What was your worst experience in a networking call?
I’ve been networking everyday for a while now and have had a ton of good calls, but a few bad ones. My worst call was a some VP going off at me because I didn’t tell him how I got his email the first time in my opening email. After I explained to him how I got his email in my reply back, he then calls me and said I was a sly kid for not telling him the first time and this was a big red flag. He then said he just didn’t like me and was not gonna let me join the firm. This is not exaggerated btw, it was actually over not telling him how I got his email in my opening email... anyone else have similar experience?
Whenever people ask “how did you get my email?” To me it really feels like a bad sign ngl. There are only so many ways to acquire an email and I’m sure they know that. I feel like there only a small few who are genuinely curious.
Had a call at an EB where I had absolutely no chance of getting a job, and the fucko just told me halfway through that I should focus on MM and then made up a lame excuse to hangup.
Like others have said I've had a few people who reply that they're willing to talk and then are completely disinterested on the phone. 1 word answers. Not listening at all. Call lasts like 5 minutes. Complete waste of both our times. Just move on to the next one. Majority of people are happy to talk and help out however they can. Only ever gotten the "how did you get my email?" question once which is a weird question to ask anyways. We all know how I did it, I stalked you on LinkedIn or google and guessed the email format. That's why it's called a cold email buddy
Agree to speak and completely disinterested, as in 0 desire to continue the conversation and extremely short and to the point responses to questions, so much so that I had run through my questions list and the call was just hitting the 5 minute mark
Agree to speak and ask for my number saying that they'll call me. Time comes, and they don't call. Email them asking if they are still available to speak now and still no call. Call never happens
Not so much a bad networking call per say, but I remember emailing a relatively senior guy at a good fund requesting a time to speak. He was fairly responsive at first and connected me with his assistant to set it up, and we set a time, about 2 weeks in the future. The day before or day of the scheduled call, the assistant would email me that XXX has had something come up and can we reschedule, and then would push it another 2 weeks. This continued to happen about 4-5 times, pushing a 30 minute call about 2-3 months into the future. By the time the call finally happened, I'd forgotten to update the revised day / time in my calendar and completely forgot to call him. Got a fairly irritated email from him about 10 minutes after I was meant to call, and by the time I responded (about 10 minutes after that) he basically responded that he was no longer available in a fairly passive aggressive tone. That one stung a bit.
oh boy, this is stirring up some memories. done a lot of this, but one visit stands out
got set up with the founder and CEO of a decent sized boutique firm who was a personal friend of my dad's. this guy transitioned from M&A after he left Harvard to PWM but still did some capital markets work. I thought this is a great opp, I'll just be a go-fer at a firm with a wide reach and learn as much as possible. even if they don't have a seat for me long term, this will be GREAT experience. further, he's part of one of the wealthiest families in the area, major key for either M&A or PWM in this area, GREAT. even better, my dad did all the hard work, he knows this guy, all I have to do is show up on time and dressed well.
so of course like any good spaz, I get there an hour early but wait in the lobby until maybe 10 minutes before my appointment, I don't want him to be rushed. plus, it's July in the south so I had to let the sweat dry. he calls me into his office, within 1 minute of sitting down and him sharing how he knows my dad, he asks my goals and sits back to listen. I'm thinking GREAT, this is everything I thought it could be, but don't get too excited, gotta keep a poker face if you want to be taken seriously. let me share my goals, but a little humility, the main message I want to portray is "I work hard, I want to learn, and here's what I bring to the table"
the guy stomped on my heart like it was a stunt double for American History X (you know the scene). proceeded to tell me how ridiculous my goals were, how I'd never make it in the business, how my focus and approach were all wrong, how my school was dogshit (he didn't say this, but this is what he meant), and that there was and wouldn't likely ever be any opportunities at his firm for me.
wow.
talk about shot. talk about destroyed. and now I have to call my dad and tell him how it went? phew, that's gonne be tough, how would it look if I said "hey dad, you know Gil (not his real name) is a real piece of work, enormous asshole" to which my dad would reply "are you sure you didn't come off as arrogant?" so I just said it went OK and I'm grateful he connected me.
I do not wish ill on people, but this man and one other woman who I've written about previously have really tested this value of mine.
some people are sociopaths. some people got everything handed to them and so don't like networking with the underclass (I think this was my case), some people are just having a bad day, and some people are just fucking assholes. the good news is that's the miniority of people in this country, so every dickhead you meet puts you one step closer to meeting a potential mentor and ally. you cannot allow yourself to get downtrodden about a bad at bat. this interview made me better, it made me calmer and cooler in high stress scenarios, so when I managed to get 2 hours with another founder of a PWM firm, I was more relaxed, and yes he was a generous soul, but because I'd already been told to fuck off by a decamillionaire TO MY FACE, nothing could be worse than that, I thought. founder #2 connected me with my current manager and the rest is history.
From the opposite perspective:
I did a networking call with this kid back when I was an associate and it went fine. Nothing spectacular but no red flags either. I told him I'd refer him to our recruiting team so he could get at least a phone screen when we kicked off our process. I promptly forget about all of this until a few weeks later I found a thank you note on my desk. Apparently this kid managed to get past security, come up to our office, walk past reception, figure out where my desk was, and drop off the note -- all without saying anything or talking to anybody. Moreover, it's not like he's from the city (he went to college a few hours away). I still have no idea how he managed to do this and I was tempted to ask to review the security cam footage. I guess it's a nice gesture but creepy as fuck.
I had one where a guy called me 4 hours before our scheduled time out of the blue. My Dad was vacuuming in the next room so I had to desperately wave at him to stop while trying to begin talking to this guy. Then his phone kept cutting out for like a full 20 seconds at a time. Couldn’t hold a conversation and couldn’t even tell if he was still speaking or not so there would be long pauses when I was waiting for reception to come back hoping he was still talking through. Those pauses were full of pure terror ngl. Once I cut him off bc I thought he was done talking but reception came back and he was not pleased. Shortly after he said he needed to go, wished me luck, and hung up
Hate it so much. Whenever I'm not doing shit the house is always quiet as fuck, but whenever I have a meeting or call either my mom starts vacuuming, my dad watches news at full volume, or my brother storms into my room. I had a call with a VP and my bro walks into my room and yells "what up bitch". The guy chuckled but never responded afterwards.