When you are a busy professional it can be hard to find the energy and the time to start dating and pursuing a relationship. When you work long hours, take work home with you or specialise in a field that involves lots of extra networking or travel it can feel like an impossible task to begin to date.
However, it is also at these points in your life – travelling to yet another conference in a suburban hotel, burning the midnight oil to finish a deposition to your satisfaction, or pulling the late shift and working nights – that make us realise something:
We’re lonely.
You can fill life with a career and with social calls on friends and family, but it is a rare person indeed who doesn’t wish for a little more than that. So here is our quick check guide to getting you started in the world of dating for professionals. Let us know in the comments if you found it helpful!
1. Sign up to Free and Single Professional in order to find like-minded people who will understand your work commitments and your drive.
2. In this age of technology, being in a separate country is no longer an excuse not to see each other. Up the ante on a boring hotel evening by using Skype or Google Hangout to chat to each other while eating dinner or watching a movie.
3. Make time for each other by agreeing a date in advance and booking it into your schedules like a meeting. Give each other an ‘emergency work situation’ card that you can each use once should something come up at work just before your date – but you can only use it once.
4. Try dating at different times of the day – it’s nice to do traditional dinner dates, but mix it up by meeting for breakfast instead. You could take your full lunch break to go to the park or a bistro. Maybe your office winds down between 3pm and 5pm – pop out to take a stroll together or grab milkshakes before heading back to work.
5. Try calling them as you commute into work, or if that’s not feasible, write a letter or email during your downtime and send it to them. The key is managing your professional working life and your dating life so that you get enjoyment from both.
In case you’re wondering about starting something in your workplace, well, you should probably read our take on Office Romances first.
At the end of the day, there is always a little bit of time somewhere that you can squeeze a sympathetic person into and get to know them. You just have to let them know that you’ll make the effort, even after a long day at work. Here’s to dating as a professional!