Red Flags in Coffee Chats?
I was really curious, from the perspective of bankers themselves who take time out of their day to do coffee chats with students who apply for internships, what are some red flags or things you notice during chats that automatically or incline you to not refer that person (whether it's for the position itself or referring them to another person at the firm)
When they are asking two questions that aren’t related to each other back to back. Shows they weren’t rlly listening but instead just spitballing out questions for the sake of it. Also when they making the most convoluted statement disguised as a question where they try to spam as much “insights” as possible. Ngl a lot more weirdos than I expected given how competitive the process is. Just sound like a normal human being lol.
I host a few events for management consulting with my University every so often, and I'll never forget this one person who goes up to me and said "I don't really care about {my firm at the time}, I just want to work at MBB." I then said, "alright, fair enough, I'm in a niche, what do you think MBB does?" Silence. Where in MBB would you like to work most? Silence. What does MBB do differently or better than Roland Berger, LEK, EY-P, etc. Silence.
I then asked what this person knew (if anything) about strategy consulting as a field and wouldn't ya know, Silence. I advised this person do more research into the field and provided some resources (Case in Point, Case Interview Secrets and the 7-day crash course from CraftingCases). Like a week later, this person messaged me about a posting at my firm asking if I'd be open to refer.
I was almost astounded by the sheer shamelessness of this individual.
The biggest red flag I see is misconception of the field or some idealistiic glorified understanding of the work. I often give the benefit of doubt when they're first or second year students since they may not know more than what these firms' HR departments tell them, but if they continue to argue their viewpoint as the truth, or remain deluded, I see that as a the reddest of flags.
Honestly, being a kiss-ass on the phone doesn't help whatsoever, and it might hurt your chances tbh
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