I know that the only nibbles I've had in both the job search and the freelance work have been through people I already know. So if I'm going to make a go of going out on my own, I need to network and continue to expand the group of people I know.
I signed up for a DC Flaks meetup on Wednesday, but ended up not going. I wanted to, I did. It was a happy hour at the District Chophouse, and while most of the people there probably wouldn't be able to give me work (because the group looked to be pretty young), I thought I'd be an unintimidating way to start this networking thing.
But then on the day of the happy hour, right as I was about to start getting ready to go into the city, the phone rang. It was my client, giving me another project. And I found myself going, "another two hours of billing tonight.... or small talk... two hours of billing... small talk...."
You can easily imagine which one won out.
And so my first official networking event was last night. I roped Mike into going with me, and promised him lots of wine to get through it.
I severely underestimated the amount of wine. And severely overestimated the amount of networking going on.
Wine tasting, essentially, only on crack. There were over 80 wines, by my estimate, plus 6 whiskeys and 5 beers. We skipped the liquor and beer tables, but I think we hit just about every wine.
Yes, every one.
At least, from what I can remember.
After the first two tables, I psyched myself up to start striking up conversations with people there. They would either be journalists - who at this stage probably couldn't help me directly but would always be good to know - people who worked at PR firms - where I wanted to get a job or a client - or people who worked for news publications but in a corporate roll -- where, again, I either wanted to get a job or client.
The first person who made eye contact back was an intern. Yes, I knew he looked young. Yes, I knew he couldn't do anything for me. But it's baby steps, people! So a nice little 5 minute conversation, after which Mike made fun of me relentlessly for wasting time on someone who looked to be about 12. I take exception to the "wasting time" part, but we moved on.
The next one was looking promising. A single woman, we debated the merits of two wines on the table, cracked a few jokes, easy conversation going for about 10 minutes. I asked what she did, what brought her to the Press Club event. She knew the organizer she said... (good, I'm thinking...) She was a terrorist victim advocate.
Ok, moving on...
The next and final couple that we started talking to stuck with us the rest of the night (or we with them). There were the perfect kind of people to connect with ....
... for Mike. She was a final year law student and he worked for a defense contractor.
I hate networking.
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