Befriend Other Underlings

You’re likely to find a built-in set of confidants and allies in your fellow assistants. Make friends with them. Not only will they have entertaining abuse stories to share too, but they also will become your network one day.

When Chandra Czape started the website and networking group Ed2010, she says “it was about six or seven people getting together to talk about magazine jobs.” There were no goals—just kids who were “all quite annoyed that you couldn’t get jobs unless you knew somebody in the magazine industry.” Her group focuses on the publishing industry, but the principle is the same no matter what your field. Essentially, the people involved in Ed2010 tell each other about available jobs. They also socialize. Chandra encourages new chapters to throw super-casual events where “people are literally sassing around a pub or a dive bar having a beer . . . you just don’t feel comfortable when you’re all straightlaced in some snooty environment with a martini in your hand.” Four thousand people now subscribe to the group’s newsletter, and her once small tête-à-tête has grown to encompass 20 city chapters and 26 college chapters.