E-Mail This Article to a Friend Network nation Building a web of professional contacts is a worthwhile investment of time and energy BY DEIRDRE FULTON

Even if you graduate with an impressive degree and lots of determination, today’s unpredictable job market makes it likely that you’ll struggle to find an actual job. But if you’re a newcomer to the job hunt — or, even better, if you haven’t even started looking yet — learning how to network is the most effective way to make sure all the time and money you spent on school don’t go to waste.

Building a web of professional contacts is an investment that requires you to put in energy even when you’re secure in a job or in school, says Diane Darling, author of The Networking Survival Guide: Get the Success You Want by Tapping into the People You Know (McGraw Hill, 2003) and CEO of Effective Networking, a Boston-based career-consulting firm.

Beware of "9-1-1 networking" — that’s how Darling describes the last-minute calls and frantic schmoozing that make up many people’s networking strategies. That’s not networking, she says — "that’s job-hunting." Acquiring long-term contacts requires discipline and planning — which is why it’s better to start early and build relationships long before you need them.

"The biggest thing to remember with networking — it’s a relationship-building process," agrees Rita Allen, vice-president of search services with Gatti & Associates, a national search firm, and the founder of her own career-management firm for individuals and organizations. "It doesn’t happen overnight, it takes a long time, and you have to nurture it."

On the surface, it may seem like your network is nonexistent. But perhaps it’s just dormant. Here are some strategies for ending the hibernation:

• Get an internship or do some volunteer work. At this point, most people know that experience in your prospective field is an invaluable asset, one that will highlight your talents and expand the circle of allies who know your work and can vouch for your skills.

But these kinds of positions are also important for a more subtle reason, says Keith Luscher, professional career consultant and author of Don’t Wait Until You Graduate II: Jump-Start Your Career in Today’s Volatile Economy While Still in School (New Horizon Press, 2003). Working in an internship, part-time job, or volunteer capacity helps foster your "service ethic," he says. Once you’ve honed that, you can effectively persuade people of your ability to fill their needs.

• Find a mentor. It can be a professor, an internship supervisor, or anyone else who you think could offer insight into your chosen field. Let them help you. If people feel like they have "ownership in your success, they’ll be more likely to introduce you to other people," Luscher says.

• Introduce yourself to fellow classmates. "You should make a point of getting to know everyone and maintaining those contacts, because these will be peers one day," Allen points out. Indeed, what better way is there to ensure you’ll have a wide-ranging and diverse network in 10 or 15 years than to keep in touch with fellow students you got to know in that huge lecture class?

• Join a professional student association. These organizations, which are present on almost every college campus, are a great way to meet a combination of people your age, with whom you can share advice and support, and industry bigwigs who speak at events and who often distribute their cards and offer follow-up assistance. Contact your university’s career-services department to find out if one exists in your field.

• Tap into alumni. Most college career-counseling offices have alumni directories. Use them to find graduates who have achieved what you hope to. "If someone calls me from where I graduated, chances are I’m going to be a little more biased and want to help them," Allen admits.

And these are only the academic, career-oriented strategies. Don’t forget about the people you meet at the gym, at shows, at church, at the library — wherever. Get in the habit of sharing your goals with the people you meet.

"You can take the initiative of talking to everyone you know, telling them what your plans are, and asking them to give you maybe two names of people they would recommend you speak to," Allen says. "Because it always helps to make an acquaintance when you have another acquaintance to refer to as a mutual contact."