After attending a meeting through Business Undergraduates Invested in Leadership Development (BUILD) discussing club applications and the coffee chat process, I glanced over at my friend Darby Hubner (MSB ’30) and noticed her disheartened expression mimicking mine. In our post-meeting debrief, we realized that neither of us truly understood the extent to which these little technicalities and mannerisms actually seemed to matter. My thoughts were clouded with what I would need to wear, whether to bring a resume or not, when to use a phone versus a notepad, what questions to avoid, and so forth.
As the club application process has progressed, I’ve heard countless stories of students’ coffee chat experiences on campus. A few weeks ago, I heard someone describe a coffee chat as “successful,” only to later hear a rumor that the host of the chat thought it went “poorly.” These one-on-one chats have quickly become a “make-or-break” scenario for freshmen anxiously awaiting a spot in the coveted club of their dreams.
While these conversations may parallel the kinds of dialogue that people have in professional settings,I worry about their artificial nature. Some students feel steered away by the idea of a coffee chat, while others feel encouraged by them. Intrigued by whether more students found coffee chats rewarding or intimidating, I decided to interview my peers to learn more about this ritual and gather data as to whether students considered them worth it.
Standard coffee chats typically last around 15 to 20 minutes and frequently have an underlying, evaluative nature to them. For many of the competitive business-oriented clubs on campus, coffee chats can feel like a necessary step towards entry, determining whether one can secure an interview or not. Jack Gilhooly (MSB ’30), has participated in a few coffee chats for business-associated clubs on campus.
“Coffee chats are kind of required as a way to track interest,” Gilhooly said. He mentioned the best conversations he has had were the ones that felt the most lively and genuine.
Many students prepare for coffee chats in similar ways. Looking up specific aspects of the club, brainstorming questions, and searching for mutual existing connections to learn more about the person they are chatting with are all common pre-planning tactics.
While these preparations are helpful, they can also make a chat feel performative and disingenuous, as conversation can feel a bit too rehearsed. When students are genuinely curious about the topics they are discussing, the conversation can feel more natural.
“It shows when the students are actually curious and have thought about the questions they want to ask, rather than doing a coffee chat just to check a box,” said Piper Frankiewicz (MSB ’27), the director of consulting for Hilltop Consultants.
“The important thing is to ask what matters to you.” Frankiewicz has been on both sides of the coffee chat, as the person asking questions and the person answering them. She believes that the advantages of a coffee chat can really just depend on a student’s personality.
“If you’re confident in your conversational skills and are looking to learn something specific, I’d say go for it,” Frankiewicz said. “If you hesitate about making the wrong impression, I think it’s important to weigh your options and decide whether it would be worth it to you.”
For less pre-professional organizations on campus, coffee chats often serve as a way to understand more about the people who are already involved. Some a cappella groups, for instance, hold coffee chats to get to know the singers after they audition. Still, coffee chats’ reputation on campus often influences how students perceive them.
Bella Lombardi (SFS ’30) said she participated in coffee chats for the Phantoms and the Saxatones, on-campus a cappella groups, because of her interest in music. Lombardi said the coffee chats were intended as a “low stress” interaction, yet she still found herself writing down every musical experience she has ever had beforehand to prepare.
“There are these unspoken idiosyncrasies that clouded my judgement as I am surrounded by people in the MSB that are having extremely evaluative coffee chats,” Lombardi said.
While conversations about coffee chats can make the competitive nature of clubs feel substantially higher, I remind myself that the coffee chats I have participated in (and intend to participate in) are not driven by that pressure, but instead driven by genuine inquiry.
As echoed by several students, the priority should not be to ask questions for the sake of asking them, but instead to demonstrate your interests, quirks, and reasons for why you’re sitting in front of the specific club representative that you are. In other words, be the most authentic version of yourself, but only if you feel inclined enough to do so.
71°F
News Commentary
Coffee chat culture on campus: conversations or evaluations?
