That advice about 'just show up to networking events' was terrible

So when I first moved to Detroit last year I kept hearing from people that the best way to get into the tech scene was to just show up at random meetups and hand out business cards. I tried it for 3 months straight hitting up like 15 different events from TechShop to small gatherings in Corktown. All I got was a stack of business cards from recruiters who never called back and maybe 2 actual conversations that led anywhere. Turns out the real advice should have been to find specific people on LinkedIn first and ask them for a 15 minute coffee chat. That got me way more connections in one week than all those events combined. Anyone else find networking events to be a total waste of time here in Detroit?

3 comments

3 Comments

gavin36513d ago

Sitting through 15 networking events just to get ghosted by recruiters sounds like my dating life.

logan56112d ago

Wait, you actually went to 15 events in 3 months?! That's like going to one every week, I can't even imagine doing that many. I went to maybe 3 tech meetups around Royal Oak and by the second one I felt like I was just swapping business cards with the same 5 people who were also checking their phones the whole time. The coffee chat thing is WAY smarter though, I tried that last month and actually got a referral out of it within two weeks.

charles_young9212d ago

Read an article that said most people at those events are just there to collect cards not connect, which tracks with what @gavin365 said about it being like online dating.