NETWORKING
Five?
Ten?
Twenty?
Master’s students often want a networking target they can put into a spreadsheet.
That makes sense.
It also creates a strange failure mode.
You can complete twenty coffee chats and still have almost no network.
Because a conversation happened once.
A relationship needs a reason to continue.
The first few calls should change your questions, not just your count
Your first coffee chat may be basic.
What do you do?
How did you get into consulting?
What is the office like?
Useful.
By your fifth conversation, those same questions should start feeling too broad.
You now know more.
So the questions get sharper.
“How did you decide between generalist recruiting and the healthcare practice?”
“What surprised you most when you moved from a technical master’s into client work?”
“What do strong first-year consultants do differently on a team?”
Progress is visible in the questions you stop asking.
If you want a fuller discussion of sensible networking targets, read How Many Consultants Should You Network With Before Applying?.
Ten shallow conversations can be less useful than three that develop
Imagine two students.
Student A completes 18 coffee chats.
Every call is 20 minutes.
Every follow-up says, “Thank you for your time.”
Nothing else happens.
Student B speaks with seven people.
Two conversations lead to follow-ups. One person introduces another colleague. Another reviews a resume. Someone recognises the student at an event.
Which student has the stronger network?
That is why pure volume becomes misleading.
| What you count | What it tells you | What it misses |
|---|---|---|
| Messages sent | Activity | Whether your targeting is good |
| Coffee chats | Conversations | Whether anyone remembers you |
| Replies | Outreach effectiveness | Relationship depth |
| Follow-ups | Continuity | Whether the relationship is developing |
Activity is not the same as traction.
So does quantity not matter at all?
It still matters.
That is the next turn.
If you talk to only one consultant, you may get one person’s unusually positive or negative experience and mistake it for the firm.
A broader sample helps you compare offices, roles, recruiting paths, and backgrounds.
You also cannot predict which conversation will click.
So you need enough volume to create opportunities.
Just not so much that every interaction becomes transactional.
For the trade-off between breadth and depth, read Quality vs Quantity in Consulting Networking.
The useful threshold is not “I spoke to X people”
Try a different test.
Can you name:
- two or three people you would comfortably update before applying?
- someone who knows your background well enough to describe you?
- someone you can ask a more specific follow-up question?
- someone who has voluntarily introduced you to another person?
Those signals tell you more than a raw chat count.
Recognition is the threshold.
Once people remember you, the network begins doing something your spreadsheet cannot show.
There is also a point where another coffee chat stops helping
You already understand the firm.
You know the office.
You have spoken to people at different levels.
Your application is approaching.
And you are still scheduling three calls a week because networking feels productive.
Maybe the next hour belongs somewhere else.
Resume refinement.
Case prep.
Application strategy.
Following up with the people you already know.
That is the final reversal.
The target number is useful when it gets you moving.
It becomes less useful once it keeps you moving in circles.
You do not need everyone at the firm to know you.
You need a small number of conversations to become something more than calendar entries.
Then the question changes from:
“How many coffee chats have I done?”
To the one that matters more:
“Who would actually remember me?”