Schmoozing For The Anti-Social

A guy from the place I most want to work came to talk to us at orientation on Tuesday for ten minutes. He left a stack of cards on a table. I took one. On Thursday, I emailed him. He wrote back immediately and said I could either come by the office sometime and he would introduce me around, or that a bunch of people from the office were going out for drinks and I could join them on Friday. I being both a current and former law student, opted for the drinks.

I got the location and went to find them last night after work (or, frankly, at 4pm, since we all work for the Feds). Unfortunately I had only seen this guy once, for ten minutes, in a stream of other people I had never seen before. And he had been wearing a suit. No one in the bar was wearing a suit.

I circled the bar. I ordered a drink. I strained my ears, listening for one-liners involving the tax code followed by hysterical laughter. Nothing. Then I spotted a government ID dangling from a girl's purse. This was not dispositive, as there were many other government employees likely to be in the area. Then, I got my break: two girls came in, spoke to the people at the table, and went to bring over some extra chairs:

"Excuse me," I said, stepping in front of one, "but do you work for the IRS?" She, nervous perhaps of inciting a bar fight, admitted that she did.

"Is one of you Joe?"

"Um, yes. Do you know Joe?"

"Well, no, but he said he would be here."

"Have you met Joe before?"

"Well, no, not really."

Her, alarmed: "Are you stalking Joe??"

But overall I think it went pretty well. I figured since none of them are in any position to affect hiring in any way, I might as well just be myself and try to get them to like me. I got the girl who thought I was a stalker to stay two hours longer than she intended to with my favorite work-related bizzaro medical story.

And Joe, which is obviously not his real name, said I could still stop by the office to meet the higher ups.