Monday Night Networking

In the spirit of cranking things up a notch, or putting oars in the water if you will, I attended a networking event last night involving my college alumni association. This event was not sponsored by the college itself, but by an alumnus who is a business consultant with a strong belief in the power of networking. Attempting to have an open mind I drove down to the event, albeit not sure what to expect. I was primarily looking to make some new contacts, strengthen previous relationships made, get my name out there, and let everyone know that, " I voluntarily left my job, I'm on sabbatical, I'm trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life." Give or take a few run-on sentences. In a room filled with CPAs, Tax something or others, and financial planners, few of whom were under 50, this would be an experience to say the least...

I arrive and immediately speak to the sponsor of the event, the business consultant. We have been emailing a bit and I look forward to what he has to say this evening. After some brief small talk, I head for the wine. A nice glass of white should ease the pain. After a few more quick conversations we head into a conference room for the "formal" part of the evening. The host passed out sheets of paper broken down into 3 sections; 1. Who you are 2. 3 Referrals 3. The ultimate referral. Then, of course, everyone stands up, goes around the room and recited their piece.

"I am Mike Coll and I am currently On Sabbatical...I don't know exactly what I'm looking for, but ideally I'm looking for a business owner/manager to take a chance on a bright, young enthusiastic kid who can increase your sales, add creative talent and make a difference" or something along those lines. When speaking in front of a group, I always attempt to be a little dry, a little witty, not take things too seriously. I think it went well. Or I could be completely wrong.

After this formal exercise we were free to "talk amongst ourselves", Linda Richmond style. The gentleman next to me, whom I had lunch with last week, leans over to me and says, " What'd you think of this...want to go get more wine?" Hmmmmm, yes let's get more wine. I explained to him that I was not expecting much, simply to get my name and story out there with some key contacts, including the host, the business consultant.

After the 2nd glass is almost finished I wandered over to the host, asking him if he wanted to chat, or had any type of advice for someone in my shoes. We pulled up a couple chairs on the other side of the room and sat down. He told me to make a list of all things I'd like in a next job, likes, tasks, location, etc; then make a list of industries I'd like to work for, then once that's figured out, set up some informational interviews. Sounds like pretty sound advice, which pretty much correlates to a book I'm reading now. But I haven't really put those things down on paper, so I think its a great place to start. He then mentioned a "personality, career assessment test" he has given to clients who have changed careers. It summarizes one's likes and dislikes and highlights things to look for in a new career. He is going to send me this "test" and then meet up to go over the results with me. I'm very excited about this. I think this is a great result of my attendance to this networking event.

Ironically, I have another "personality" test to take later today, this one coming from the financial/insurance planner I met with last week. As I said I'm not sure I'm really interested in going that route, but I'm all for taking the test to see if I am even accepted. And after all, I'm trying to figure things out, so taking a couple of these test certainly cannot hurt.

So, in summary, getting up and going to one of these networking things can be painful, but if you focus on getting something small out of it, making headway with a key contact, achieving a small goal, your efforts will pay off sometime in the future. And let's hope for me it's sooner rather than later!