My first day in D.C. as a homeless, unemployed, bright-eyed new girl to the city, I went to a Washington Women in Public Relations (WWPR) networking happy hour. Yes, this was my first “networking happy hour,” so I was both nervous and excited while trying to pretend like I was already a networking pro. Prior to my arrival at the event, a friend of mine told me to look for “@MargieNewman” when I got there. Got it…Margie Newman.

After walking what seemed like 12 blocks in my black stiletto pumps (at the time, I obviously didn’t know not to wear those EVER thanks to spotty D.C. sidewalks…), I made my way through the crowd to the WWPR table near the back and asked for Margie. Someone directed me toward her, and I introduced myself to a cute, professional, smiley blonde lady. She was super friendly, which was quite comforting as she was one of the first people I met in the city, and I was still slightly terrified and clueless. She asked me what I did, and I explained that I had literally just dropped my bags and came out to D.C. in search for a job from Houston, Texas. She was so excited that I had come out to the networking event, and her enthusiasm for my go-getter attitude really boosted my confidence!

She then asked for my business card… and said confidence quickly disintegrated. My first thought was, “HA…. business card? Lady, I just told you I don’t have a job…. why on earth would I need a business card?”

Well, ladies and gentlemen, Margie Newman is one smart woman. I definitely consider her to be the queen of D.C. networking, and I officially felt like an idiot for the first time (and not the last time) in Washington.

After the event, WWPR board member Debbie Friez wrote a blog post, which stated:

…I’m amazed when I meet new people who are attending a networking event without their cards. At the Summer Social, I overheard WWPR board member Margie Newman suggesting to an attendee to create personal cards for the sole purpose of networking.

I WAS THAT EMBARASSING ATTENDEE WITHOUT A BUSINESS CARD AT A NETWORKING EVENT.

Please don’t let this happen to you. Learn from my ignorance, and always have a business card handy:

1. People want to remember who they meet at these things. Shaking hands and giving a brief elevator speech is rarely impactful enough to create a strong connection on a first encounter. Give them something to remember you by. YOU NEED A JOB. Make sure they know that!
2. People use cards to go back later and increase their professional connections on LinkedIn. They can’t add you online if they don’t remember how to spell, or ever worse, remember your name at all.
3. If a job opportunity comes up in the near future, they will remember that you were the one who was looking for a job, especially if your card is the ONLY card in their stack without a job title.
4. A business card is a chance to let your professional personality shine. Just because a card is supposed to be “professional,” it doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun with its design.  Try to make it stand out so that it’s easy to locate in a big stack of cards.

I love awkward networking stories. I’ve, unfortunately, got plenty of them, and they are coming to a computer screen in front of you in the very near future.