ISPOR starts Monday.

Here's the only advice you need before you walk in.

—

Montreal. 2014. My first ISPOR.

I walked into the exhibit hall and felt like I'd wandered into someone else's party. Booths bigger than my apartment. Everyone seemed to know everyone. My name tag was flipped backwards.

I gave myself one rule: 5 business cards. Real conversations. Not LinkedIn connections I'd forget by Tuesday.

My first approach: walk up to strangers and ask "Are you hiring an intern?"

I struck out 10 times in a row.

Then someone three decades into their career bought me a margarita — my first ever alumni margarita — and gave me the only conference advice I've ever needed:

"Most people want to get to know you. They just don't want to be sold to. Ask a question that gets them talking for 15 minutes straight."

I asked him what question.

He said:

"Tell me how you got to this point in your career — and why you made the choices you made."

Then he leaned in:

"Ask that. Shut the f** up. And watch the magic happen."*

—

He was right.

It works because every person in that room — every payer, every CEO, every academic, every consultant — is the protagonist of their own story. And almost nobody has ever asked them to tell it properly.

Ask what do you do? → you get a job title.

Ask how did you get here? → you get a human being.

—

The first real job I got in this industry came from someone I sat next to in an ISPOR short course. One afternoon. One conversation.

Months later he called with an opening.

A decade later, he's still a mentor. Still the voice on the other end when I need advice.

One conversation compounded into a career.

—

If you're going to ISPOR this week:

5 real conversations. Use the magic question. Let the other person talk.

If 5 feels like too much — start with 1.

The coffee line. The elevator. The session you almost skipped. Every awkward moment in a conference hotel is a future career link you haven't made yet.

Don't wait to be invited in. Start the chain.

— Sanket

P.S. Hit reply with the question you've never been able to ask anywhere else. I read every one.