How do I ask for help/ informational interview?

I'll post my coffee chat primer that I drafted a few months back, but also provide some advice above that. 

Before diving into reaching out to alumni, it's worth thinking about what you're looking for from a practical and realistic standard. Basically, given your unique experience in Asia PE & Consulting, if you could design a role that met your skillset, what would that be from a work standpoint, life standpoint, so on and so forth. This will help you gain a bit of perspective and guidance for where to aim your recruitment search. Once you've thought up a few positions or set of roles that you see yourself qualified for, and a relatively strong fit for, then craft a market map. There are a number of small PE firms/funds in the US (much bigger than Canada) that can offer fantastic work - look into 20-50 firms you can target. After having crafted your market map, then I'd advise reaching out for general information and assessing internal hiring needs. 

The Coffee Chat primer below is geared more toward the recent graduate/undergraduate perspective, but would work just as well in your position. Also, I wouldn't put too much stock into your brand perception of education (Undergrad or MBA) nor let that stop you from reaching out across the board. I've spoken to Kellog MBAs, folks in the Middle East, UK, and pretty much every major city in the US, and not once have they said: "But you're... Canadian at a semi-target, why are you wasting my time?" They've all been easy-going and really helpful about their own experiences in PE, IB, Consulting, Corp. Fin, MBA, and whatnot. Given your unique position, it may be worth looking into a headhunter or career advisory service since you have an unorthodox position.

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How to Navigate the Coffee Chat
 

1. Finding the Right People
 

Look for colleagues at your local office(s) through LinkedIn. Filter by the following:

• Geography - look for your top two to three offices, often if you have a team or know the different practices that the London office is known for, you can reach out to an array of colleagues across different practice groups
• Seniority - look for a range of colleagues that:
  have just begun working (~1 year or less) for a realistic view of the training and experience as well as some more senior.
  • Have a few years of experience and may be in charge of analysts (~2-5 years of experience). Dependent on the firm, this could be Senior Associates, Managers, Engagement Managers, etc.
  • Have been at the firm for at the Partner level (~7 years or more). Often the ultimate hiring decision falls to Partners, so if you manage to get a Partner on the phone (via cold email), then you'd better understand the practice the Partner operates in and come in with questions prepared for an open discussion.
• Connection - look for colleagues that come from your educational background, around your age group, or share some commonality (it may even be a club or sport).
   

2. The Elevator Pitch
 

When reaching out to people via LinkedIn or cold email, always keep it to three sentences or less with resume attached for emails.
 

The message could be something along the lines of "Hi X, I'm a x year university student looking to learn about your experience at McKinsey. I see you've worked as a [Position] and have taken on projects in [Sector] and [Sector] sectors. Do you have 15-30 minutes for a coffee chat via Zoom or over the phone?"
 

You want to keep it very short with a call to action (to have them get on a call with you) and attach your resume so that you save them the trouble of searching you on LinkedIn.
 

Note: do NOT take any rejections/ghosting or otherwise personally, most people are busy with work, their own lives, their hobbies/interests, wanting to chill outside of work, so if someone connects on LI but doesn't respond or ignores your email, understand it's just because they're busy with their own situation. In contrast, if someone is willing to get on the phone/zoom, they're taking time out of their day to do you a favour.
 

3. The Coffee Chat
 

In the coffee chat, don't talk about yourself, do provide context for the call. a quick 30-60 seconds about why you wanted to speak to them sparks the conversation and guides the discussion. I often say: "hey, thanks for the call, just to give some context, I wanted to learn about your experience give my position as x, y, and z."
 

Have open ended questions and just treat it as a conversation. If you're curious about the recruitment process, then transition and ask, but be prepared to not use any question you prepared.
 

At the end of the chat, you can either ask directly or give the prompt "is there anything you'd advise I do when applying to stand out?" - in my experience, most folks will advise I send them my resume for an internal referral or ask I connect with another colleague/HR at the firm.
 

Ways to mess up a coffee chat:

• Being robotic and asking questions as if interviewing the person - if the colleague is telling a story, or really fascinated in a discussion, ask questions to further that then say "okay, so question #3 - do you refer people on the first chat".
• Being unprepared and asking questions that could be found on LI - if you got a chat with some from McKinsey but didn't look up how long he's been at the firm, or what projects/sectors he covers (if available on LI), then it just reflects poorly on you
• Talking too much about yourself - some people spend too much of the time speaking on their unique circumstances rather than asking open ended questions. I understand the impulse of wanting to connect, but it's important to understand that people love to talk about themselves when given a chance, so you need to be fascinated more than you need to be fascinating.
   

4. After The Coffee Chat
 

It doesn't matter if you end up working at the firm or not, keep the people who made time out of their day to connect, informed of your growth and update them. I made some fantastic friends through just connecting at whim via LinkedIn or email. It's important to not be so transactional think that now recruitment has ended, there's no further reason to speak to person X. In contrast, it works great to learn more about the assignments or projects and share my own experiences over a few coffee chats (or emails).
 

Final Note
 

Keep in mind, referrals only really make sure your resume/application package is read, it does not guarantee an interview and many people have gotten into these big firms without them. Nonetheless, outside of getting a referral, coffee chats help determine if the firm is a good fit for you. I had a friend who was dead set on getting into MBB until she spoke to a senior associate. The Senior Assoc. said how at this one project, he was working ~13 hr + days (for weeks on end) due to understaffing and tight deadline on a DD case. That was a bit of a reality shock to my friend who realized the intensity of the workload and the mental & physical toll it takes on a person.