Anyone preparing to graduate soon is most likely well acquainted with the ins and outs of job hunting.

If you’re very lucky, you’ve already got a job lined up and waiting for you. On the other hand, if you’re like most of us, you have no idea where you’ll end up or what you’ll be doing. This is where having connections comes into play.

In the business world, having connections makes all the difference in who gets a job, or even gets their foot in the door. It’s not necessarily fair but it’s true all the same. You can have great grades, a good portfolio, experience, and campus involvement, but sometimes it’s just not enough. There are always exceptions, of course.

Many great people have proved their intelligence to the world without having connections, and maybe you’ll be one of them. It’s a tough road but not impossible.

If you think back, knowing the “right” people starts when you’re young. Your parents may or may not have been able to get you into the right pre-school, depending on who they knew. The coach’s son was always first up to bat while a factory worker’s son may not have even gotten the chance to play, and the director’s niece got the lead in the play while another girl was cast as an extra. And in school, if you wanted to be popular, you had to hang with the “cool crowd.”

Family connections top the list. Just think about how many people who are famous and have family connections. Kate Hudson, Chelsea Clinton, Jamie Lee Curtis, the list goes on and on. Not to say that these people aren’t talented and intelligent in their own right, but having connections certainly didn’t hurt their careers.

Most of us weren’t born into a famous family and therefore don’t have that built-in chance to succeed. We’ll have to join the hundreds of thousands of others who did it the old-fashioned way and worked hard to get where they are, whether they’re famous or not. Still, making those connections is essential in today’s world. It never hurts to have an edge on your competition.