
- Where is your family?
Education and vocation
- What do you do? – It’s no secret that in the land of hard work and dreams we’re defined by our occupation, or even more specifically, our vocation.
- Where did you do your undergrad?
- What did you study?
Aside from questions, there’s a standard list of topics that were discussed as well:
- Movies and television
- Professional (and college) sports
- Career designs and aspirations
