The purpose of a coffee date is to weed out people who don't drink coffee. You wouldn't want to work with such a freak of nature!
You can learn a lot about someone's coffee habits. How much sugar, how much milk. How much... whiskey.
Ask HN: ”Coffee date” etiquette
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Re: Ask HN: ”Coffee date” etiquette
#12The purpose of a coffee date is to weed out people who don't drink coffee. You wouldn't want to work with such a freak of nature!
You can learn a lot about someone's coffee habits. How much sugar, how much milk. How much... whiskey.
Who drinks plain coffee? Latte, espresso, chai - single or double shot - soy or low-fat, the list goes on and on!
Re: Ask HN: ”Coffee date” etiquette
#13Also having some pretext for the date helps I think; asking for advice on how to get a job for the role you're interested, better understanding the company culture and working practices or advice for some other particular situation could all be good reasons to meet. Setting out the reason for the date (in your email response to the email introduction) will make it more likely that your request will be taken up.
Re: Ask HN: ”Coffee date” etiquette
#141. Find an Introduction
2. "Do Lunch" or "Do Coffee" don't call it a "date"
3. Talk about problems that are interesting that you've solved(or that they are solving)
4. ???
5. Profit!
Re: Ask HN: ”Coffee date” etiquette
#15I always give the same answer to questions regarding social etiquette/propriety: just be normal. Seriously, you're overthinking it. Just be a normal person. Make people comfortable, help them get what they want, and smile. That's all you need. If you think something is weird, it probably is, purely because you'll make it weird by thinking that. Would you want to go on a coffee date with someone who was worried it was a weird thing to do?
Dale Carnegie knew what he was talking about. In general, if you treat people like people, you'll do well.
Re: Ask HN: ”Coffee date” etiquette
#16The purpose of a coffee date is to weed out people who don't drink coffee. You wouldn't want to work with such a freak of nature!
Or a mormon?
Re: Ask HN: ”Coffee date” etiquette
#17It's fine to ask for a coffee meeting if you want to learn more about an industry, position, or the company.
Hiring, and interviewing is as much about mutual likeablitily as it is skills and qualifications. You can always train for skill and knowledge more than you can train for attitude.
Another thing to remember is as more medium and large companies start to use applicant tracking systems, they generally filter out very good people who don't happen to have the right keywords in their resume that they upload.
Standing out will become more important in those cases.
Ultimately, while what you know is important, who you know can help.
Re: Ask HN: ”Coffee date” etiquette
#18I'm a sysadmin manager in the US. Let's suppose that I have a position open (at http://www.smartleaf.com/careers/ ) and that you think you're qualified for it. You could send me your resume and a cover letter. This would be impressive, because very few people manage to do this according to my rigorous demands (plain text or PDF, tell me a story about an interesting technical problem you solved). Or, if you knew someo…
Job Requirement: "You must be: Clever, competent and kind"
I wish more job descriptions were like this one. Straight and to the point, not much fluff or buzzword padding all over the place.
Re: Ask HN: ”Coffee date” etiquette
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can learn a lot about someone's coffee habits. How much sugar, how much milk. How much... whiskey.
Who drinks plain coffee? Latte, espresso, chai - single or double shot - soy or low-fat, the list goes on and on!
Our whole team interviewed a guy at a local restaurant over lunch. Normally the interviewee would order something simple because we'd be grilling them pretty hard... but this guy ordered the yak. What did it mean?!!?
Re: Ask HN: ”Coffee date” etiquette
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can learn a lot about someone's coffee habits. How much sugar, how much milk. How much... whiskey.
Who drinks plain coffee? Latte, espresso, chai - single or double shot - soy or low-fat, the list goes on and on!
I'd say about half the people in the Netherlands drink their coffee "gewoon" ("just")! Add too much milk and it's officially "verkeerd" (wrong). As in, coffee machines in petrol stations have a "koffie verkeerd" button, presumably for foreign truckers from far off lands where they spoil their delicious hot beverage with... (blegh) milk.