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?
I've had about 30 calls. Worst one was just a person who was totally uninterested. Just answered all my questions and that was it. Didn't take to any of my attempts to connect more personally.
That VP sounds like a jerk.
same, monotone as fuck and just clear they didn't give a shit. Like why would you even agree to a call. went through my story at the beginning and all I got was "cool".
I got to this person through a referral, so my guess is that they didn't want to look like a dick to the person referring me.
Hate when a call goes like this, but I can imagine how hard it could be to stay engaged after a 100 hour week and 5 other calls from college kids that day. That's why it's best to let the bankers talk during these calls for the most part and make it a conversation so that they enjoy the break that they are getting. If I notice that they are getting bored during the call, I just ask them a open ended personal question, so that they can just ramble on and feel good about themselves that way.
On the other hand, OP's situation is a serious red flag. You don't want to be anywhere near that VP in a work setting. Good example of how networking is a two way street. Don't be afraid to judge or rank your preferences based on these calls, but keep an open mind and remember that there will always be a few bad apples.
What's an example of an open ended personal question that's good enough they can talk for a while but not too personal given you acquaintance-like relationship ? Is it just about some stuff you've already talked about?
This is literally how all of my calls go.
freshman year i had a call with a guy at a hedge fund, he asked how i got his email and i pretty much went "Uhh...... google." and then told him I wanted to be in IB and he pretty much roasted me for being an idiot. In my defense it was like my 3rd networking call ever so yea
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.
Agreed. It is pretty easy to scrape them off LinkedIn and use their firm's email format.
Disagree. Have seen many good folks appreciate the initiative
Nah, some people just appreciate the extra effort of finding their email versus just messaging them on LinkedIn.
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.
Pour one out homie
happened to me many times and i actually respect that they told me upfront i have no shot - better than the passive aggressive bullshit and wasting my time with a firm
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.
Just laughing at the fact that you're talking about being underclass yourself and mad at people having everything set up for them when your dad got you the interview and you thought you were golden squarely off that. Shows you the level of depth goes in the industry. Love competing against people like you
Yes, I was most certainly a little shit when I was 21 (I think that’s how old I was when this happened?). It was short sighted of me to think it was a slam dunk, and in a lot of ways I’m glad for experiences like that where I fell on my face.
I wish you well, and hope you don’t have to make the same mistakes as me
A VP I spoke to at a top MM firm seemed so disinterested. My call with him lasted 13 mins and I ran through my questions really quick. It sounded like he was shopping or something and gave one word answers for example, how would you describe the culture? Good. What’s your favourite deal? Can’t talk about any because they are not public but M&A. Out of 55-60 calls that I have had this recruiting season, this was the worst of them all.
It's funny because people who are unresponsive / didn't seem interested over email are usually the ones I connect well over the phone and have long ass conversations (over an hour and a half for one particular VP), but those who I've had a bad experience with were always prompt to reply to my emails etc.
Completely agree. ALWAYS happens to me
lmao same.
2 examples
1) A VP who I connected with from a BB in IB, we both grew up in the same country and the first thing he tells me as soon as I call him how was my school was terrible and how I had no shot in IB, he told me to start focusing on Big 4 roles and getting an MBA, well here I am sitting with an offer with a firm better than his, never told him though not sure why..
2) Connected with a Global head from another BB who completely tore me apart for asking "stupid questions", but they were the same questions everybody asks and even spent some time tailoring to him. Anyway he hung up like 8 minutes in, probably was just having a terrible day
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.
He was probably also sniffing your chair to get a whiff of that sweet ass..mmmmmmm
I've done close to 30 at this point, and most of them have been pretty solid experiences. A couple of my first few were pretty choppy because I kept interrupting them since I didn't have the hang of things yet. One person, who I assumed would be a douche, was nice enough but answered all of my questions within 15 minutes and pretty clearly just wanted to get the call over with. The only really "bad" one would be when I could clearly hear him banging out emails left and right the entire time. He was nice enough but I felt that was pretty rude.
I talked to a person exactly like your last one.
Yeah it's no fun. Again, he was nice to me, but he clearly was not that interested.
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
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