You can be on Entrepreneur’s cover!

College Seniors, Comb Through Your Contacts Now to Jump Start Your Job Search Somewhere among your family, friends, Facebook friends and friends of friends you'll find the people who will help you launch your career.

By Eddy Ricci

entrepreneur daily

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

College seniors are staring the real world in the face. In less than 90 days, most seniors will be crossing the stage and leaving the safe world of academia and diving into their first career. Some seniors have their plan on lock. Others have no idea and may not be worried about it. No matter where you stand, it may be helpful to start building up your arsenal of contacts and information about possible paths you may see yourself heading down.

Related: What I Learned From Being a Broke, Unemployed Graduate

Contacts are your career currency.

You may only have been on the planet for 22 years but you should have 150 personal contacts that you have developed throughout your years. Spend a day combing through all your Facebook friends, email addresses, year-books and family contacts to build your true contact list. This would be a list of people you can reach out to and based on a relationship would meet you for a cup of coffee to discuss ideas, give feedback or introduce you to people who can help you in your post graduate endeavors.

Your contacts are your career currency. Just like it is important to start saving money early in your career, because of the power of compounding, contacts can operate in the same way. If you foster relationships in your early career years the networking web effect can expand more rapidly, introducing you to people degrees away from your natural circle of friends, colleagues and family.

Related: Networking Tricks for College Treps

Career surveys.

After you have discovered the 150 to 200 contacts in your networks that you know would at least have a phone conversation with you based on one layer of commonality or prior relationship, start to group them by profession or industry. The key here is to find contacts who may have graduated a few years before you did or college friends who have done extensive internships. Also think of family members or parents of friends that are in the industries you are thinking about.

Group your contacts by which people may be able to help you learn more about a certain profession or have the contacts to help you really understand what a career path looks in that field. From there you can create a "career survey" or a list of questions that would be helpful for you to learn more about what really goes on in their position and what hiring managers typically look for. The most important question to ask may be, "What transferrable skills does this position give someone in case they want to be an entrepreneur in the future or change out of the industry?"

Lastly, as you wrap up the survey ask your contacts, "Who comes to mind that may be able to also provide some advice or feedback as I explore career opportunities?" There you go - you just compounded a contact.

Related: Starting Up Right Out of College

Eddy Ricci, CFP ® is a founder, author, leadership consultant, talent acquisition specialist and angel investor.   He empowers entrepreneurs, executives and professional service practitioners to upgrade their businesses, careers and lifestyles through leadership consulting, firm building and talent acquisition.  He is the author of The Growth Game: a millennials guide to professional development and Miss Money Plan and the battle against emotion, a superhero-themed financial literacy book for kids.    

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Editor's Pick

Business Ideas

63 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2024

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2024.

Business News

This Highly-Debated Piece of Cinematic History Just Sold For Over $700,000 at Auction

The wood panel from "Titanic" is often mistaken as a door. Either way, he couldn't have fit. (Sorry.)

Business News

From Tom Brady to Kevin O'Leary – See Who Lost Big in the Wake of the FTX Crypto Collapse

The crash exposed an $8 billion hole in FTX's accounts, leaving investors and customers scrambling to recoup their funds.

Starting a Business

How to Find the Right Programmers: A Brief Guideline for Startup Founders

For startup founders under a plethora of challenges like timing, investors and changing market demand, it is extremely hard to hire programmers who can deliver.