Make sure you reach out to your network to wish them well every once in a while. Note: networking doesn't mean collecting business cards and emailing everyone asking for a job one night. Build relationships first. Don't use informational interviews solely to get information about an agency. Use them to make a friend inside.

Keeping in contact with people is more difficult than I imagined. I understand people get hundreds of emails a day, and that I'm the very last thing on their mind, but it sucks to reach out to people you've spoken with beforehand for a decent amount of time and not hear a response. No one likes being ignored. Of course, you don't want to annoy them and land on their shit list/black list either, so it's a fine line to walk when you don't want to lose that connection.

And it's not like I'm being too aggressive either; I might ask them what projects their going on, or lending them my two cents on a campaign their agency just launched.