Hi! Do you know if after any official coffee chats that are organized by the firm (ie. on their website), this would act as a candidate screening? Will a "suboptimal" coffee chat lead to an automatic no for a first-round interview? In my virtual coffee chat, I got kicked out of the meeting in the middle and was able to rejoin fast, but I'm very scared that this may impact their judgement of me.
Hi there!
When you mention you got "kicked out", you mean your Zoom / computer crashed? I would not worry about that. By now everyone understands that these things happen and have nothing to do with your competence.
Generally assume all interactions with the firms are a level of screening.
McKinsey was famous for giving people a case during "coffee chats" when I was in business school LOL
Best of luck!
-Andreas
Hi,
A coffee chat is an informal way to connect and get to know the company/office/consultants. Based on my experience, strong candidates are followed up by HR with the request to apply. It does not work the other way, meaning if the coffee chat did not go well, you are not rejected to apply.
Feel free to reach out via chat to discuss in more detail.
Mattijs
Hello there!
In my experience, no. If it is a coffee chat, meaning a time to network and get to know the company and talk to some consultants, that shouldn’t be the case. Also, the people who will analyze your application are not the same as those from the coffee chat.
Didn’t understand what did you mean by being kicked out of the meeting, can you explain more?
Best,
Mari
Hi there,
Don't worry about the tech issue happened with the meeting. In my experience, I haven't seen any candidate get impacted due to tech problem. This happens from time to time to the interviewers as well, and even sometimes in client meeting it might unfortunately happen. So they would not judge you based on that.
Best,
Emily
Hi there,
1) Will a "suboptimal" coffee chat lead to an automatic no for a first-round interview?
A coffee chat could help to leverage a connection to then get a referral/increase the chances of an interview, but it will not lead to an automatic rejection.
2) In my virtual coffee chat, I got kicked out of the meeting in the middle and was able to rejoin fast, but I'm very scared that this may impact their judgement of me.
This seems to be a technical issue. If that’s the case, I would not worry about it.
Good luck!
Francesco
Company case by
