College might prepare you for a job, though not necessarily how to network for one.
Building those professional relationships matters more than ever because while it’s easier than ever to apply to jobs, it’s often harder to stand out from a pile of AI-tailored résumés.
Finding ways to connect with people on the inside might be enough to get a hiring manager to give your application a thumbs-up.
This approach is often more effective than expecting your résumé to do the talking for you, career advisors told Business Insider. And this is especially the case if you’re just starting out and don’t have a lot of experience.
“People hire people, they don’t hire paper,” said Andy Chan, who runs the Office of Personal and Career Development at Wake Forest University.
He said that job seekers too often think of recruiting and applying for jobs as transactional processes. While they are, to some degree, Chan said, it’s important to try to ground your interactions with an employer in relationships.
That matters because it’s a tough job market in many industries. While unemployment remains in check, some companies are shedding workers, and some employers want more from their entry-level hires.
He said the No. 1 way to get an interview is to know someone at an organization or have someone recommend that you talk to someone at a specific company.
After a conversation, Chan said, the person you spoke with might then talk to the hiring manager or someone in HR and let them know you’re applying, Chan said.
“That bit of endorsement is frequently the key to getting an interview,” he said.
Spend two-thirds of your time networking
Chan said it’s important that most job seekers, including those seeking their first professional role, spend about 60% to 70% of their time talking with people and only 30% to 40% applying online.
“Most students will say, ‘Whoa, I spent like 100% of my time online,'” he said, adding that some will then say that their approach hasn’t worked.
If you don’t have many contacts in your field, college career offices can often help connect you with relevant alumni and corporate recruiters.
You can also try to make connections by asking someone you admire to chat for a few minutes about their career trajectory. It’s what’s sometimes called an informational interview.
The trick is to first do your homework by researching the employer and the person you’re speaking with.
“If you’re going to ask for 15 minutes of their time, be sure to show that you spent 15 minutes of yours,” Madeline Mann, a career coach and CEO of Self Made Millennial, previously told Business Insider.
Apply, then start your hustle
Jane Curran, global head of HR operations at the real-estate company JLL, said that job seekers still need to apply for roles that make sense for them. After all, you need to be on an employer’s radar to be in contention. Yet, she said, there’s more work to do after submitting an application.
“Then you have to turn that into a hustle,” Curran said. That could mean going to LinkedIn to see who might have a connection at that company, she said.
“You have to go figure out who knows who, and how am I going to stand out? How am I going to get a job interview?” Curran said.
Catherine Fisher, a career expert with LinkedIn, said that networking doesn’t have to mean taking someone out to dinner three nights a week.
Making or keeping a connection with someone can involve small gestures like offering a substantive comment on someone’s post or shooting them a text, Fisher said. Other times, like if you’re asking someone for a bigger favor, it might be time to buy them a coffee, she said.
“Networking is a muscle that you’re going to have to flex throughout your entire career,” Fisher said. “When you’re job searching, you’re going to be flexing it more.”
She said that too often, people think they should only reach out when they have something big to share. Instead, Fisher said, it can be as simple as messaging to say you were thinking of the person and enjoyed the last conversation.
“You just want to keep those relationships warm,” she said, “because they will serve you when you need them.”
Fisher said a key part of it is being “reciprocal” so that when people contact you, you give your time, too.
“It just becomes this kind of circle of networking,” she said.
Don’t overlook your résumé
Even though networking is so often essential, that doesn’t mean your résumé can be an afterthought, said Kathleen Powell, chief career officer at William & Mary.
Many employers use applicant-tracking software to take a first pass at reviewing résumés, in part by looking for keywords that match those found in the job posting.
She said that because a recruiter or hiring manager might only scan a résumé quickly, it’s important that it be well-organized.
“If it’s in front of a human, make it easy for that human to find the things,” Powell said.
Do you have a story to share about your job search? Contact this reporter at [email protected].
An earlier version of this story appeared on July 16, 2025.
