An alumni network is not only for meeting from time to time and exchanging yarns about the good old days. It can be a strong pillar to fall back on when the chips are down. Like me, I am sure you know of many cases where the alumni network has helped people get jobs, settle down in foreign and nearly alien surroundings and in medical emergencies.
In business schools, career offices play the part of helping students start off on their professional careers as also helping organisations get the talent they seek. We in India are more familiar with “placement” as a term for such offices in business schools. In some schools these have been very effective. They have helped the school gain an enviable reputation for the quality of its alumni. In others, they are more mechanical- aided perhaps by the big demand for talent which makes their work much easier, anyway. In yet others, the old joke goes that they have to be woken up from their slumber as the end of another year -and the time for a new batch to pass out- draws near.
People at Work & Play 