By Hannah Leiman
6:25 PM
After attending a meeting through Business Undergraduates Invested in Leadership Development (BUILD) discussing club applications and the coffee chat process, I glanced over at my friend Darby Hubner (MSB ’30) and noticed her disheartened expression mimicking mine. In our post-meeting debrief, we realized that neither of us truly understood the extent to which these little technicalities and mannerisms actually seemed to matter. My thoughts were clouded with what I would need to wear, whether to bring a resume or not, when to use a phone versus a notepad, what questions to avoid, and so forth.
As the club application process has progressed, I’ve heard countless stories of students’ coffee chat experiences on campus. A few weeks ago, I heard someone describe a coffee chat as “successful,” only to later hear a rumor that the host of the chat thought it went “poorly.” These one-on-one chats have quickly become a “make-or-break” scenario for freshmen anxiously awaiting a spot in the coveted club of their dreams.
While these conversations may parallel the kinds of dialogue that people have in professional settings,I worry about their artificial nature. Some students feel steered away by the idea of a coffee chat, while others feel encouraged by them. Intrigued by whether more students found coffee chats rewarding or intimidating, I decided to interview my peers to learn more about this ritual and gather data as to whether students considered them worth it.
Standard coffee chats typically last around 15 to 20 minutes and frequently have an underlying, evaluative nature to them. For many of the competitive business-oriented clubs on campus, coffee chats can feel like a necessary step towards entry, determining whether one can secure an interview or not. Jack Gilhooly (MSB ’30), has participated in a few coffee chats for business-associated clubs on campus.
“Coffee chats are kind of required as a way to track interest,” Gilhooly said. He mentioned the best conversations he has had were the ones that felt the most lively and genuine.
Many students prepare for coffee chats in similar ways. Looking up specific aspects of the club, brainstorming questions, and searching for mutual existing connections to learn more about the person they are chatting with are all common pre-planning tactics.
While these preparations are helpful, they can also make a chat feel performative and disingenuous, as conversation can feel a bit too rehearsed. When students are genuinely curious about the topics they are discussing, the conversation can feel more natural.
“It shows when the students are actually curious and have thought about the questions they want to ask, rather than doing a coffee chat just to check a box,” said Piper Frankiewicz (MSB ’27), the director of consulting for Hilltop Consultants.
“The important thing is to ask what matters to you.” Frankiewicz has been on both sides of the coffee chat, as the person asking questions and the person answering them. She believes that the advantages of a coffee chat can really just depend on a student’s personality.
“If you’re confident in your conversational skills and are looking to learn something specific, I’d say go for it,” Frankiewicz said. “If you hesitate about making the wrong impression, I think it’s important to weigh your options and decide whether it would be worth it to you.”
For less pre-professional organizations on campus, coffee chats often serve as a way to understand more about the people who are already involved. Some a cappella groups, for instance, hold coffee chats to get to know the singers after they audition. Still, coffee chats’ reputation on campus often influences how students perceive them.
Bella Lombardi (SFS ’30) said she participated in coffee chats for the Phantoms and the Saxatones, on-campus a cappella groups, because of her interest in music. Lombardi said the coffee chats were intended as a “low stress” interaction, yet she still found herself writing down every musical experience she has ever had beforehand to prepare.
“There are these unspoken idiosyncrasies that clouded my judgement as I am surrounded by people in the MSB that are having extremely evaluative coffee chats,” Lombardi said.
While conversations about coffee chats can make the competitive nature of clubs feel substantially higher, I remind myself that the coffee chats I have participated in (and intend to participate in) are not driven by that pressure, but instead driven by genuine inquiry.
As echoed by several students, the priority should not be to ask questions for the sake of asking them, but instead to demonstrate your interests, quirks, and reasons for why you’re sitting in front of the specific club representative that you are. In other words, be the most authentic version of yourself, but only if you feel inclined enough to do so.
Hannah Leiman
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