WHEN Christine Huang graduated from college in 2005, the last way she wanted to look for a job was by attending a networking cocktail hour where she would feel pressured to ask strangers for job leads and contacts.

“The idea of having to schmooze with people I didn’t know was unappealing,” Ms. Huang said.

“But then I realized the idea of networking was about reconnecting with people you know from elementary school, high school and college. It was just like asking your friends for favors.”

And that’s exactly how Ms. Huang landed a position as an arts and culture writer at SH Magazine in Shanghai. When she moved to China in 2006, a friend from high school invited her out with a group of his friends, one of whom was an editor at SH Magazine.

Ms. Huang could be seen as a poster child for how some people in her generation look for  and land  jobs. The old guard way to find gainful employment might have included reading the want ads, joining an industry-specific networking group or applying through the company or a second party’s Web site. Today, some young people say they are eschewing those practices and making the lateral network  their circle of friends and friends of those friends  the first stop on their job search.