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If you've been researching MBA programs or job hunting in the US, this term comes up without fail. Translated literally, it sounds like "a casual chat over coffee"—but in practice, it's closer to a cold-outreach interview.
Through LinkedIn or your school's Japanese club, you reach out to current students or people working at a company you'd love to join, ask for 15–30 minutes of their time, and pick their brain—that's a coffee chat.
In Japan, the closest equivalent might be the "OB visit" (reaching out to an alum from your own school). But there's one decisive difference. With a coffee chat, you approach complete strangers—no shared alma mater, no prior connection required. If you spot someone interesting on LinkedIn, you message them even if you have zero in common. That's the culture.
"Wait, you just message someone you've never met?"—if that's your reaction, it's a perfectly normal one. But if you want to job hunt in the US, getting over this hurdle is where it all begins.
Why does job hunting in the US place so much weight on coffee chats in the first place? The answer lies in a fundamental difference between how Japan and the US hire.
At most Japanese companies, an HR department manages hiring centrally. Within the system of mass new-graduate recruitment, HR screens application forms, schedules interviews, and extends offers. Whether an applicant has built a relationship with individual employees beforehand has almost no bearing on whether they get hired.
The US is the exact opposite.
At American companies, it's overwhelmingly common for each team or department to hold its own hiring authority. In other words, a Hiring Manager who decides "my team needs someone" searches for candidates who fit their team, interviews them, and makes the call. HR plays a supporting role in that process—they don't hold the final say.
What does this structure mean? It means that "whether you know someone at the company" becomes decisively important in the hiring process.
If there's someone inside who knows you, that person can tell the Hiring Manager, "I've got a candidate for you" (this is called a Referral). At American companies, a Referral gives you a dramatically higher chance of landing an interview than applying cold from the outside. Some companies even have written policies to prioritize Referral candidates in their screening.
The coffee chat is the means of building, from scratch, the relationships that lead to these Referrals.
Coffee chats come with two difficult sides.
The first is the psychological hurdle of contacting people you don't know.
This is an especially high wall for people from East Asia. In Japan, China, Korea—across all these cultures, abruptly messaging a stranger to ask, "Could I have 15 minutes of your time?" feels somehow rude. "Am I being a nuisance?" "How embarrassing if they say no." "What would I even talk about?"—these anxieties block that first step.
But whether or not you can take that first step will dramatically change the quality of your MBA experience.
The mindset I used to get myself over that first step was to reach out in the spirit of "I might never meet this person again anyway." Even if you get no reply, even if you're turned down, it has zero impact on your life. A single LinkedIn message is not going to blow up your world.
And this is a numbers game. It's a world where sending 40–50 messages and getting 1–2 replies counts as a good outcome. A response rate of around 2–5% is normal. If you send 10 and all 10 are ignored, that's not a "failure"—it's exactly as expected. Going in with a "nice if it lands" attitude is the healthiest approach for your peace of mind.
Once you've sent that very first message, the second becomes surprisingly easy. By the tenth, you'll feel no resistance at all. Just like strength training, the first rep of networking is the hardest.
The second hurdle is more fundamental: thinking about what you can offer the other person.
The purpose of a coffee chat is to deepen your own knowledge, learn what an industry is really like, and expand your network. In other words, you are fundamentally the one receiving.
But here's what you must not forget: the other person is giving you a precious 15–30 minutes. They're carving time out of a busy job for a stranger who suddenly messaged them on LinkedIn. Whether you can hold onto that awareness is what decisively separates good networking from bad.
American business culture has a philosophy called "Give first." If you want to get something, start by giving. That principle holds for coffee chats too.
"But what could an MBA student possibly give a working professional?"—you might wonder. In fact, the value you can offer is surprisingly large.
1. The latest academic insights
In your MBA classes, you're exposed to the newest case studies, frameworks, and research findings. Someone buried in the day-to-day of the working world rarely finds time to keep up with academic trends. "We covered a case on ___ in class recently—are you seeing similar moves in your industry?"—an angle like this is intellectually stimulating for them too.
