My Coffee Chat Experience

Recently I had my very first coffee chat. Then, 20 minutes later I had my second one. Besides the fact that I enjoyed my coffee, the experience
initially felt like a blur. But looking back on the experiences, I realize that I learned a lot and I am already looking forward to the next one.

The first person I had the privilege of speaking with was Arianny Arias. She works as an Enterprise Strategist with Strategio. Funny enough, we both started at the same time and were introduced to Strategio back in November at the Venture Miami Tech Hiring Fair. I also never would have guessed that she is from Maryland. Once we got to know each other's backgrounds we ended up speaking a bit about Strategio itself and why we appreciate the community that Strategio is currently building. I couldn’t have asked for a better “first coffee chat ever” experience.

After that, I had 2 minutes to refill my coffee mug and it was on to the next coffee chat with Christina Gragasin. In a way, this chat felt like a cheat code because I’ve spoken with Christina before and she’s fantastic. She works as an Associate Talent Strategist and she’s killing it. During our coffee chat, she brought up an interesting question and asked me, “Do you think comprehension is more important than communication, or do you think communication is more important than comprehension and why?” It led to a very interesting conversation and overall was very insightful. I’ve always viewed each of the Strategists I’ve spoken with as excellent communicators and this coffee chat helped me to better understand why that is the case.

After these two experiences, I’ll admit that I have a newfound appreciation for the idea of what a coffee chat is. A few years ago, if you had told me about the idea of a coffee chat and asked me if I was interested in participating in one, I would have responded with a hard NO. But I see now that they can serve as great opportunities to learn from and even laugh with others. I still have a lot of work to do when it comes to my coffee chat skills, and I look forward to bettering myself in that area(along with upgrading my coffee setup.)

My wife is going to hate me in a few months

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