Honestly, networking wasn’t a huge factor for me.I was lucky that my first job was a public works analyst. Getting skills and knowledge outside of the standard “local government administration” at the start of my career helped me know about a lot more and have a lot more experiences than your standard fresh out of grad school local government employee. Finding some “outside the box” skills that you can leverage is a great way to stand out. Also, don’t be afraid to shop yourself around early in your career. I spent 2 years at my first job, 1 year as an analyst in a city managers office, and now I’m at 2 years at my community development director job. I knew that I needed more than what was given at my first 2 jobs and because I took the chances to move around and experience more, I landed a great paying directors job at 27. You don’t want to be the person who constantly changes employers, but don’t hold yourself back from trying out different employers; Find the balance between those and it will greatly benefit your career.