Do you have what it takes?

As the second years start to head back to Tafe and start their final year as being animation students. I want to give them some advice that I had learned or stumbled across in the time that I have had outside being taught in a class.
So here goes, do you think you have what it takes to be an Animator? There is plenty positions out there full of great Animators already. Why would they need another one? unless you show that you are dedicated to the task, passionate about what you are animating, handle criticism well, good with people and keep on re-training yourself outside of work hours... If you don't have these, or might be able to learn those abilities you might as well just walk away now.
You will get your first job in the industry by who you know not what you know (unless you have made a 'pixar' quality showreel and this might be achievable to the 0.5% of the student Animators out there at the moment...). So network as much as you can with the industry, we are lucky that there is so many networking opportunities available to us such as the Brisbane Industry Drinks which gets held every 6 weeks or so and plenty more available down in Sydney if you can afford the plane ticket. Going on these safaris with contact card in hand and remember not to type up your details the last thing before bed. Also try to collect as many cards as you can, you might never now when you might use them but they are still valuable.
Second year might look far away now but it is only 576 days to learn as much as you need to know, don't leave all the animation up to the last three months before the end of tafe to wack up something...