Yesterday I received a call from someone I'd worked with on "my" project for a bit under four years. She--to her considerable credit--rebounded from (in my considerably biased opinion) a needless and counter-productive staffing shake-up by taking on more responsibility with a completely different firm. So it was hard not to be flattered that she called me up to ask if our office could handle a rather substantial project.
The person who lines up that work had just left, so I collared our boss and assailed him with the details I'd hastily pinned down in notes, including the unrecognizable--to me--new firm my old client was now serving. Despite the fact that it's halfway across the country, the boss recognized it, and knew who in that area had been "chasing" that account. By this morning he'd been in contact with folks more familiar with the area, enough to form a solid guess at what they wanted and why they wanted it.
It's unlikely that I'll have anything to do with the project--assuming we are able to take it on--from here on out: It's just not my line of work. But the experience was definitely an interesting revelation for me. I'm mostly paid for connecting what I know. The boss is largely paid for connecting whom he knows.
