How much of your success would you say came from being in the right place at the right time?
A scarily high amount of my success has come from meeting the right people at the right time.
For example, I went to a coffee chat just as one individual was leaving, but he stayed to talk to me. We hit it off, and he referred me to an extremely high up MD who helped me land an internship at a place I never would have even applied to.
I’ve had some other successes happen in a similar fashion as well.
I just can’t help but think, had I left my dorm 5 minutes later for that chat, none of what followed would have happened.
Can anyone relate?
All of it. I was born in the United States. I was original born in a poor area but my parents worked hard and I spent most of my youth in a peaceful, upper middle class neighborhood. I wasn’t born in Yemen in a small village. I have two loving, supportive parents who pushed me but also let me fail. I met my wife who is understanding of the risks I take in life to set us up for success later, even in spite of many sacrifices.
Even down to other things too. I happened to land a job that I really wanted only to discover I hated it. I hated it so much I considered everything- medical school, law school, MS Finance, CRE brokerages, wealth management, everything. I learned how to code and it’s made me very happy. I happened to be assigned to a project near Silicon Beach where I started taking night classes for free. Without all this, I would’ve never discovered this path.
Not much at all other than where I was born. I googled every single thing related to this industry, built every contact myself through cringe worthy cold emails and cringe worthy networking calls that were trial and error (I mentioned money in my first couple as an example). I wasn’t in the right college, didn’t have the right grades etc. But the resources are there if you have the desire
Generally speaking here and will avoid stroking your ego too hard, but don’t sell yourself short.
You set up a coffee chat, you networked, you got off your ass and left your dorm to do something other than drink, you showed up early, you spent time on WSO and other career forums, you pursued internships, you kept up your GPA, you had a wealth of experiences and talking points to “hit it off” with a stranger (professionally). That is why you got a “lucky” internship.
Fuck that noise. You weren’t lucky. You capitalized on an opportunity and as a by product of all your hard work landed a cool gig.
I will end it there and avoid sounding like Gary V. or some other instagram blow hard - You get the point.
I remember a thread awhile back related to “why network?”. It was along the lines of, “Everyone says do it, but I didn’t and I got an offer, so who cares?”. This is why. Networking never matters until it does.
Having your ducks in a row, being prepared, being interesting, and being active with a network will never hurt you in the career/opportunity/income portion of the life equation. Keep it up.
there was a scholarship program for the university I am at right now for which our school had slots for about 10 applications. one of the teachers gave a fellow student the responsibility of getting people to apply.
I happened to meet this fellow student in the lunch break when she asked me if I wanted to apply. I said yes because I didn’t see any reason as to not do it. now I am a rising junior at my non-target and am on track to land a BB internship. I am also probably in the top 5 in my major out of a class of 400-500 students.
if I wouldn’t have met her in the lobby that day I don’t think any of this would have happened so I definitely believe being in the right place at the right time is important.
Being in the right place at the right time sounds like a synonym of luck to me. How much of your success is luck-based? A big portion. Especially when starting out with entry level jobs
I agree, we should over think it, though. This is WSO, after all. Let's develop a luck-based model that requires variable inputs and different degrees of luck output.
being at the right place at the right time is more about opportunity. then it’s up to you to execute. you still need to be skilled but there will always be a luck factor. they are not binary
I was lucky in the sense to be born into a stable home, have the opportunity to attend a 4 year school, etc.
As far as actual luck in the job search, etc goes...I am a big believer in making your own luck.
Sure, bumping into the right person at the right time had an impact on me. But I see the years and years of preparation for those moments to not be 'luck.'
You have to be ready to seize when the opportunity is available.
a lot. that’s all that needs to be said
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