College is a unique setting, kind of a clinical environment. People are growing, experiencing, learning and maturing. The party animal on the floor above you today may be a manager at the investment firm just a few years after graduation! Here are some obvious ideas of who to keep track of:

Cool roommates and classmates: cool now, cool forever, right?

Smart students: these are the brains that get awesome grades and always do their best.

Cool professors: the ones you get along with, and the ones everyone likes.

Your career advisor: either in your college, or at the career center, you have someone that is acting as a career advisor, right?

Here are some not-so-obvious ideas of who to keep track of:

The professors you don't like: When it comes to career management sometimes you have to humble yourself. There were professors that I didn't care for but I found had excellent industry connections. Guess what? They get job leads, specifically for students or recent graduates - and their recommendations carry a lot of weight!

Professors from different disciplines: Two of the most helpful professors in my job search, 5 years after graduation, where from accounting and operations – I only took one class from each of them and neither of those were my major. But they were very, very helpful.

Any student/roommate/classmate or dorm-mate that you can: The goofy ones. The lazy ones. The bad students. Everyone grows up someday, and maintaining a relationship with these people can pay off years down the road.

Parents of these people: The parents of my buddies owned companies or where high-level managers at a ton of different types of companies. What a great network to tap into - seasoned professionals who are likely in senior positions!

Career center staff: whether you go there now or not, realize that these folks have connections. They know employers, and frequently get asked to post fresh, new positions. And there’s power with each person, not just the director.

The Dean of a college: Part of a dean's job is to be well connected. If you have a great relationship with the dean, you'll be able to tap into that relationship when you need to. The dean is not untouchable - go set up a meeting with him/her right now!

The on-campus interviewer: these guys come to interview people for various positions (including internships). If you have an interview with them, follow-up with a thank you card and then keep them in your network. As you get closer to graduation (or post graduation, when you need to change jobs), they are great contacts as they are involved in the hiring process, and should have many great connections.

In the next post I'll talk about options to keep track of all of this important networking information to really maintain a relationship with each person (if you don't have a system you will be overwhelmed).