Contacts

Am I the only person who finds networking/careering absolutely EXHAUSTING??

Over the winter break, I had the pleasure of picking through the geothermal literature that I was behind on reading to find all the companies mentioned. Then I had to call all the companies and ask about internship opportunities (only ~10 prospects.. kind of depressing). Then I had to update my list of companies, make an internship prospect list, and update my contacts list.

This is what I'm wondering: who on earth can actually remember all of this information without making ten thousand lists like me? Not only do you have to remember how/where you met the person and what the person looks like, but you also have to make sure you have their name spelled correctly (something I'm not in the habit of doing yet, which causes me loads of problems), and then email them for followup, scour through Linked-In to see if they have a profile, etc. It would be nice if everyone actually used Linked-In... lots of people don't, which is really annoying.

Half the time, I forget to ask how the name is spelled. The other half, I feel awkward doing it because I don't want to seem like a kiss-ass. Sometimes it turns out ok, because I can find them by Google search or Linked-In afterward. However, sometimes I'm completely way off. I just had the mortifying experience of calling back the company to ask the spelling of the name, since he had wanted me to mail him something. The woman who answered was very suspicious of me... well, sorry that I'm inexperienced and forgot to ask how it was spelled.

And maybe it's just because I'm not used to doing this sort of thing yet, but I always feel very awkward contacting these people again to ask for favors. I've been putting off sending messages to my contacts about potential internships. I don't want them to think I'm bothering them or anything. Then it takes a lot of effort to actually write messages to these people. You have to be extremely careful with wording and grammar, and ask smart questions, so that they don't think that you're presumptuous and/or stupid.

GAH! Exhausting.