When youre in college, its smart to busy yourself with as many activities that are related to your career of choice as you possibly can. To someone thats currently dealing with the stresses of a full-time class load and a part-time job along with it, this advice might seem a bit easier said than done. Believe it or not, when youre finished with school and have to find a job thatll pay you enough to make rent each month, youre going to have a lot less time on your hands. College is the best time to get involved, and if youre looking at a career in investing, then you might be thinking about joining an investment club to get your feet wet. As it turns out, this is a great idea, and well talk about five of the main reasons why.

1. Learn the Ropes. Investing is a particularly risk-heavy line of work. There arent a lot of jobs that will actually see you losing money if you dont do them correctly, so having a way to get some experience with whats in store for you professionally is a great help to a lot of students. Get yourself involved with an investment club so you can start familiarizing yourself with that world before you even leave school.

2. Avoid Serious Risk. Most investment clubs for relative newcomers are called virtual investment clubs, and they let you basically play pretend so that you can avoid any serious financial risk. Few jobs actually take money away from you if you dont do them correctly, but investing is one of them. With the help of an investment club, you can avoid making a serious financial mistake before youve properly learned the ropes.

3. Meet New Friends. College can be a pretty daunting experience, and it helps to have ways to meet new people. Not only will an investment club help you understand and prepare for your profession of choice, itll also introduce you to a great deal of like-minded individuals.

4. Lines on Your Resume. Even though an investment club isnt a job, it can still look great on your resume. The right investment club can even help you get lined up with a great internship or apprentice position, or might be able to give you valuable experience in any number of ways. Either way, it helps to show your potential employers that youre involved with and actively purusing your passion, and joining an investment club is a great way to do exactly that.

5. Networking Potential. Theres absolutely no limit to the amount of networking you can do when you join an investment club in college. A lot of firms will recruit some of the best and brightest young investors from college clubs, so getting involved with an investment club on your campus is a great way to go about getting yourself noticed. Whether you visit a site like barefootinvestor.com or get involved in as many clubs as you can, there are a ton of things you can do in school to set yourself up with a successful career in financial investments.