2. A different industry or regional perspective
Your insight into the Japanese market and corporate culture is valuable information for someone working in the US. "In Japan, we're seeing a trend of ___ in this space," or "Japanese consumers tend to prioritize ___"—your very identity as a Japanese person becomes material for a Give.
3. Your classmates' network
An MBA class is full of classmates with diverse backgrounds. "If you're ever looking for someone with expertise in ___, I could introduce a classmate"—an offer like this is enormously appreciated. Networking is also the act of connecting people to people.
4. Genuine gratitude and thoughtful follow-up
This one is surprisingly easy to forget, yet it may be the most important. After a coffee chat, send a thank-you message within 24 hours. Reference what they shared and give specific feedback: "Your point about ___ was especially helpful." Months later, report back: "I applied to ___ using the advice you gave me." The people who follow up this thoughtfully are astonishingly rare—which is exactly why simply doing it sets you apart.
Let's lay out exactly how to do it, step by step.
Step 1: Build a target list
・ Search LinkedIn for people at your target companies and in your target industry ・ Prioritize alumni from your own MBA program (Alumni)—their response rate is far higher ・ Tap into the networks of your school's Japanese club and Asian communities too ・ Build a list of at least 50 people (assume only 1–5 will reply)
Step 2: Send the message
Keep the message short and specific. Here's an example.
"Hi [Name], nice to meet you. I'm ___, an MBA student at Columbia Business School. I'm keenly interested in a career in the ___ industry, and I'd love to hear about your experience over about 15 minutes. If there's a time that works for you, I'd be grateful to know."
What not to do:
・ Send a wall of text (3–4 sentences is ideal—they receive dozens of messages a day) ・ Ask for a Referral right off the bat (seeking a payoff before building a relationship is a no-go) ・ Write a lengthy account of your background (what they want to know is "why did you contact me?")
Step 3: Send questions and your résumé in advance—preparation shapes the impression
Once a time is set, I strongly recommend sending your list of questions and your own résumé ahead of the meeting.
This has two major benefits.
First, it gives the impression that "this person came prepared." They're carving out time from a busy schedule. Sending questions in advance shows that you value their time and that you're serious about this chat. Between someone who shows up saying "just tell me whatever" with no prep and someone who sends a concrete list of questions—if you were in their shoes, who would you feel better about?
The other benefit is that it lets you make the most of your 15–30 minutes on the day. If you've sent your questions ahead, you can start the conversation assuming they've glanced over the basics. You no longer have to spend precious time on questions at the level of "tell me about your company's ___ business," and you can spend it on the deeper stuff instead—their personal experiences, or the industry realities that never make it into public view. By organizing what you want to ask in advance, you can push into even sharper questions on the day. It's truly killing two birds with one stone.
Attaching your résumé is effective too. With your background in hand ahead of time, they can give you more precise advice. "With your experience, the ___ position seems like a fit," or "You should emphasize this experience more in interviews"—this kind of specific feedback simply doesn't come out unless they've seen your résumé.
Step 4: The chat itself—commit to "listening"
In a 15–30 minute chat, aim to let the other person do 80% of the talking.
・ Ask about their career path ("How did you end up in your current role?") ・ Ask about the realities of the industry or company ("What's your take on the ___ trend?") ・ Ask for concrete advice ("What should I be doing right now?")
Talk about yourself only when asked. A coffee chat is not your presentation stage.
Step 5: Follow-up—this is 90% of it
What you do after the chat ends determines the future of the relationship.
・ Send a thank-you message within 24 hours ・ Reference something specific from the conversation ("Your point about ___ really stuck with me") ・ If they introduced someone or shared a resource, always follow up on it ・ Weeks to months later, send an update ("I acted on your advice and did ___")
By keeping this follow-up going, a one-time "chat" turns into an ongoing "relationship." And when you truly need it—say, when you ask for a Referral—you'll have built the foundation of trust that makes them think, "I'd be happy to recommend this person."
As you rack up coffee chats, at some point the word Referral starts to feel real.
A Referral is when someone inside a company recommends you for its hiring process. American companies encourage employees to give Referrals, and it's not unusual for a company to pay the referrer a bonus when a Referral leads to a hire.
