How do you network in a career setting?

[renordw]

Originally Posted by Ghettotastic [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Dress slick, mingle, play it cool.

Flirt with older women and get keys to their rooms.

Stuff your man meat into them with vigor! Explode your man-chowder all over them!
Climb up the ladder of success.

At least that's what I would do.

Well I went, and only a few people talked to me were a Chinese guy in the same situation as me, except he was in his 40's and I think he was gay. Oh well!

Then, a few older women talked to me about yoga, and I pretended to be interested. They were definitely not milfs.

But for the most part, most of the farmers and ranchers looked at me like I was crazy and ignored me when I tried to talk to them.

[EchoedTruth]

Originally Posted by renordw [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I'm 25 and about three months back I got my first big-kid job as a Natural Resource Policy Analyst for the Department of Agriculture. I only took the job because there is nothing for Master's Level economists in my area of the country, and I am biding my time until I hear back from PhD programs.

I am Portuguese, and I have an accent. My family moved here when I was 7 from Algarve. I'm into video games and fashion, and I hate American football. Hell, I am somewhat less manly than most of my coworkers.

My coworkers are are ALL huge stereotypes; rednecks and/or ranchers. They are all 50+, white, republican, drive trucks, chew tobacco, listen to country, praise Jesus, talk about football, etc. To be honest, I didn't know these kind of people existed until I took the job.

Anyway, later this week I am going to a conference of natural resource planners, and I was glancing at the schedule and there are 3 chunks per day of "networking breaks" of a half hour each. I can't talk to these people about anything our interests are so different.

What do?

Your best bet is to just observe people. Get to know the quirks and behaviors of the people around you. You don't really have to know anything about what someone "likes" as long as you can communicate effectively with them. People are MUCH more than what they like or dislike.



P.S - American Football is awesome and not too hard to learn. I recommend picking the Atlanta Falcons as a team and learn about them [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]. Watch some games or highlights on youtube. Most people who like football barely know anything about it anyway. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]