Networking at the Wedding

Networking. Give me a break; do I have to network all of the time? Well, if you want a job you do. 

Case in point. This weekend the son of my very dear college friends was married. It was a wonderful, beautiful affair. The cocktail hour offered time to eat, drink and smooze with new and old friends. You know how it is. When you share a table with perfect strangers the conversation usually starts with how you know the bride or groom and then turns to where you are from and what you do. You don't have to use your entire, professional elevator speech here but you can mention that after working at such and such for ten years, you, like so many others were downsized.  You are now in the market for a new position doing such and such.  It can sound like this, "After working in human resources at the Smith Company for ten years, my position was eliminated.  I've been looking for a similar position in the metropolitan area."

You can leave it at that but most likely the conversation will continue and you might end up making a networking connection. The same thing works when you move to the dining room. Yes, it can work; just don't go overboard.