How do you ask people questions about themselves in a conversation without prying?

If you do it nicely,and seem interested people love to talk and one subject they know is themselves.
Because your right, come across like a cop doing an interrogation and you will drive them away, but do it nicely and seem interested and people will just open up.

I’m very nosey so I just ask them questions. I think if you’re genuinely interested and show that, people love to talk about themselves and their interests. Sometimes I’ll even joke about interrogating them and people usually laugh and then tell me what I want to know.

If you’re sharing something about yourself hopefully they reciprocate without you having to ask many questions.

It can be tricky. People say not to monopolize a conversation talking about yourself and to show interest in other people’s lives, but then asking too many questions can be like an interrogation.

I guess I try to gauge the conversation by how forthcoming someone is without provocation and then those people seem more open to questions. Also, if they ask a lot of questions themselves they likely are open. If it is difficult to get a reciprocal conversation going on then I say on to the next person.

You don’t, its sort of an allowed prying that no one really gives a shit about, better than dead air.
Like when you’re on a date, rapid fire questions & fake laughter, the same as a cheesy gameshow only without the stoodio audience & shit prizes.

Most people love to talk about themselves. It feels less like an interrogation if you allow pauses for your reactions – some chuckling and shaking of heads, telling a similar story…

We’re in the season of holiday parties, and since I work for an organization that represents members of our more than 3000 employee employer, I meet a lot of people at the parties and there’s lots of conversation-making to be done. Most will ask me about work issues that affect us all, like our contract. Sometimes I’ll ask them where they live, and they reciprocate. That leads to more conversation. I met someone last night who lives not far from me, so that became about our kids, the school system, the area, etc.

If it’s not someone from work, I may ask what they do for a living. That will start off some interesting conversation about their job, my job, the economy, etc.

People say I’m good at making small talk. It’s also known as being a good bullshitter.

The trick is to ask questions that direct the conversation towards them without asking directly about themselves. If you let people open up on their own they’ll be more at ease and the conversation flows.

I have absolutely no problem with asking people about themselves, what they do for a living, if they are married, I just ask and if I happen to hit on a sensitive subject I figure the person can decline from answering. I am always curious and interested about people and the only way to satisfy my curiosity is to ask. I have found out a lot just by asking. A lot of people seem to enjoy the attention that I lavish on them.

Ask about their interests not what they do for a living because many are without fulltime work and are embarrassed to meet people for that very reason. They define people by there work status. One way to avoid this question when approached is to turnt he question around to the one who asked it ans ask them the same question. Keep them talking about themselves and they leave never realizing that they did not get any info on you.
I need to feel comfortable with some people before devulging information about my life.

My personal “thing” is that if someone asks me a question that I consider nosy, I will answer it and then ask them the same question back. For example, if someone asks me how old I am, I’ll answer it honestly, and then ask them “how old are you?” At my job, since I work for the government, we all know how much everyone else makes, as long as you know their title which is all public.

I went to a neighborhood party last night and the big opening question is “which house do you live in?” I can identify the house by my grandparents who used to live there, and then it becomes a walk down memory lane about how it used to be to live here 50 years ago, before the interstates were built and when everyone just came up for the summers.