That time I rolled my eyes at networking events and then got my dream job

For years I thought networking was just fake smiling and swapping business cards for no reason. Last fall I forced myself to go to a local tech meetup in Columbus mostly for the free pizza. I ended up chatting with a guy who worked at a company I'd applied to twice and got rejected from. He gave me some honest feedback on my resume and three weeks later I had an interview there. Has anyone else accidentally found a solid lead through something they thought was useless?

3 comments

3 Comments

finleyf8827d ago

@joelwells nailed it with that pizza story. I've had similar luck just venting about something random and finding out the person next to me knows someone who can actually help. So much of it is just being in the right place at the right time and not acting desperate.

joelwells1mo ago

Eighty percent of people at those things are just there for the free food too, so you're not alone. I think the real trick is finding the one person who's actually in your field instead of trying to talk to everyone in the room. My buddy got a lead on a construction supervisor gig because he complained to the wrong guy about how bad the pizza was. Turns out that guy's brother owned the company he was trying to get into. Sometimes the best connections happen when you're not even trying to network.

olivia_harris191mo ago

Nah, I gotta disagree a bit here. Sure, the pizza thing is funny but relying on random luck like that feels like a recipe for wasting a lot of time at bad events. I'd rather go in with a clear goal and talk to a few people on purpose than just hope the stars align over cold pizza.