The Beginning, again

Today I relaunched my job search by reaching out to a guy in DC who grew up next door to one of my parents' friends. He turned out to be really cool and VERY helpful. He not only provided me with excellent advice on where to look for jobs, what to expect, and how to present myself, but also put me in touch with a recruiter for Change to Win (a new labor federation that split off the AFL-CIO last year) and helped me tweak my resume for organized labor. As much as I appreciate the help he provided me, I feel somewhat disheartened to realize that networking really is as important as everyone told me. I wanted to believe that having a strong resume and good interview skills would be enough to find myself a job, but it looks like knowing the right people is at least as important as having everything else lined up.