I got my long-ago entry-level job at Ballantine/Fawcett/Del Rey (only three names in the string back then, which lets you know how long ago it was; isn't it like 50 now?) because a friend who'd graduated from my school a few years before me was leaving for a less lowly job and told her manager, "She came through the same department I did, therefore she is also smart, literate, and able to deal with immense amounts of insanity, because she put up with the same professors who trained me to handle impossible deadlines and eccentric behavior."

And then another fellow alum got me my next job, with much the same sentiments and the addition of "And she worked for So-and-So at B/F/DR."

That was about 20 years ago, but I imagine knowing someone still helps!