It's Still Who You Know...

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    The quintessential networking group is the professional association, and it's important to take advantage of any that meet your needs. This is what happened to Mindy Ferrentino, 47, who handles marketing and communications for the law offices of Harriette M. Steinberg P.C. in Westbury, N.Y. Three years ago, she joined the Long Island Center for Business and Professional Women, a networking group, and eventually became a board member and vice president. Another board member introduced Ferrentino to her current boss, and she moved into her office a year ago.

    --SPEAK UP Those who not only join network groups but also stand and deliver before them are in effect advertising their expertise. Wisnik, for example, conducts legal training seminars through the United Jewish Appeal. Attorneys pay a fee to attend the seminars, which raise money for the charity, and Wisnik benefits through client referrals. But what really keeps her going is gratitude. The u.j.a. paid for Wisnik, her parents and her brother to emigrate to the U.S. from Poland 30 years ago.

    --BE AN OLD BOY (OR GIRL) In the modern age, universities are offering alumni the chance to do more than flaunt the old school tie. It's a lot more high tech now. About 20% of major universities offer online databases that help you find other alums who can offer guidance and assistance, says Cindy Chernow, director of the alumni career-services department at the University of California, Los Angeles. About 4,500 UCLA alums, out of 276,000 graduates, have volunteered to network online with other alumni. At Harvard's graduate business school, almost half the school's 60,000 alums have volunteered to advise other graduates seeking job changes through the school's two-year-old online database.

    It's clearly getting faster to let the Internet do the walking. The BranchOut database, for example, began in 1997 and was initially open to Ivy League graduates only; the general public was given access last October. Users can register for free by offering a short profile of themselves and their aims. They can indicate if they want to be a volunteer mentor; about 15,000 of the 40,000 current members (average age: 36) have done so. Searches can be based on undergraduate and graduate schools, job function, company, location, industry or a combination of any of these. Most of the professionals registered with BranchOut in the technology, financial-services, investment-banking, consulting and marketing fields. The company makes its money through finders fees it collects for hooking up companies with employees and through online advertisers. "With online networking, you're not limited to time and place," says New York City-based co-CEO David Ronick. "It's like a giant cocktail party on the Internet." The party is only getting bigger.

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