Quote Originally Posted by Animeniax View Post
I've always tried to keep a good relationship with all of my coworkers. I don't like the idea of fake friendships just to keep connections, hence my lack of a real facebook account. People have 1000 "friends" on there but they'd be lucky to count even 5 of them as real friends.

As far as the guys I'm trying to contact, I had what I thought was a good relationship with them, though I haven't contacted any of them for 7 years or more. I'm especially upset with my former supervisor who gave my pretty high reviews every year that got me 5% merit increases each time, but now he won't even bother to return a facebook message request.

What really annoys me is how this application process checks that far back in your work history. The way things are in the 21st century, you'll be lucky if you know anyone at your old company once you've been away for a year or two. People switch companies and jobs like it's nothing these days, so keeping track of them is nearly impossible.
Yea, it is a tricky thing. I was always told that now it is good to send a note about every 6 months or so to your contacts just to let them know you are still alive. It is a bit unreasonable for those with large networks. People can only maintain something between 100-230 relationships total (in theory anyway). Hopefully someone gets back to you.