Regardless if you graduate from college after the normal four years, or if you are a college drop-out like myself, this lesson is the same. There is only one sure way to acquire your dream job:

Networking.

My dream job is to make a career out of having a personal brand and online business: giving advice to people with social anxiety. This personal brand includes videos twice a week on YouTube, daily words of advice across my social media and self-publishing a number of fiction novels that I’ve either already published, have outlined or that I haven’t yet thought of the concept.

So how do I accomplish my dream job?

Networking.

This is going to be the theme throughout this article, and throughout your life as you expand and grow in your career.

Network, network, network.

If you don’t build relationships with people who are successful in your industry, all you’re probably going to achieve is a desk job at the firm of which you want to be the CEO, or an intern for the screenwriters of the biggest films in Hollywood. Whatever the industry, networking is the key to starting at the bottom and working your way to the top.

To me, and I imagine to you as well, networking is the scariest part of entering into you career field. It’s difficult to build and maintain relationships with people who are currently more successful than you. But by cultivating these relationships, you’re going to ensure that they recommended you for the next promotion.

I can’t offer you specific advice on how to network and who to target for relationships in your industry because it changes by the industry. Though, as someone who is trying to build an online business and personal brand, I’m going to network with people that can teach me how to build a successful website, how to grow my YouTube channel, how to effectively market my novel and even how to acquire public speaking opportunities in my community. Building relationships with people that can teach me these things will ensure that if they know people that would find value in my videos or know of a company that wants someone to come in and speak about social anxiety, I’m going to be the person my contacts choose to direct these investors toward.

I’m going to keep this article short and sweet to drive home my point:

From one millennial to another, networking is the number one way you’re going to exponentially increase your chances of landing your dream job. Regardless if you get it initially, your business contacts will continue to bat for you until you’re in that corner office. Network with friends and family, network with co-workers, network with successful people in your industry, network with people lower in your industry’s hierarchy, network with the crazy lady that hangs out on the corner of your street — network, network and then network some more!

It’s best to get started right now whether you’re currently in college, entering into college, dropping out of college or graduating from college. Start building relationships in your industry right now, and you’ll be thanking yourself in the long run.