Networking Pt. 1: Social – In college

It is common knowledge among all those who pay attention to the hype of job searching that networking is important. Various agencies and faculties are at our disposal in order to build our network which include but are not limited to Networking for Dummies (my mother owns a copy; it remains without creases). This series of entries will step through the journey I have undergone to build my network, and I will also point out steps along the way where networking opportunities were not utilized. In this, as in most other areas, I feel that I have done well, and I trust my detail-oriented nature to notice my successes and my mistakes.
This is the first installment in the highly anticipated series: It only concerns my college years. I attempted to build a network of peers and professors. Generally I succeeded in these areas, but they did not provide the benefits I initially expected due to short-sighted thinking on my part. Further, I did not attempt to gain an internship. I consider this as an obvious bane to my attempts to receive gainful employment.

During college I recognized two goals as priorities concerning networking. The first goal was simple: make friends. The second goal required more complex social strategizing. I desired to have a professor take me under his/her wing and from there I hoped to have his/her network (which supposedly would include graduate schools and various professional settings) at my disposal.
Regarding the first theory, all of my friends are my age plus or minus one year. While I have maintained contact with the majority of individuals I knew in college and I am confident that they are keeping their eyes peeled for me just as I am for them, most of the individuals are in the same boat as me: long stretches of unemployment where the mundantiy is only broken by a series of temporary jobs. There are two exceptions among my colleagues to this trend. First, I know some people who went straight to graduate school. Goody for them. Second, I have one friend who had a professional contact and snagged a permanent (while hourly and without benefits) job where she is performing impeccably. While discussing her success over the phone, she confided to me that she is stressing because responsibility is placed on her shoulders. I congradulated her and told her to keep her chin up; she could be broke and bored.
I am sure that we will all become successful professionals at some point, and I am further hopeful we will all be at least useful to each other in that future which comes closer with each passing second. However, at the moment we are all struggling, and few of us have enough strength to pull ourselves into the worker wagon. We certainly don’t have enough leverage to bring along our fellow strugglers.
As for my hope about being taken under a professor’s wing, I find it difficult to say whether I succeeded in this goal or not. I have a small number of professors with whom I maintain contact, and I update them periodically concerning my successes and the bright sides of my failures. Since graduation, a number of professors whom I knew and even some among those I did not were exceedingly helpful in getting started. I’m not sure I would have been as enthusiastic about Emerson College as my graduate program of choice without one professor in particular that I did not know until he was referenced in another email by a different professor whom I also did not know. Further, I am fairly certain that I would not have my freelance opportunities.
The main benefits I have received from having a network of professors are a solid foundation for references and a backbone upon which to place my professional confidence. I am certain that my letters of reference from various professors have moved along some professional and academic applications, and I am very thankful for that. Further, the information which I have obtained from the faculty over the years has led me to believe that the majority of my decisions since graduation (including where to work, where to study, and how to go about finding acceptance into those various circles) has been exceedling helpful.
My original goals were well founded, but it is obvious to me now that I expected different benefits from my successes than I received. In the next entry I will discuss either internships (particularly my lack of one during my college years) or how I coped with the disappointment of unfulfilled expectations.