Your Best Coffee Chat Ever

I would say that the best coffee chats I had were when I was able to relax and just treat the person I am talking to as a normal person. You are really trying to understand as much as you can about the industry as much as they are looking for people that they may want to work with someday.

I've done a trip to NY and spent the entire time doing coffee chats. Everyone I met up with I had either already networked with and had a phone call with, or they were colleagues/friends of people who I did. If that is the case with you, then I'd say it is much easier than a phone conversation. They were way less formal with me than over the phone, granted I knew them a bit, but even the new people were relatively friendly because someone vouched for me. All of my conversations were about the culture of the firm, our backgrounds, and usually we spoke about personal, non-banking things/interests that we had in common.

If these coffee chats are with people you haven't spoken to before, then just come up with a few questions about the firm, the group their in, culture, etc. Use those as a starting point and in case things get silent or dull, but try and keep the conversation natural and don't ask a million questions.

Im interning in New York now and sit down for coffee with people almost every day for my lunch break (those that I have talked to/met before and those that I have not), and I would personally argue that meeting someone for the first time over coffee is easier than meeting someone for the first time over the phone. The time seems to pass by way quicker when you are meeting in person, and in my experience they are more likely to ask you questions about yourself in person than over the phone.

Big_BulgerBrand:

Hey WSO,

I've been reading a lot of posts about what questions to ask (and not to ask) during a coffee chat, as I have my first ever one coming up. Just wondering if anyone wanted to share the best conversations they've ever had with an industry professional or with someone aspiring to get started in IB.

I'm hoping to see how far some peoples relationships have gone, and what sort of things you talked about that left a lasting impression on you.

Thanks

From a long time ago but... But networked (Ie. cold emailed a ton of alumni in college). First response (and least expected) was then a C-level exec for a big bank who headed a region for them. We had a phone chat. Then he said “next time you are in town we’ll meet. By the way economy is bad and no one is hiring. Plus interns are usually clients kids.” A year later I called him up as I was in town. He had me at his house for a three hour lunch where some senior private banker came about an hour in too. I wanted to leave them be and not impose so after a while, I left but asked them for one piece of advice. The C-Level guy looked at me and said “study Chinese. China is going crazy.” Private banker nodded his head.

So that’s what I did after college and not getting into IB. That one conversation changed the course of my life. I had no specific affinity for anything Chinese or China but without that chat I have no idea where I would have ended up. Let’s forget career for a second. That conversation changed where I lived, the friends I had/have the people I dated, my hobbies, tastes and general demeanor and views on life.

I am grateful to this day and it is why I do my best to mentor/talk to kids from my college or younger types in industry or on this board.

I thought I was just doing a coffee chat with a firm and school alum who’s managing partner of a PE fund and he actually set up coffee chats with himself and every person from analyst to principal who was in the office that day, and at the end of the day he said he’d reach back when they start recruiting or I should call him when I start recruiting, whichever comes first.

Haven't had a specific favorite one but a few times had a senior level push my resume without me even asking. They even took the time beforehand to reach out to the recruiter to learn more about the sophomore timeline and how it differs from the junior timeline

My best intro conversation ever was for a job that I ultimately took. I spent 2 years in S&T at a BB and then spent three years in IB at another BB. I was struggling with what I wanted to do, but my focus was VC. I had two Bay Area VC offers, but was intro’d to a boutique IB in Denver which is where i really wanted to live.

I was introduced to the founder, and he happened to be in NYC for a deal that week so we grabbed drinks, which happened to be during the NCAA basketball tournament. We talked finance for 15 min and then talked basketball for 2-3 hours while watching games. We simply got along.

I flew out immediately to meet the rest of the team, was offered and accepted on the spot. Culture fit and location were more important to me at the time than prestige or career path as I knew I really wanted to start my own company, which I did 5 years later. Finding people you want to work with, particularly a few years in, is more important than the what you will be doing at times.

The take away is that find some commonality, and take it from there. Working with people you like is critical to long term happiness.

Most of the best ones where at scholarship interviews because you are sitting around a bunch of people who have made it to significant levels in their fields.

I researched CFA and filtered for my college on LinkedIn. Found a woman who had graduated but still somewhat young at the time, around 30. Looked her up on her firm's website to get her email and sent her an email asking for a phone call. She got back to me telling me she wasn't hiring. I told her I wasn't looking because I already had an internship lined up for that upcoming summer and so she agreed to get on the phone. This was one of my first calls so I was pretty nervous and wrote out a few pages of questions before I got on the phone. We ended up talking for over an hour and she was really helpful. I followed up with her over the summer and she ended up connecting me to a former coworker of hers who got me in the door for an internship. Then later on (still had never met her) I followed up with her again and she got me in the door with her firm in buyside research. I didn't end up meeting her in person until 10 weeks after I started there and I just find it funny how willing some people are to help you if you simply ask. No coffee was involved.

As someone who works full time over the summer and lives no where near NYC, do you think that networking over the phone is enough? Or would taking the trip be worth the expenses?