connecting with the bums!

I went to one of those networking groups the other day. You know the ones where you meet over a glass a wine or a keg of beer and you network. Well, not all of them were networking groups really, we only hooked up patch cables at the one meeting, but the others were ones where you exchanged business cards and resumes and hoped that everyone there would save you from your current miserable job. Except no one would go ahead and say that they were miserable or looking for a new job. That's all in the group's charter & by-laws.

But I am just used to letting by-laws be by-laws.

But that networking group I went to for the first time last week was wild. A fight actually broke out and the cops were called in to break it up. Turns out one or two of the cops got new jobs out of it and I think one guy is sitting in jail enjoying the rest and is working on a novel. So in some sense, it was a sucessful meeting, but not was people expected when they planned/promoted it.

The group was the High Tech Stressed to the Breaking Point Society. A group of individuals working in the high tech field who were certifiably at the breaking point. Everyone needed to bring a doctor's note to get into the group. Some people even brought their doctors with them as they're trying to organize a similar society for doctors as well.

Someone came up with the idea for the group to do an outreach program where the members of the group could do a good turn for society (and could get the necessary media attention in return) and at the same time observe how less-stressed individuals live.

So the group chose to hold this month's meeting under the overpass of I95 at Main St. That's the location of the biggest homeless colony in this city and is not normally a place you would find a group of high tech executives and professionals. And to be honest, there weren't many there, and those that were there might just have been checking out the overpass to see how high it was and whether it'd be a good place to jump. (These people like to plan every eventuality out in detail, in advance.)

Anyways, so there we were, reaching out to the homeless, and they were shouting, screaming and slapping at our outstretched hands. You could tell they weren't aware of the tremendous networking possibilities that this event provided to them. All it might take for them to score a six-figure salaried position would be to talk to the right person and perhaps take a shower. But there's a shortage of workers out there in this industry, and even the shower thing is not a firm pre-requisite anymore.

But they just didn't understand what was going on, and before you knew it, one of the homeless men thought one of us was trying to snake some aluminum cans from his cart and he pulled out a knife and started threatening us all. That's when about 20 of the guys in our group grabbed their cell phones and dialed 911. The others just wet their pants.

So by the time the cops came, there were a few crushed cardboard homes, a few frazzled nerves, a lot of soiled underwear and about 3 new hires at MegaMediaIPO.com and another 3 who were gonna come in on tuesday for a follow-up interview.

Now, I know that some of you might think that this whole undertaking was foolish, and I might tend to agree with you if it wasn't for the fact that I am now working as a recruiter in the high tech industry and sometimes you gotta go where the people are. And I would be lying to you if I didn't say that some of the best damn programmers out there today aren't living under a bridge somewhere. And I am gonna be the first to find them and place them in a job. Just think of it as my duty to society.