| Just a few observations (without ever having experienced this - didn't go to business school and was never interested in investment banking, so don't know the industry): just because I'm not emailing/cold-calling 3 investment bankers a day Then email 3 investment bankers a day. You should be able to do this without spending more than a few minutes on each one. Create a template once and then personalise it as needed. In my current startup, we've emailed many hundreds of people over the past four weeks. It doesn't have to take a lot of time. It absolutely can be done without being such a chore to eat too much into your other time. Also, if you cannot do three a day then do two or even one. Or even one every two days. Anything is better than none a day. I feel like I'm better suited for <..snip..> a startup, but I'm afraid of risking a safe / prestigious job ... Unfortunately, in my opinion, startup and risk aversion do not mix well. Startups are risky - that's simply the reality of it. If you are risk averse, then startups absolutely are not for you. Founding a startup is a hell of a lot of risk (its still worth it IMHO though) and being one of the first few employees, while not quite as risky, is still a lot of risk because you don't know if your job will still be there in a few months or a year. Personally, I think the startup experience is worth it. I can't see myself working anywhere else now. But its definitely not for everyone, so consider it carefully. --- Having said that, you can absolutely get into software development, but if you want to have lots of options you will want to build a network here too. Life is all about networking. I don't think its quite as drastic as having to email three people a day though - I'd start by attending lots of programming user group meetups and conferences - that's where a large portion of my network came from. I know people who have never studied at all who are doing great - the key to their success is that they have good strong github profiles: you will have a degree from a good school, if you can also create a portfolio of projects (personal or open source) then you will be in a really good place. Its not necessary, but its very helpful. If you can get a summer internship, that also helps a lot. Basically, anything that demonstrates experience writing code (outside of uni projects...) is a very good thing. |