@Kate It’s so interesting that you bring up networking events because I’m going to my very first one ever this coming Wednesday. I am looking around for other jobs and trying to network in my city now that I have some solid years of experience in SaaS sales & training. I never thought about it as a place to meet guys but hey, maybe it’ll be a twofer at some point!

@TheLadyE, guys are definitely going to be in that mindset. Are you going alone, or getting a friend to go with you? I think in our case it helped that we looked like we were having fun, so we were easily approachable. BUT, the flip side of that is we didn’t really have control over who came up to talk to us, and once someone was in our space, we couldn’t really move on. If you’re alone, don’t be afraid to walk right up to people, smile, and ask what they do, with your goal being to find out if they can help you in any way. Maybe someone can, but it’s statistically more likely you’d get a date, in my opinion.

@Kate I hadn’t thought about this networking event as a way to get a date at all! I was actually planning on going with a married (male) coworker because we are good friends, similar personalities, and sort of the same situations professionally. He’s looking for other positions too and we’re both rather introverted. However, I guess that could backfire on me.

My issue is that I work with a lot of younger people – age 24-30ish – and I’m further along in my career and networking skills than they are. I’m a mentor (literally, trainer) to them. Then the people on my immediate team are all sales analysts, CRM admins, or engineers, and this is a sales event that they wouldn’t really be interested in.

There is a woman my age who recently started in sales and she’s single too. We got along really well when she went through my training classes. Maybe I’ll ask her if she’d like to go with me. 🙂

@Veritek That sucks about your date/drink being cancelled. 🙁 I’m sorry. I’d be pissed too. It just shows very little consideration for your time.

Wow! Veritek – how annoying! I personally wouldn’t give that guy another chance, especially since it sounds like this is his reputation, and these weren’t just isolated incidents of bad lucky/bad timing/inability to get out of whatever he was doing at the time he thought.

Not much new on my end with dating. Still texting the guy I went on a first date with recently. He was out of town for vacation, back in town for 22 hours while I was out of town for my new job, and now I’m back and he’s traveling for work. (Another work traveler!) So, we’ll see. We check in briefly every few days and I’m at least glad I haven’t been ghosted yet. Ha. Potentially going on a first date this weekend, but it’s still tentative.

I started my new job, and I’m wondering just how much my last job messed me up. I’ve only been there a couple days so I still don’t own anything yet, but it’s weird that I no longer have to rush through the work I’m doing. My new supervisor is so, so nice. He keeps telling me that it’s okay to just ease into things. He told me it’s not a sink or swim environment, that he and the other staff want to help me succeed and grow. My former supervisor left work on my last day without saying goodbye to me. I know our relationship wasn’t great — and to be honest I didn’t really want to acknowledge him on my way out, either — but I was planning to be professional and courteous and thank him for the opportunity because I wanted to leave on a high note. Nope!

Glad to hear your new job is going well so far, Copa!

Went on a third date with the Guy for dinner. Sadly, I guess I am not “Feeling it”. It sucks, I want to like him. Probably the most decent guy I’ve met from online. Part of me is grateful because it’s made me appreciate being single. No, the dates weren’t bad, but I realized with texting him and planning dates, I really like my freedom. I am also just tired; I don’t want to go back to swiping and swiping, but I guess it is what it is now.