Tired of networking.....

Ah, networking, alas, is essential to survival here in China.

And mostly I enjoy it. Mostly, I think, I am very good at it. I am genuinely interested in meeting new people, and that tends to make a very positive impression on them. People remember me. And - once in a blue moon - they may mention me in a commendatory sort of way to a friend who has a friend who has a cousin who has a university 'classmate' who works with a guy whose neighbour is looking for a.... (insert name of job here - there aren't many I can't do, or won't attempt, or haven't tried in my long, erratic history in Beijing). Yes, sometimes - not very often, but sometimes - I actually get a job out of all of this.

But occasionally a certain ennui, a stifling failure of enthusiasm sets in. This week I have twice wimped out of a networking event I had planned to go to. One was a recruiting junket for a corporate training firm I have quite close ties to. The other was an alumni event for the University of Toronto (I almost qualify: I spent a year in Toronto as a law student on a scholarship, and had an option to pursue a Master's at the U of T, but I chose - perhaps unwisely in retrospect - to concentrate instead on gaining practical experience as a legal intern; though I still regarded myself as an 'honorary' member of the University, made some friends in the debating club there, judged one of their moots, collaborated with one of their Professors on some arguments we prepared for a case going before the Supreme Court...). Oh, I had my excuses - I've had a gruelling week at work, the weather has been life-sappingly grey and humid (and when it threatens rain in the early evening, it is pretty much impossible to get a cab anywhere), and the venues (Brown's, the Goose & Duck - both soon probably to be inducted into my 'Hate List') sucked mightily. But the real reason, I fear, was that I just couldn't face that whole networking scene this week. I was feeling too glum, depleted, and depressed to fake the necessary bonhomie.

When you're tired of networking, you're tired of life, they say (at least, they say that around here). Yes, it may be so.