Net2Work was different yesterday. 90 potential employees had the opportunity to give their 3-5 minute elevator speech to 6 potential employers during a 90 minute networking session. (One of the employers left with 45 minutes to go in the program.) After doing the math, I realized that not everybody would be able to speak to each employer. There was one third-party recruiter (she left early) and 5 employers, so I pared down the list and focused on how make the most of my time.
I ended up talking to Addy Gould from Aviva and a handful of other unemployed persons who I had seen at previous events. It was great catching up with them and hearing how their search was going. They had quite a bit of feedback regarding the event. Keeping in mind that this is the first time Net2Work was organized this way:
1. Sometimes it's better to have a conversation with someone if you know a bit about them first. It would have been great to know which companies were going to be there; better yet, the specific people so we could do a LinkedIn profile review. That's what I like to do anyway...
2. The first 30 minutes were completely chaotic. The unemployed started in one room, then shuffled over to a smaller room where about 20 people had to stand during the 20 minute instruction session. After the instructions were given, the leader had to "check" in the other room to see if the employers/recruiters who signed up to come had actually showed up yet. Since there were only 6, I suppose that was a good idea.
3. Some attendees didn't know that they were going to be meeting with potential employers, so they didn't feel that they had "dressed for success" and asked if their attire was appropriate. Others hadn't brought enough copies of their resumes. The only people who knew about the format change were those who received the email reminder from the Partnership and those who were invited by a friend and their friend told them.
Suggestions for success in the future :
1. Let us know who is coming and what company they work for. This way we can do what we're supposed to do, namely, research the company, so we can have an intelligent conversation. We can also get a sense of whether attending this event will be worth our while.
2. Now that they've got one event under their belt, the next one will run more smoothly.
3. I don't know how you get the word out to the attendees that they will be 'interviewing' today. Since this is a reoccurring event, and people know that, they just show up every other week and expect the program to be like the last one. Yes, those that arrived were told that attire isn't that important and if you don't have a resume, that's alright. But WE feel uncomfortable if we're not dressed how we want to be and if everyone else has a resume and we don't. It's a comfort thing.
This is what I heard from other participants who I spoke with at the event. I hope the organizers read this and incorporate these comments into the next event. For those of you who attended, do you have any comments on how things went? Was it beneficial to you? What went well? What needs to go better next time?
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I love the idea of this kind of event (even though this type of networking is not at all in my wheelhouse). But I have to agree that there seemed to be much confusion at the start.
ReplyDeleteAt the 6/15 meeting instructions were given as to how the event yesterday was going to run. Unfortunately, that proved to be inaccurate and there were a bunch of people that were apparently in the wrong room at the wrong time and did not get the instructions provided yesterday at all. One suggestion for next time would be to set the sign-in table actually in the room where you want candidates to start.
Even with the bumps, I think that it was still a worthwhile event. However, Your Milage May Vary depending on your expectations going in.
I did not expect to meet an employer representative that wanted a paper copy of my resume at the event--nobody asked for one, but a couple did suggest that I submit online. I did not expect to meet an employer representative that had a current opening that was a match for me--none did. I did expect to get some cards from employer HR types that may or may not come in handy in the future--collected a few cards and had some good micro-conversations (although the Aviva person left before I had a chance to meet her). I did expect to meet (and exchange contact data with) more searchers like myself than I usually do at the Net2Work meetings--did not do as well at this one as I spent too much time visiting with people that I have met at previous networking-type events.