Coffee Chat Advice
Started to do a little networking for SA 2026. I'm a sophomore at semi-target. i'd say I have a pretty genuine interest in finance (not just prestige hunting), Ive read a couple of books and have made a model out of curiosity. yet sometimes I feel like these calls are so dry and dull. Some people I talk to have had super surface-level answers to everything, and just seem like they don't care about talking to you. I feel like I'm asking pretty standard questions about the bank, how they chose their group, differences in group, recruitment process, why that interests me, basic stuff you see online, etc. Am I asking too much questions about their work? Is it weird to ask follow-up questions about specific projects and what they looked at or is that too far and nerdy.? Should the bulk of my questions be work/banking related or more personal questions? As an analyst, do you want to talk about your work or other things?
Ive had some really good calls with good cadence and questions - but some that have just been dry and gone bad. Any advice on how to make these calls better is much appreciated
People would not take a call if they didn’t want to talk to you.
Believe it or not, it’s a reflection on your conversation skills if they are uninterested after agreeing to willingly give you their time of day.
I’d do some self reflection and be less robotic and gay. Talk about interesting shit, they’re already working 14-18 hours a day.
Yeah i had a call today and reflecting back I probably sounded a bit robotic. I definitely could have done a better job with follow up questions. I guess what I don't understand is what the direction of these calls are supposed to be. Just asking about career/job gets repetitive quick. Is it bad to ask too many banking/deal related questions? Like u said these people are working 14-18hrs per day so I imagine they would prefer to talk about something else - just hard to find what that something is.
Someone's back on the middle school playground.
I assure you, as a gay guy who sounds the part, being "gay" (whatever you want that to mean) hasn't caused me any issues.
Well you cannot chat with the cofee![]()
I’m at a non-target, somehow networked my way to a tier 1 bank but I totally get where you’re coming from. I initially hated networking bc I also treated it like a chore— which was my first mistake. My biggest advice is don’t just ask about banking. Instead, ask questions that will genuinely help yourself in the future.
What was a piece of advice that their mentor gave that stuck with them? Were there any regrets that they had about college/classes they wish they took? What are some podcasts/books they recommend (can follow up with them in the future after you read, will make you stand out). Since I wanted to get out of the state I was in, I asked them how they made new friends in a new city outside of work. Obviously fine tune these depending on the person you’re talking to, but be more creative and you’ll find people getting excited to talk about these things.
Tone of voice matters, a lot. Key is to match the vibe of the other person, and ask follow up questions to dig deeper. Shows that you’re truly listening and not just asking a list of premade question. Have a genuine conversation and have fun with it. There will be some people that you don’t vibe with— trust me you don’t want to be at that bank anyways.
echo all of this, and especially the point about matching the vibe of the person you're speaking with. having went through recruiting, if i were to reflect id say its fine to not have pure 10/10 calls every time from your point of view. just make sure you're reasonably fun to talk to and not a bot who fires off banking q's for 30 minutes straight. always think about how you're being perceived. if the other person gets off the phone and thinks worse of you than you did of them, you're doing something wrong.
Are other sophomores coffee chatting already??
Yeah, 2 banks opened apps but don’t think any processes start till December. Probably a good time to get going.
Fuuuuuuck
i started already but not with the super and prestigious big banks
yeah networkings kicked off for 90% of banks afaik. Trackers are out (at least at mine)
Think abt the breakdown between how much ur talking and how much they are talking. If you are only talking 10% of the time then its starting to sound like ur interviewing them as opposed to a conversation. Ideally you want to be talking 30-40% of the time.
Imo, key is figuring out what's on top of mind for that person. People like to talk about what they are interested in, so try to figure out what that is.
Also, always ask for advice at the end. People usually love giving advice to others (makes them feel good)
When I am asked to join a networking call, people usually are unprepared and don't know what to ask about. So I've developed a strategy to just briefly intruduce myself and talk for around 15 minutes about my job and the company, just the basics. Then I ask if they want to follow up on anything in particular. You'd be surprised how many people don't have any questions and it just gets awkward. At some point I started treating networking as a chore because I'm still happy to help people, but them being unprepared doesn't help.
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That's a good question, and I'm afraid there isn't one best answer. Anyway, the calls I mentioned earlier when folks were unprepared were awkward because people were shy/stressed/unprepared/you name it and they just responded yes/no, showed no curiousity and the convo was flat. Don't get me wrong but I'd think about networking as dating to some extent. You go meet up with (call) someone who is interested in you as they already agreed to talk. Now it is partially your job to build the rapport. I'm saying partially because of the person you network with is bored/uninterested this won't go well no matter how you try. I believe the safest way of building rapport in the context of networking is having some small talk about something neutral, think weather, the place you study, someone lives etc. Let's say you network with someone from NYC and just ask what's the weather like now, say I visited NYC last summer and had a blast, visited X and Y and it was amazing etc. This is just an example to be fully adjusted to circumstances but just wanted to give you some context. During the small talk you can see how interested/responsive the person you talk to is. Next, you can gradually move to speaking about yourself, just a brief intro and let the conversation develop. Here there is no one size fits all answer because people have different communication styles but in general I'd say to introduce yourself and let your counterpart to do the talking. While they talk, start thinking of questions and ask them. Don't interupt, but also show your initiative and be interested. Showing enthusiasm through smile also helps. Fake it till you make it if it's not something natural for you. In terms of questions, I suggest no basic ones (like what is IB) because that will rather frustrate an analyst. Instead show an interest in their group, ask about verticals, how their work is split, how people are staffed, the most exciting deals. That's all essentially. Be rather genuine, but also don't be silent - silence (or being rude) makes the calls the most awkward.
Also curious, is the goal of networking to make the person our friend, ie. asking questions about their hobbies and such in addition to questions about the bank. Or is it best to stick strictly to the bank. Moreover, how many people should we be talking to at each bank?
The goal of networking in this context is to get a job. And the people on the other end of the phone know that.
Keep your calls a good mix between asking questions about their personal career progression and their professional projects / their company as a whole. But make it conversational. Each call is different.
Ask good follow up questions and throw in a mix of non-work conversation in there in a personable way and you’ll be golden.
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