How to learn Product through coffee chats

What is a Coffee Chat?

A professional 15-30 minute chat that is either online or in-person. It is a time when you can ask questions to the professional about anything you need help with.

[ Rarely is there coffee actually being drunk]

Why You Should Do Coffee Chats

Knowledge

1. Interview skills

2. Applications

3. Navigating Career Path

4. General job skills

5. General mentorship

6. Run mocks with you

7. General interview tips

What are ways to find people to coffee chat with?

1. LinkedIn

2. Company Websites

3. Connections within your circle (parents’ friends, friends of friends, etc)

How To Reach Out (Yes, people actually check their mail)

The flow

1. Find a company you’re interested in

2. Go to the people section

3. Sort by type of job

4. Look for people you’re interested in

5. Use Chrome extensions to find their contact and reach out on LinkedIn

6. Send a personalized cold email

Remember that people DO check their emails, and you will send out about 10-20 cold emails before getting 1 or 2 back!

How to organize a coffee chat

1. Include Time zone

   1. Especially online calling

2. Exact Date and Time proposal

   1. Makes it easier on their end to just say “YES”

3. in person >>>> online

   1. People like face-to-face interaction; it may be more awkward at first, but the ROI is much more

DO NOT

1. Create a meeting time of more than 30 minutes unless a time is specified between you guys

2. Be late

Prepping

MOST IMPORTANT THING:

1. Figure out what you are trying to get out of it.

2. Have three questions you really want to ask them. From this, you can go down little rabbit holes within each question to pick their brain

3. KNOW THEIR BACKGROUND

   1. I should be able to ask you what companies they have worked for, teams they’re on, and what they have achieved on a high level

4. Do not ask questions that you are easily able to Google (wasting both of y'all's time 🤦)

   1. Please avoid any questions that involve what their company does and stuff like that

Coffee chat flow

Small talk → general intro → begin with questions

The Coffee chat

DO:

• Be genuinely curious and ask questions on topics you are unsure of

• Make it extremely clear exactly what you want help with

• Ask why? And how? On topics you want more info

DON’T:

• Just sit there and wait for them to initiate

• Treat it like an interview

• Be unprepared and waste their time