AI Skill Report Card
Drafting Coffee Chat Outreach
Quick Start13 / 15
Given a target firm (e.g., "Citi Healthcare"), do this end-to-end:
- Find a Cornell alum (or close alternative) working there via LinkedIn.
- Pull 2-3 specific, interesting details from their career path.
- Find or infer their professional email.
- Check the user's calendar for open slots in the next 7-10 days.
- Draft a personalized email in Gmail Drafts using the template below — do not send.
Recommendation▾
Add a 'bad example' showing a generic, unpersonalized email being rejected/ignored to contrast with the good example — currently only shows good outcomes.
Workflow14 / 15
Progress:
- Step 1: Identify target person at the firm
- Step 2: Research their background for talking points
- Step 3: Find their email address
- Step 4: Pull 3 available time windows from user's calendar
- Step 5: Draft personalized email into Gmail Drafts
- Step 6: Confirm draft with user before batch-repeating for next firm
Step 1: Identify the Person
- Search LinkedIn (or LinkedIn Recruiter if available) for alumni of Cornell (prioritize "College of Agriculture and Life Sciences" / bio sciences overlap, but any Cornell degree counts) currently working at the target firm.
- Prioritize: Analysts/Associates (most responsive), then VPs. Avoid MDs/Directors for cold coffee chats unless no junior alum exists.
- If no Cornell alum exists at that firm, fall back to: (a) alum at a peer group/division, or (b) non-alum with a notable non-traditional (STEM/bio) background — this is a strong personalization hook since the user is a bio sciences major.
- Note: full name, title, group/coverage area (e.g., "Healthcare Investment Banking"), school/grad year.
Step 2: Research Talking Points
Look for specifics, not generic facts. Good sources: LinkedIn "About"/experience section, firm bio pages, alumni panels, podcasts, published deal league tables, Cornell career center spotlights. Find 2-3 of:
- Their path from major → IB (especially if non-finance major, e.g., bio/STEM — strong resonance with user's profile)
- A specific deal, sector focus, or rotation they've done
- Any Cornell-specific overlap (same college, club, professor, pre-med-to-finance pivot, etc.)
- Notable career pivot or timeline detail (e.g., "spent 2 years in a lab before recruiting for IB")
Avoid generic praise ("impressive career") — cite the specific fact.
Step 3: Find Email
- Try firm's standard email pattern:
firstname.lastname@firm.com(JPMorgan:firstname.lastname@jpmorgan.com; Barclays:firstname.lastname@barclays.com; Citi:firstname.lastname@citi.com; Evercore:firstname.lastname@evercore.com). - Cross-check against any publicly listed email, Cornell alumni directory, or handshake/LinkedIn contact info section.
- If uncertain of pattern, note it explicitly to the user rather than guessing silently — flag "unverified email" in the draft summary.
Step 4: Pull Calendar Availability
- Check the user's Google Calendar for the next 7-10 business days.
- Select 3 windows that are:
- 30 minutes long
- Outside of classes/existing events
- Weekday mornings (8-9am) or evenings (5-7pm) preferred — realistic for a banker's schedule
- Present times in the user's timezone AND note it's flexible to the recipient's time zone if the firm is NYC-based and user is in Ithaca.
Step 5: Draft the Email
Use this format, then create it as a Gmail draft (do not send):
Subject: Cornell Student — Coffee Chat Request
Hi [First Name],
My name is [User Name], and I'm a sophomore at Cornell studying Biological Sciences with a strong interest in [healthcare investment banking / IB]. I came across your profile and saw that [specific detail — e.g., "you transitioned from a molecular biology background into healthcare coverage at Citi" or "you worked on the [X] deal during your time in the group"], which really resonated with me given my own background.
I'd love the opportunity to learn more about your experience at [Firm] and hear how you navigated the transition into [group/division]. Would you have 20-30 minutes in the next couple weeks for a quick virtual coffee chat? I'm happy to work around your schedule, but a few times that currently work well for me are:
- [Day, Date] at [Time] ET
- [Day, Date] at [Time] ET
- [Day, Date] at [Time] ET
Thank you so much for considering — I really appreciate your time.
Best,
[User Name]
Cornell University | Biological Sciences '2X
[Phone] | [LinkedIn URL]
Step 6: Confirm & Repeat
- Show the user the draft summary (person, firm, talking point used, email confidence level) before moving to the next firm.
- Repeat for each target firm (JPMC, Barclays, Citi Healthcare, Evercore, etc.), creating one draft per contact.
Recommendation▾
The skill is highly specific to one user's context (Cornell, bio sciences major, sophomore) — consider parameterizing school/major/year as variables so it generalizes beyond this one persona, or note in description that it's tailored to a specific user profile.
Examples15 / 20
Example 1: Input: Target firm = Citi Healthcare Output:
- Person found: Sarah Kim, Cornell '19 (Biology & Society), now Associate in Citi Healthcare IB
- Talking point: She spent a year in a research lab post-grad before lateraling into banking via an MBA-less associate program — direct parallel to user's bio background
- Email: sarah.kim@citi.com (pattern-matched, unverified)
- Draft created in Gmail with subject "Cornell Student — Coffee Chat Request", referencing her lab-to-banking pivot, with 3 times pulled from user's calendar (e.g., Tue 8am, Wed 6pm, Thu 8am ET)
Example 2: Input: Target firm = Evercore, no Cornell alum found in Evercore's healthcare group Output:
- Fallback: Found a Cornell alum in Evercore's general industrials group instead, flagged to user: "No healthcare alum found at Evercore — found [Name] in Industrials instead. Want me to proceed or search harder for healthcare?"
- Proceeds only after user confirms direction
Recommendation▾
Address edge cases like: recipient has no email listed anywhere, recipient's LinkedIn is private/sparse, or all calendar slots are full — these gaps in Step 3/4 handling would strengthen completeness.
Best Practices
- Always personalize with a specific fact, never "I saw your impressive background."
- Prioritize alumni — shared Cornell identity is the single strongest opener.
- Keep emails under 150 words — bankers skim.
- Always offer 3 concrete times, not "let me know when works" — reduces friction.
- Flag any unverified email pattern explicitly rather than silently guessing.
- Save every email as a draft, never auto-send — user reviews and sends personally.
- Batch by firm so the user can review one at a time rather than getting overwhelmed.
Common Pitfalls
- Don't use generic templates with no specific personalization — instantly recognizable and ignored.
- Don't target MDs/Directors first — response rates are much lower; start with Analysts/Associates.
- Don't invent details about someone's background — only use verifiable info from LinkedIn/bio pages.
- Don't offer vague time windows ("sometime next week") — always give specific day/date/time.
- Don't send the email yourself — always leave in Draft for user's final review/send.
- Don't ignore timezone — if user is in Ithaca and recipient is in NYC, both happen to be ET, but double check for firms in other cities.