WSO comments from the week 10/28-11/3

Atleastimnotabanker in The Non-Target Curse argues that going to a top school ("target school") gives you an initial advantage. After that, it's up to you:

It will always matter which university you went to. Nobody cares if you went to a non-target or a semi-target, though. What matters is if you went to a great university or not.
This doesn't mean you can't make it, if you didn't, but the person who has Harvard in his resume will always gain more attention than the one with some less stellar school.

Just look at news reports about new CEOs. If they went to a top school, it is almost always mentioned. It just reassures everybody that it was the right decision to pick him for that position.

In the same post, Ravenous qualifies Atleastimnotabanker's opinion and gives examples of people who have succeeded regardless of where they attended school:

It matters a lot for PE and banking. It doesn't matter much for most hedge funds (at least not those in the business of making money). There are plenty of state school grads running money and putting up big numbers, and plenty of state school grads at the analyst level.

The best performing long short hedge fund in the country over the last 15 years is run by someone who went to a school most people couldn't locate on a map, and the firm employs no target school people at all.

The best performing (or one of them) long short hedge funds over the last 3 years (launched 2009) is run by a 30 year old guy from Berkeley. The one analyst working for him went to UCLA.

Nobody cares where you went to school if you can make money. A lot of Ivy grads wash out and don't ever make it in the business.

WSO has a lot of the Steve Jobs reality distortion field going on. Feel free to ignore any and all of the prestige posts here.

Addinator encourages people who feel hopeless about the prospect of ever finding work in Feels Like I'm Writing My Own Obituary:

IFirst off, I want to say I'm sorry for your situation. It seems like you had a bunch of compounding factors which really haven't helped you and its a shitty situation.

That said, the biggest possible mistake you are making is isolating yourself. Obviously, you are a very smart and capable person judging by the jobs you've had and the responsibilities you have had. Second thing I will say is this: Don't ever utter, type or think the words "why the fuck would someone hire me" or "I'm undeserving". Look. If you don't think your worth an employer hiring you, why the hell should they? Just stop. You've obviously been killing it before and you'll pick back up where you left off once you can get out of the spiral. You were self employed and you were good enough that a CEO picked you for a job. If that isn't a recommendation to your credentials I don' t know what is.

Here's the other point I want to make to you: Stop being afraid to ask for help. There is nothing wrong with it, and look at where you are when you refuse to ask for it. You cannot do everything alone and without connections, help, guidance and luck provided by networking and asking for help you'll simply be in this rut.

Here's my advice: Get over the living at home issue. I had that in the back of my mind when I first graduated and people may criticize or make remarks about it: Fuck them. I would get rid of anyone and everyone who is even remotely negative in your life. Btw, there is nothing wrong with living at home especially when you need some time to get on your feet. Establish a routine or some type of structure. Go to the gym, run outside, sit down and make it an official thing every morning looking for jobs, reaching out to people, etc. Reconnect with all your friends. Treat it like a full time job. Stop isolating yourself and get out there. Also, you mentioned your mother and divorce; you need to block that off. You can't take that burden with you as well, and although it is very tough just understand that you need to prioritize yourself and your career moving forward.

Hdavid57 makes an interesting observation in Body Ink on Wall Street that maybe sports athletes have popularized the proliferation of tattoos--and maybe bankers will come to tolerate more visible body art in the future:

Has anyone been watching the NBA lately? A few years ago, many of the players had a few tattoos on their shoulders or upper arms. Now those tattoos have spread like a disease, growing down both arms, covering their neck, their chest, and who knows where else. What does it all mean? I don't know, but what I do know is that this issue is rarely, if ever, discussed by the media...or the players themselves. As for the relevance of tattoos in the business world, I would imagine a small, barely noticeable tattoo would slip under the radar. Employees with more prevalent tattoos may have a more difficult time...but in a few years, who knows?

Raptor.45 in the thread Thrill-Seeking Activities under Interests has some valuable generalist advice about inserting interesting attention-seeking hobbies on resumes: make sure that you can walk the talk:

Rule #1 of resumes is be ready to speak in detail about anything you put on there during an interview. If you put skydiving on your resume, get asked about it (you probably will) and say you've only done it once you'll sound like a tool. On the other hand, if you truly do partake in any activity such as the ones you listed above and could speak to it it will be a big boost, the crazier/riskier the better since it sets you apart and is more interesting.