In other words, a Referral is a mechanism that benefits both sides. You get a shot at an interview, and the referrer gets a reward. There's no need to feel "I'm sorry to ask."
That said, a Referral is built on a foundation of trust. Asking someone for a Referral out of the blue after a single coffee chat will almost certainly get you a no—because the referrer is vouching for your work and character with their own name attached.
After several coffee chats or interactions at events, once the person has come to understand your abilities and character—that's when, ideally, the topic of a Referral arises naturally. Don't rush it. If you keep up Give first, the Referral will follow as a result.
As you put coffee chats into practice, there are points Japanese MBA students in particular should watch out for.
Trap 1: The "I have to speak in perfect English" syndrome
You feel ashamed that your English isn't flawless, so you avoid coffee chats altogether. But the other person isn't grading your English ability. They're interested in what you think and what you want to know. Even if your grammar wobbles a bit, as long as your message gets across, that's enough. In fact, the very willingness to reach out despite a language handicap often makes a strong impression.
Trap 2: The "I have to build the relationship in one shot" pressure
Japanese people tend to put too much weight on a single encounter. So determined to "leave a perfect impression in these 30 minutes," you tense up completely. A coffee chat is a starting line, not a finish line. You don't need to become close friends in one chat—having them think "ah, what a pleasant person" is plenty.
Trap 3: Giving up because "I have no connections"
Your American classmates start with wide networks. "I don't have connections like that"—this comparison is pointless. Your American classmates, too, once had a time when they started networking from zero. Everyone starts out as strangers to one another. The coffee chat is precisely the mechanism for building relationships from that zero.
Having read this far, some of you may think, "So in the end, networking just favors sociable people, right?"
Wrong. Networking isn't a personality—it's a skill.
Even an introvert can send 50 coffee-chat messages. Prepare a list of questions in advance and you'll never worry about the conversation stalling. Make a template for your follow-up messages and you can send one in five minutes.
All of this can be systematized. It's not talent—it's a process.
And this skill will keep helping you well beyond your MBA job hunt, throughout the rest of your career. When you switch jobs, when you launch a new project, when you move to another country—the ability to "reach out to strangers, build relationships, and exchange value with each other" becomes the most versatile weapon you have as a businessperson.
Finally, let me say a little more about the "Give first" philosophy.
Frame networking as "building connections" and it takes on a somewhat calculating ring. But the essence is different. Networking is the act of offering value to others and stacking up trust.
Share what you know. Help someone in need. Connect people to people. Celebrate others' successes alongside them—this accumulation of small "Gives," before you know it, creates a state where people have gathered around you.
And here's the crucial part: the return on a Give doesn't necessarily come back from the person you gave to. The kindness you did for Person A might come back to you via Person B. It might return three years later in a form you never imagined. The people who can keep up this "Give with no expectation of return" build the strongest networks over the long run.
If you try to be calculating, the other person sees through it instantly. The moment they think "this person just wants a Referral," the relationship is over. Conversely, to someone who approaches a coffee chat with genuine curiosity and gratitude, the other person naturally opens up.
・ What a coffee chat is → A "cold-outreach interview" where you ask a stranger, via LinkedIn or the like, for 15–30 minutes of their time. Once you understand the US hiring structure (team-level hiring authority and Referral culture), its importance becomes clear ・ The psychological hurdle → Sending 40–50 and getting 1–2 back is a good outcome. Go in with the spirit of "I might never meet this person again anyway." The first message is the hardest ・ The Give-first attitude → Since you're taking their time, offer value of your own too. The latest insights, a different perspective, a classmate introduction, and thoughtful follow-up ・ Follow-up is 90% → A thank-you within 24 hours, specific gratitude, an update months later. Keep this up and a "chat" turns into a "relationship" ・ Networking is a skill → Not personality, but a system. Even introverts get reliable results once they build the process
A single coffee-chat message could lead to the encounter that changes your career. Start by opening LinkedIn and sending that first message. Together with Gradigo, let's move forward one step at a time.
