My Recent Work Draft Experience: Networking opportunities missed galore!
I work for a fairly large company. It's big enough to yield a fantasy football league with 16 teams! The league consists of participants from varying departments. I am now a member in this league. Was in it a couple of years ago, took a few years off to focus on my other fantasy teams, but now I am back in this league. At the time of writing this, no one in this league knows about my book, Fantasy Kick.
We had our draft the other night. There were about 20 guys there - who all work for the same company. A good majority of them played the previous season and somewhat knew each other. There were some new participants. I got a sense that the guys who knew each other though, only really knew about their fantasy football history - not their work history.
I got to the draft fairly early. I went around the room and introduced myself to each of the other participants. The commish told me that I didn't need to worry about meeting everyone because we would go around the table we were sitting at and announce who we were. I still introduced myself. I got everyone's names and area they worked in.
I'm glad I made the effort to introduce myself, because as we got closer to picking players the commish forgot about introductions and started the draft.
I don't know if these guys were tired, if the lighting in the room was too dark or what , but it was frustrating for me to see my fellow fantasy football participants in this league pass up valuable networking opportunities. Here they are, in a fun social setting with current managers, and future directors and vp's. Instead of striking up a conversation, they were lamenting about the 202nd pick in the draft!
As the draft entered the final round, the teams who made their final pick would get up an leave without a comment. No taunting, no "nice draft"s no one even thanked the commish for all his hard work. Only a few of us hung out after to help clean up the room.
I'm sure 99% of the leagues out there are just like my work league. The participants enjoy the social component of fantasy football, but they are missing networking opportunities every step they take.
Wake up people! Fantasy football at the office is delivering you valuable networking opportunities. If you still have your draft coming up, don't let it be like my recent draft. Capitalize on the networking opportunities and give your career the kick it needs!
-Michael
We had our draft the other night. There were about 20 guys there - who all work for the same company. A good majority of them played the previous season and somewhat knew each other. There were some new participants. I got a sense that the guys who knew each other though, only really knew about their fantasy football history - not their work history.
I got to the draft fairly early. I went around the room and introduced myself to each of the other participants. The commish told me that I didn't need to worry about meeting everyone because we would go around the table we were sitting at and announce who we were. I still introduced myself. I got everyone's names and area they worked in.
I'm glad I made the effort to introduce myself, because as we got closer to picking players the commish forgot about introductions and started the draft.
I don't know if these guys were tired, if the lighting in the room was too dark or what , but it was frustrating for me to see my fellow fantasy football participants in this league pass up valuable networking opportunities. Here they are, in a fun social setting with current managers, and future directors and vp's. Instead of striking up a conversation, they were lamenting about the 202nd pick in the draft!
As the draft entered the final round, the teams who made their final pick would get up an leave without a comment. No taunting, no "nice draft"s no one even thanked the commish for all his hard work. Only a few of us hung out after to help clean up the room.
I'm sure 99% of the leagues out there are just like my work league. The participants enjoy the social component of fantasy football, but they are missing networking opportunities every step they take.
Wake up people! Fantasy football at the office is delivering you valuable networking opportunities. If you still have your draft coming up, don't let it be like my recent draft. Capitalize on the networking opportunities and give your career the kick it needs!
-Michael
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