Not that this applies to all industries or that what I'm saying means anything but...
From what I've seen it's who you know and not all that much on what you know.
My managing director has literally a stack of resumes two feet tall on his side desk, which is pretty much full of guys with pedigrees most would kill for. He doesn't even look through them. The large majority of guys who come to work for our firm are in 2 cats.
1. Recent college/grad school grads who mostly intern with us or become jr. associates. Usually from top tier schools as that's where most of our recruiters spend their time.
2. Those who are already in the business and either get scouted or get "hooked" up.
The majority of the junior guys I meet or interview get here because of a few different reasons, most of which have nothing to do with what they know. They are:
1. Some senior guy in our firm went to the same school as them or their family member.
2. Belong to the same frat./club/group
3. Has a family member (usually mom & pop) that one of our senior d1ckheads knows well or are friends with.
Other than these reasons, those other guys don't have a chance in hell to get an interview.
So the moral of the story is to get to know some influential people and f**k their sisters or something to that effect.
