I have no idea who is telling you that unless it's yourself. Contrary to the impression that some people here may give you, making millions a few (or even many) years out of school is not the norm wherever you went to school. And while connections do matter to some degree among Ivy and related grads I know (and those are mostly for what many here would consider low-paid jobs in the literary industry), connections from people I've worked with at jobs have always mattered to me more or even exclusively.
As I wrote, there is pedigree in some professions/positions but I'm assuming you're not looking at clerking on the Supreme Court, working for a white shoe law firm, and maybe getting a Federal Court of Appeals seat. Nor working for McKinsey.
There's lots of pedigree in working in software, even if it's not as obvious as law. Amazon does not have pedigree, but Google does, Stripe does etc. It's also not surprising that the people that graduate from MIT CS and Harvard CS go to Google and Stripe and Facebook as their "backups" and not Amazon or Capital One or Northrop Grumman.
Honestly, you're way too obsessed with pedigree in terms of companies. I've probably never worked for (or even applied for what people here would consider) a "high pedigree" (though not necessarily unknown) company over a long (and I think pretty successful by my standards) career.
I somewhat surprisingly got into a really good school undergrad and good ones grad. But got rejected by plenty too.
You win some. You lose some. You seem to be taking every long odds dice roll you lose as a personal affront.
I mean it feels like an affront - these people go to top schools because they want people like me out of eyesight because I don’t have “merit”. It does frankly feel personal.
I would have never gotten into a good school for undergrad and have no chance at a top grad school. It just feels like it’s all over for me.
Trust me. I have educational credentials that would be considered immaculate. I've done fine. But then I've never had an obsession with earning millions a year because some people are. You probably make more at 27 than I have much later. Which is fine. You'd be much happier if you stopped obsessing about how someone else may be making more money than you.
Sure, but not enough for Jane Street or Citadel Securities (not the hedge fund which did give me an offer) or DE Shaw or HRT. Aka, the firms actually offering $350k+ to new grads while I make far less.
I see. I have no consolation to offer you. No amount of money or prestige will satisfy you. Someone will be wealthier than you no matter how much you acquire. And old money families look down at new money.
How is your social life? Do you consider most people around you beneath you?
> Do you consider most people around you beneath you?
Several of my friends are crypto millionaires who also have higher total compensation than me and they certainly think I'm beneath them. I know a lot of people that got into top schools or have higher SATs/more "merit" than me. I'm probably the person with the least merit in my social circle.
As I wrote, there is pedigree in some professions/positions but I'm assuming you're not looking at clerking on the Supreme Court, working for a white shoe law firm, and maybe getting a Federal Court of Appeals seat. Nor working for McKinsey.