With the risk of totally destroying any small talk or conversation opener, here are a few questions and answers!
Professional
Q. What is your work experience and education?
Check out my LinkedIn.
Q. Are you open for new positions?
If I am, I'll shout on LinkedIn. At the moment, I'm not actively looking. My current role at Volvo Cars checks all the boxes for me right now. Most of the cold-calls I get don't make any sense career-wise for me, so please do your research.
Q. Are you open for Mentorship?
Mentorship is a two way street, so if I can map it to my personal growth plan, I'm interested. A good way to see what I'm interested to learn is to check out my notes which show the areas I am learning.
Q. Can you refer me to your current company?
I stopped doing referrals since 2018 for these reasons:
If we haven't worked together I cannot put a word beyound the fact that you've reached out for a referral --which is as strong as reaching out to the recruiter directly, or applying online. The referral forms at any decent company have specific questions that digs into our relationship and how closely we have worked together and how you rate compared to others I have worked with. Obviously I cannot lie.
Even if we had worked together before, beware that a referral ties your reputation to mine. Considering that I'm vocal about calling bullsh*t, this may work against your application.
Many companies have monetary incentives for their referral program to motivate employees to bring in their contacts. I don't take part in the referral program because I believe it's fundamentally wrong. If a company is good enough, it should be able to attract the right people without throwing money at it. I myself approach job opportunities coming from friends suspeciously for that exact reason.
Writing
See the Blog FAQ.
Personal
Q. How is your last name pronounced?
It has 3 syllabus and is pronounced like:
/ea/ (like "ear")
/ver/ (like "version")
/love/ (well that's close enough)!
Q. Are you married? Do you have kids?
Happily married and have 2 kids.
Q. Where do you live?
I'm a Swedish citizen based in Stockholm.
Q. How old are you?
Mind the bias.
Q. Where are you from?
Mind another bias (to be written and linked)