Messed Up...

Hey guys,

I messed up recently. Met a professional at an alumni corporate mingle who I vaguely remember working with in a school club with. This corporate mingle was hosted by the honors business fraternity of which I was pledging for at the time. Long story short, we connected well (decently at least) and I asked for his card which he didn't have at the time due to recent shuffling of offices. He told me to find his email in our alumni database and send him a follow up.

Fast forward to now. I don't know why, but I thought it would be clever to send him a message via facebook instead. I knew I had worked with him previously so I thought the social setting would be accepted as a means of communication rather than the stifling emails that most networking followups involve. Today I received his response.

"facebook message. really?? seriously?? what has (insert fraternity here) been teaching you guys?? lol"

Don't quite know how to respond to this. Do I try to play it off as a joke? Or should I apologize frantically trying to make amends? Or did I just completely fuck up my relationship with this contact and just move on?

Any advice appreciated. Thanks a lot.

10 Comments
 

Sounds like a douche. Tell him to "shut the fuck up, lol".

Odds are he's just kidding around.

Under my tutelage, you will grow from boys to men. From men into gladiators. And from gladiators into SWANSONS.
 

don't be a tool, you're an undegrad and you have nothing to lose from this guy and everythign to gain. You might as well just play it off and keep hitting him for contacts/connections, if he blows you off bc of fbk then move onto the next, if he's helpful then keep using him. Going forward, you're better off connecting with him thru email than facebook, that is in poor taste of you btw.

 

he used, lol. the way i see it he owes you a fucking job no questions asked

My drinkin' problem left today, she packed up all her bags and walked away.
 
IlliniProgrammerIt's not his exact quote and no, the guy probably won't see it. Let's not troll this poor kid any more than necessary.
Are you the contact IP?
 
Best Response

LOL, no. But he didn't insert (fraternity name). Good luck googling that. And honestly, most people in banking aren't like the guy who suddenly awakes at 2AM, springs to sitting up straight with his hands in front of him and thinks, "Oh my god, why don't I obsessively research that kid that sent me a message on facebook? I know, I'll google the message I sent him in the first place and do thousands of iterations on it where I eventually leave out the fraternity name as I rock back and forth in my darkened computer room late at night muttering 'they're out to get me' to myself." If he is, it's probably best that he reads this, assumes you're another one of the people roaming around in the black vans working for the NSA and watching him at weird hours of the night, and passes over you.

The only risk here (and it's a very mild one) is that he reads WSO. There are probably 20,000 people working in banking and about 100 of them are on this site and/or read it regularly. Perhaps 50 will read this post. So the odds are 1/400.

Three things college students don't know about the recruiting process:

1.) There is no guy with a video camera following you around when you interview with a big firm, recording everything you say to every employee and comparing it to prior statements.
2.) Banking people aren't omniscient (although we try to do enough cross-checks to catch most people who egregiously lie on their resumes.) 3.) Most 25-year-old bankers mistakenly operate off the assumption that a 21-year-old college junior is as confident and sure of himself as his 25-year-old friends are.

 

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