I thought networking events were just awkward small talk until one in Austin landed me a job lead

My boss made me go to a local tech meetup, and I spent the first hour feeling totally out of place. I ended up chatting with someone about a specific Python library, and they connected me to their hiring manager the next day. What's one piece of career advice you were totally wrong about at first?

3 comments

3 Comments

miles_young592mo ago

Seriously? That's a solid turn around. So you went from feeling awkward to getting a lead just by talking shop. What was it about that Python talk that finally clicked and made the conversation feel real instead of just forced networking?

the_aaron2mo ago

Ever read that thing about how shared frustration builds rapport? We both started complaining about pandas merges, then got into the real problem he was having with his data pipeline. That specific technical headache gave us something to actually solve together, not just chat about.

gavinb972mo ago

Wait, you got a job lead from complaining about pandas merges? That's wild lol. I always thought you had to be super polished at those things. Guess being real about the annoying stuff actually works.