AI can draft your resume and write your emails, but it can't make someone want to meet you twice.
The Summary
- Lindsey Coleman, Morgan Stanley's head of fixed income client coverage for the Americas, asks one thing before coffee meetings with aspiring Wall Streeters: read three articles about my job so we have something to discuss
- She thinks "networking" is too transactional and argues real relationships come from repeated evidence of genuine interest, not one-off coffees
- Coleman says AI raises the stakes for interpersonal skills, which suggests junior talent needs to differentiate on effort and authenticity, not just technical chops
The Signal
Coleman manages 250 people and oversees Morgan Stanley's fixed-income institutional client business. She's been at the firm for over two decades, rising partly on the strength of relationships she says weren't built in single meetings. Her coffee test is simple: do the homework or don't bother. Most people want the free advice. Few want to do the work to understand what she actually does.
The distinction matters more now. Coleman argues AI raises the bar for interpersonal skills, which tracks with what we're seeing across knowledge work. When automation handles the rote stuff, the premium shifts to what machines can't do: showing up prepared, asking smart questions, demonstrating you care enough to understand context before asking for time.
"People want to take the free coffee. They want some advice. There are only some people who actually want to do the work."
Coleman was one of Business Insider's inaugural Rising Stars of Wall Street in 2017. Her critique of "networking" as transactional cuts against the conventional wisdom that career advancement is about maximizing connections. She's saying the opposite: depth beats breadth, and evidence of genuine interest beats empty enthusiasm.
The three-article ask is a filter. It screens for people who are serious versus people who want a shortcut. It also forces the coffee meeting to be substantive instead of generic. You can't fake your way through a conversation about someone's specific work if you didn't read about it. This isn't gatekeeping. It's efficiency for both sides.
Key points from Coleman's approach:
- Relationships require repeated demonstrations of interest, not single transactions
- Preparation signals seriousness better than charm or credentials alone
- AI's rise makes human judgment about effort and authenticity more valuable, not less
The Implication
If you're early in your career and trying to break into competitive fields, Coleman's filter is the new baseline. Agents can write your cover letter and summarize quarterly earnings. They can't show up curious, prepared, and genuinely interested in what someone does. That's still yours to own.
For hiring managers and senior people, this framing offers a clear test: who does the work to understand your world before asking for access to it? That answer predicts who will do the work once they're inside. As automation handles more of the technical work, the differentiator isn't who knows the most, it's who cares enough to learn what matters.