IMHO it's quite important in the long run - I have often seen people get jobs or sales or consulting projects in large part based on referrals or reputation fro

IMHO it's quite important in the long run - I have often seen people get jobs or sales or consulting projects in large part based on referrals or reputation from peers they have worked with 10 or 15 years ago. The guy or gal who's your junior hire today may well be a purchasing manager or tech lead somewhere interesting in a decade or two.