ubiquitous networker


I am a ubiquitous networker.  

I look at LinkedIn as soon as I get up in the morning.

Yesterday morning at 6:30 a.m. a friend of mine (“John”) sent me a LinkedIn message.

He said that there’s a tech job fair at the MaRS Discovery District and that it starts at 12 noon. 

I thought to myself that I didn’t have anything planned, and so I said “yes” to the job fair.

My friend was being very prescient when he said that I could write a post about my job fair experience.

And that the theme could be on how I stepped out of my comfort zone.

When I arrived at the job fair, I surveyed the companies that were there.

I headed straight to a particular booth, because another friend (“Tom”) recently applied for a job at that company.

I followed-up on Tom’s behalf.

I went up to four other booths and introduced myself.

“Hi, my name is Jamie.  I’m an HR professional.  I’m looking to work at a company as a culture specialist.  It could be part-time or contract.  Do you already have a culture specialist?  Is workplace culture something that your company thinks about?...”

I had no problem in stepping forward, shaking hands and introducing myself.

I visited 5 booths.  Representatives from 4 of the booths were polite and attentive.  They made my day.   A representative from the 5th booth seemed distant.  Her advice seemed quite perfunctory when she advised to check back on their web site sometime.    

As soon as I got home, I sent out LinkedIn invitations to some of the people that I met.  Three people LinkedIn with me. Emotionally I felt exhilarated from stepping out of my comfort zone and striking up conversations with people I didn’t know.  Adrenaline was pumping through me throughout the evening.  I felt exhausted at the end of the evening.  

Striking up a conversation is like yin and yang.

Exhilarating and exhausting.

And oh so worthwhile.      


Also Published on LinkedIn on:  July 28, 2017
Image Credit:  Pixabay






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