Great Casual Networking Event Last Night!

Thank you.

Seriously…thank you.

Why am I thanking you?  Because I’ve been feeling like hell all week, having been taken out by this damnable head cold that’s making the rounds through Southeast Michigan, and I really wasn’t feeling it last night.  I wasn’t up for being the social butterfly, I didn’t really want to play traffic cop, I had zero interest in being “Julie, your ship’s cruise director” all night…I wasn’t even really feeling like having a beer.

I know…that’s bad, huh?

But then something happened…

It started off as a pretty quiet night.

4:50pm

The usual suspects showed up a little early to hang at the bar, chat, and play a little catch up before the event got started.

I recognized a few faces throughout the bar, but by and large, it didn’t seem like we were going to have too crazy of a time from the get-go.

Which…obviously…was perfectly fine with me.  Within fifteen minutes of arriving I’d already been told be three different people three different variations of “You look like hell, you should be in bed.”

That’s always guaranteed to make a guy feel good, huh?

Exactly.

As the clock crept closer to 5:01, I figured it was time to head back into the back room and assume a perch at the bar where I could watch for people coming in, etc.  I put on a happy face, grabbed a beer I had no intention of drinking (because, after all, appearances must be maintained), and braced for impact.  Bob was on his usual stool in the corner, and Jeff had shot us both a text about thirty minutes earlier letting us know he wasn’t going to make it (note: Bob and I are both convinced he bailed on us to go stand in line for the new iPhone, and nothing he says to the contrary will be believed), so please…please…let this be a light turnout tonight…

No such luck.

5:20pm

A few recruiters filtered in, quickly followed by some other folks…and before you knew it, it was a full room.

As I heaved a heavy sigh of realization that it was time to go play traffic cop and start making introductions around the room, that’s when the storm clouds parted.

I met someone who got hired from our Pink Slip Party and wanted to stop by and say thank you.  The event was on Thursday, he interviewed that Sunday, got the offer and accepted the offer on that Monday, and started that Tuesday.

Not a bad turnaround time from start to finish, huh?

Well, now my spirits were lifted and I felt a bit better about life in general.  Getting good news and hearing that our own little particular brand of whacky mayhem is actually effective always tends to do that for me.

And then I met someone else who got hired from our Pink Slip Party.  Granted, the cycle in that case was a bit longer since they just started their new job this week, but still…that’s pretty solid.  So now two people had taken their time to come back, say thanks, and most importantly had gotten the hint that they shouldn’t stop coming just because they had found jobs and were there to work on improving their network.

So that’s how Dave got his groove back.

And that was before I met person #3 who got hired from the Pink Slip Party.  And the two people who had gotten new jobs as a result of connections made at our casual networking events.  And the six new recruiters who had never been at an event of ours before and thought it was, in no particular order, “phenomenal”, “outstanding”, “a really great way to meet people and candidates”, and “excellent”.  And the crowd comprised mainly of new people who had never been to one of our events before either who had a great time and seemed to be making some effective connections as well as enjoying themselves. 

That actually got commented to me frequently by the “old timers” that have been around our events for a while last night – that they were surprised by the sheer percentage of new, previously unseen faces there last night.  The evolution of the group (as I wrote about here – http://www.ITinTheD.com/2628/evolution/) continues to occur.

7:45pm

Even past 7:30, when things usually start to thin out as people who have been at work all day break free and head for home…we were still really well populated.

And I had a great time.

I had a  great time meeting all of the new folks who had heard about us and wondered if maybe we could help them out.  The new recruiters were nice to see and meet, and hopefully we’ll see them at future events as well. 

The best part was around 6:30 when one of the people who had earlier told me how terrible I was looking asked if I’d gone out and taken an adrenaline shot to the heart or perhaps downed several Red Bulls back to back since I was back to my “normal” self.

So…yeah…thank you.

Thank you to everyone who made it out last night.  Apparently that was exactly the medicine that I needed, since even this morning I’m still feeling much better.

Catch you all next month at Tipsy McStaggers, folks.  If you want something to read, You Can’t Always Get What You Want bubbled up over at http://www.ITinTheD.com/83/you-cant-always-get-what-you-want/, and it’s a nice little entry that was written after our second Pink Slip Party event took place and I was annoyed on a number of different levels.  Or just go hit the blog and start paging back through until you can’t read any more…