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WHAT TO DO IF YOU GO OFFLINE ONLINE?

Interesting case 1: a good friend of mine is in the middle of his job application period. A thousand letters go out the door every day and he is busy 24/7 preparing for interviews, practicing complicated case studies, and scouring LinkedIn. Recently he saw that a large and important headhunter had viewed his LinkedIn profile so he was over the moon, but two weeks later he still hadn't seen any offers come in. A bit later he was at a birthday party of his girlfriend's aunt and who does he see there; that headhunter.

“SOS help WHAT should I do,” he texted me. “Approach him? Introduce myself? Say that I saw he viewed me? Ask what he thought of my profile and why I haven't heard anything? Or is that needy?‘ Honestly, I tell you, he turned into a little girl considering sending a will-you-be-my-girlfriend note. Now I have very little experience in the field of headhunters and all that Serious Big People Jobs, so he had little to gain from me. But it did remind me of another story.

Interesting case 2: I was in the pub with a friend of mine when an old colleague of hers walked by, whom I didn't know. She was quite flushed and excitedly told me that she had just seen a man standing there whom she knew from Badoo , but with whom she hadn't chatted yet. For those who don't know Badoo, it is the largest social network for meeting new people, with currently 261 million members worldwide. It has a dating aspect but there is much more to discover. Download the app here and then you can figure it all out yourself. Just like on LinkedIn, you can see who has viewed your profile and that adds an extra exciting layer to it. The man in question viewed her, she viewed him, she had already looked at his photos a thousand times but hadn't dared to take action yet. And now he was standing in front of her. Or at least, in the same pub.

And that is of course not an unrealistic scenario nowadays. Not only because of knew from Badoo, but also because of Facebook and Instagram. I often find myself seeing someone I know follows me on Instagram, but we don't say hello to each other. Sometimes that feels strange. And I have also introduced myself to someone who follows me, and whom I also follow back. Anyway, that colleague of my friend got really anxious and didn't know what to do out of sheer craziness. The best medicine is always: white wine. We ordered a glass (or two) for her and after a few hearty sips, she found the courage to approach that Badoo guy.

Now I would like to end this piece with the message that they are now married and oh so happy watching sunsets all the time, but that is not the case. Or well, I have no idea how it ended, they talked nicely for a long time but I don't think any rings were exchanged. What I do know is that the lesson learned is that we shouldn't be so afraid to go from online to offline, and just approach someone if we know them. And if that still feels a bit scary, then you always have your best friend White Wine for an extra push in the back.