Her smiling face and bubbly personality may be the secret to her success.

Many students avidly search for a career within their field both before and after graduation. However, some have more luck than others. Laura Mattingly is one of the lucky ones.

Success story

Mattingly, of Rineyville, found her dream job shortly after graduation last May. She attributes her success to social networking rather than experience, her resum? or chosen major.

“It’s not what’s on your resum?,” Mattingly said. “It’s who you know.”

While searching for a job, she pounded the pavement asking familiar and unfamiliar faces if they knew anyone who worked in the pharmaceutical business.

“You can’t be shy about getting a job,” she said.

Thanks to networking, she found a family member who knew someone in the industry. Her new acquaintance e-mailed her resum? to the human resources department of a pharmaceutical company.

“You’ve got to network yourself,” she said. “You’ve got to sell yourself because they get a million resumes a day.”

Shortly after, Mattingly found out she was eligible for a phone interview which lasted only 15 minutes. She said she thought it was a flop and that she wouldn’t get a call back.

Fortunately, she was wrong.

Not only did Mattingly get a second interview, but they offered to fly her to Indianapolis, Ind.

The day of her interview she was scheduled to meet with four people.

Mattingly was exhausted. The previous day she had worked an eight hour shift, then performed in a play for three and a half hours. Five hours later she was on a plane to continue her interview.

But she said it was easier than she anticipated. Too tired to be nervous, she joked with her potential employers in a relaxed manner. They appeared impressed and several days later she found out the job she had always wanted was hers.

“If you want something bad enough it’s gonna happen,” Mattingly said. “And I wanted it bad enough.”

Had she not networked, she may still be sending off loads of resum?s today in hopes of finding a job, Mattingly said.

“Never stop pounding the pavement,” she said. “Just putting a resum? on the Internet isn’t good enough.”

Still struggling

But finding a job isn’t always easy for many college graduates.

Faye Ledford, of Radcliff, has been struggling to find a job related to her marketing degree since her graduation last May.

Her efforts have been unsuccessful despite endless attempts. Ledford searches the web weekly for newspaper job listings in surrounding states.

Ledford said access to jobs on the Internet, in local newspaper listings and at unemployment agencies have been limited.

She also said the market must be down right now because job listings used to be lengthier in the earlier part of last year.

Lack of experience may also be preventing her from getting a job because applicants with more experience usually get hired, she said.

Ledford believes talking to more people and having more personal contacts will enhance her chances of obtaining a career.

She said she doesn’t know many older people and therefore doesn’t have many business contacts in Bowling Green.

“But all you can do is keep trying.”

Key to success

Ledford and Mattingly seem to agree that social networking is vital in reaching one’s career goals.

To find a good job applicants may want to look beyond building a ‘killer’ resum?, but at creating and using their social contacts to get the desired career right out of college, Mattingly said.

“If you don’t believe that you can do it then you are not going to,” Mattingly said. “And I guess that I’ve always believed that I could and that’s what’s got me where I am today.”