A big part of Berkeley culture is coffee chatting. Whether it is chatting at Caffè Strada for club recruitment or reaching out to alumni on LinkedIn, coffee chats are deeply rooted in campus culture. During the first couple years of my college career, I felt very awkward and uncomfortable having to initiate conversations with someone I did not know and figure out how to break the ice. However, over time, I started to see the beauty of coffee chats.
In fact, a big part of my summer internship was spent on coffee chats. My manager encouraged me to talk to other people around the company to learn from their experiences and receive mentorship for my project. I was hesitant to approach those with much more experience than I had because I did not want to take up their time.
To my surprise, these conversations quickly became one of the most valuable parts of my internship. Being used to a school environment where I focused on getting assignments and projects done, moving into a corporate environment and figuring out what skills I could apply in the real world—and what further learning I needed—was a big learning curve for me. The fast-paced environment also gave me a sense of imposter syndrome. It felt like everyone around me, with much more experience, knew exactly what they were doing. I often found myself lost in new terminology and trying to figure out how I could build my own project using the resources around me.
However, coffee chats actually helped me adjust to the work environment instead of going down that spiral. People in my department told me what their day-to-day work looked like and what areas I might be interested in further exploring. Knowing that I was an intern and new to the industry, they were willing to break down their experiences and provide mentorship. They even bought me coffee!
While I came prepared to ask career questions, people also opened up about their personal lives, ranging from weekend plans with family to their coffee choices. One day, I mentioned that I had been trying to get into baking, and the person I was talking to happened to have a baking business. That led to recommendations for local bakeries, which led to a conversation about the bakery scene in San Francisco, which somehow led to my experiences growing up in the Bay Area. One conversation topic led to another, and suddenly, it felt like a natural flow of conversation. Something I thought had to be kept strictly professional and corporate turned into a casual conversation between two people.
Furthermore, I met a bunch of Cal alumni! The more coffee chats I had, the more people introduced me to others who had attended Berkeley. With many of them being recent alumni, they talked about their experiences not only transitioning from college to the corporate world but also moving away from the Bay Area. They mentioned how they needed to come back to see the newly built Gateway building (and, as both a tour guide and a data science major, of course I invited them back for a tour!). It was comforting to talk to people who had once been in the same place I am now and hear about where their paths had taken them since leaving Berkeley.
Sometimes, being in an academic environment, it is easy to think that learning mostly happens in classroom settings. But this summer reminded me how much I can learn simply by hearing people’s stories: their different journeys, experiences, and perspectives from all over the world. For me, coffee chats became a way to explore that diversity, learn from people with much more life and professional experience than I have, and become more comfortable connecting with people I might otherwise never have met.
So, if there is someone you have been wanting to reach out to, whether it is a Berkeley alum, a classmate, a professor, or someone whose career interests you, ask them to grab a coffee. You never know where the conversation might lead!