How to lose instant networking credibility

[Timothy W.]

I went to a networking event Thursday for the first time in a long time and was sitting down when some idiot walked around the entire room and put his business card in front of everyone before even telling us who he was or why I should spend 5 minutes looking at his card. He didn't even spend 5 minutes getting to know me or what I do. I threw it away. I'm just another paycheck/file/number to a person like that.

He would have been better served leaving his card on a tack board where people could decide to take it if they wanted to. It was a more qualifying way to use his cards and certainly much less rude.

Don't be that kind of two dimensional networking robot when you go to meetings. People really don't care who you are if you're nothing more than a suit and a card. They want to know people who are actually a bit interesting and the way you become interesting is by first showing interest in them.

I did keep one card though from someone who actually invested the time to actually talk to me.