There are times when I feel I’m so chill and then there are times - there’s an itch inside of me to voice my opinion. It happens quite infrequently, but there are a few times when I really, REALLY have a strong opinion.

My partner - unfortunately (or fortunately for her) bears the brunt of it a lot.

After 7 years of Twitter (X) tech bro coded, I have come to the realization that pedigree - degree - MBA and tags matter. Period. They make your life a whole lot easier, for sure in India. I’ve seen it firsthand - it gets your foot in the door, which is probably the most important thing as in today’s economy - you can’t really have an excuse for not being prepared enough.

That brings me to my own theory - manufacturing luck. I’m sure this isn’t original though and I must have read it somewhere, but it essentially revolves around one thing - You can just do things.

It’s as simple as that - you can build it. You can research it. You can outwit - outwork - outdo someone and get an edge. You can be relentless. You can directly reach out. You can manufacture your own luck.

You don’t really need to rely on inbound interest or even an extremely diverse and well-entrenched alumni base. You can just dig in.

Yes - it will be hard, it won’t come easy. You will face countless “no reply” or if lucky - some rejection, but you will get it.

Speaking from anecdote and pardon the survivorship bias but in the past - I’ve secured 2/3 jobs via this strategy (1st job being a campus placement). I’ve conversed with the benefits of an MBA with a top VC via this medium who graciously took my request and helped me out with structure. I even got life advice as an 11th grader and decided to not dramatically alter my career trajectory due to this, which turned out to be a decent decision in hindsight (the jury is still out though!)

In fact - I’ve secured some interviews at dream places that I never thought I’d be able to (though I couldn’t clear the interview), so yes, for all you folks with supposedly “less pedigree” or “connections.”

There is hope. You just have to be hungry enough! :)