Hi Jordan,
Your nervousness is completely normal, and I've definitely felt it before going for coffee chats too :) Here are some tips of mine on how to overcome / mitigate this:
- Firstly, you might want to prepare a list of "backup" questions in advance, so that you can ask them whenever your mind goes blank, or when you start feeling awkward and stumble during your conversation. Do bear in mind not to let this disrupt the natural flow of your conversation!
- Next, be a good listener. Instead of being the person who talks, let the consultant talk more about his/her experiences, hobbies, interests etc. In this way, you'll have to talk less and you'll start feeling less nervous over time as you get to know more about the other party. Also, it has been proven that people enjoy sharing about themselves, and so I am sure the consultant will enjoy this experience too, especially if you are a good listener.
- Lastly, just remember that you are an awesome person! Which is probably why the consultant agreed to the coffee chat in the first place. Have confidence in yourself, your achievements, and let that shine through during the conversation.
All the best Jordan!
Hi A! I'd be careful putting too much weight on this analysis. For two reasons: (a) It's actually bad consulting practice: Ian throws in fancy tool names and is suggesting causation that might or might not be there. Nobody would claim that networking is not important, but the number of touchpoints is largely driven by e.g. the school - candidates from target schools get flooded with contact opportunities and going to these schools drastically increases chances for an invitation. But the number of touchpoints is not necessarily the driver of this. (b) It suggests that the more touchpoints the better. An anecdote to the contrary: I run the MBA recruiting for my MBB office. We are actually tracking who reaches out to our consultants and sign up to coffee chats. In the past we have actually discounted applications from candidates that flood us with coffee chat requests just to maximize the number of touchpoints for the sake of it. I'd rather hire somebody that respects the time of my colleagues and asks pointy questions when relevant, than somebody that wastes our time just to make their name being recognized by as many people as possible.
Thanks for the response to this B! I'm not worried because I didn't get to have a coffee chat, I have a formal recommendation and have attended other events. My main concern is that the recruiter will see me missing the chat as wasting their time. Do you think they could interpret my actions that way?
Na, I agree with the other coaches on this. Missing a coffee chat isn't ideal but it won't disqualify you from the application, especially if you have a referral.
Hi Anonymous B, I always appreciate active discussion, especially when it concerns data! Now, there's always an issue of causation vs correlation, but I isolated a range of variables and these were strong predictors of success (for example, someone with a high GMAT score may network more, but if we isolate across a set GMAT range, we can see this relationship holds true). Furthermore, the sample size for this data was just one school, therefore your point regarding school differences is moot. Feel free to check out my analysis on SpencerTom where I dive into the actual process. If you still have issues with it after you've given it a fair shot, I'd love to hear how I could improve it! Note: I emphasized how important a coffee chat/networking is, but I never said "reach out to everyone and anyone you can"...would appreciate no strawman logical fallacies against me please :)
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I would also note that, while I worked at the career office for my MBA program, we did know of candidates who were eliminated from the process because they missed a coffee chat. This doesn't mean you are disqualified, but I have seen it happen.
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