Cringe-worthy networking mistakes I've seen (from top IB to elite PE)

As a non-target who endured the IB to PE assembly line, networking was huge for me. For some reason, this time of year, I always receive a massive uptick in networking inquiries. I'm guessing it's bc a bunch of New Years resolution-makers are trying to get their shit together with 2026 IB recruitment around the corner, or whatever. Given it seems to be a popular time of year for networking, I figured it'd be helpful to share painful mistakes I see kids make over and over again, every year, to hopefully inform networking efforts.

• DON'T attaching your resume to the initial cold email. This diminishes personability, and appears way too transactional. The worst part about this that many don't even know is that most of the top firms automatically flag attachments from unrecognized addresses as spam mail anyway. Not only will you not reach their inbox at all, but if this happens enough your personal email address might get flagged by email service providers like Gmail as a spammer, and your reputation / overall deliverability could suffer
• Over time, I feel like students have taken a more and more awkward / structured approach to "coffee chats" or whatever you want to cal them. I get that on-campus resources and IB clubs teach you to come to the call with "good questions" to ask, but simply rattling off 5-10 questions in linear order is not how effective conversations are curated in the real world. If you make a question list, use it as a "backup" to reference if the chat hits a "dead end" and instead of awkwardly asking disparate question after disparate question, try to follow a more natural conversation pattern in order to learn more about their role while articulating your interest in IB. Like everything you say should ideally have some relevant link to what they said, and so on...
• The BIGGEST blunder I see students make is not having ANY idea how to convert coffee chats into actual actionable recruitment opportunities. No matter how well the conversation goes, directly asking for a referral always appear too transactional imo. Sure it's a bit of a paradox because all bankers who get networking inbound know the sender isn't actually genuinely interested in their role / firm, they just want help through the recruiting process, but it's best to keep that as an unspoken rule. Instead of directly asking and breaking that barrier, "open the door" for whoever you're networking with to help you into recruitment. For example, at the end of the coffee chat if things go well, ask “what’s the best way to stay in the loop for recruitment?” or "how can I learn more about formal recruitment at Firm?" instead of “can you refer me for a summer analyst role?“ – though subtle, this is much more emotionally intelligent approach and surely if the convo actually went well and you were well-liked, next steps will ensue and perhaps you'll be told a month or date to follow up closer to recruitment. And from there perhaps they'll put you in touch with whoever is running recruitment
• LinkedIn can be fine for networking, but there's a lot of other resources to try if you aren't seeing results. In reality, LinkedIn searches only reveal public profiles (a fraction of what's actually out there), and few bankers actually put which product or industry group they're in, which is crucial information for networking, especially for those who know which team they want to join. Instead of LinkedIn, try RecruiterBase or something else that includes verified work emails and product / industry groups along with universities, hobbies, and other criteria. Most bankers don't check LinkedIn very often anyway, it's better to land directly in their inbox  

Am I missing any? Or curious if there's anything folks disagree with. I have skin in this game here too even though I'm already to the buy side, given it's brutal watching kids fail over and over again at networking haha