What Students and Young Adults Can Learn from Mastering the VC Game
Jordan needed a recommendation letter for a competitive internship and emailed a professor he had taken one class with two years earlier, hoping for the best. The letter that came back was generic, three sentences long, clearly written by someone who barely remembered him. His roommate Aisha had spent two years showing up to office hours for a professor she genuinely liked, asking real questions, with no application in sight. When she needed a letter, her professor wrote three specific paragraphs about her curiosity and growth. Jordan got the internship anyway, on his resume alone, but he noticed the difference: one relationship had been built for years, the other assembled in a rush, two weeks before a deadline, out of pure necessity.
The whole book, compressed
This edition works through 4 core lessons — take them one at a time, not all at once.
What's different for your conditions
Tap whichever ones sound like you. Nothing here is sent or saved — it's just for your own noticing.
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The core lessons, applied to you
Building relationships before you need a favor
Reaching out to a professor, alum, or manager only when you need a letter, an introduction, or a reference puts you in the weakest possible position, and people can tell when they are being used as a means to an end. Building real relationships early, through genuine curiosity and consistent small interactions, means that when you finally do need to ask for something, the person already knows and trusts you.
Students treat every relationship as transactional from the first conversation, and the people they meet respond by keeping their guard up permanently.
Identify one person whose class, work, or path genuinely interests you, and reach out this week with a real question, not a request.
Choosing fit over the flashiest name
The most prestigious internship or highest-paying first job is not automatically the best choice if it leaves you unmentored, poorly matched to the work, or stuck in a role that teaches you little. Choosing the opportunity that fits your skills and growth trajectory usually beats chasing the most impressive name on the offer.
Students accept whichever opportunity looks best on paper or impresses their family, then discover months in that the fit was wrong all along.
Before accepting an offer, talk to someone who held that exact role last year and ask what they actually learned and what they wish they had known.
Running your search like a real process
Applying to opportunities one at a time, waiting to hear back before trying the next, wastes time and leaves you no leverage or choice when an offer arrives. Building a pipeline of several parallel conversations, with a rough timeline for decisions, puts you in a much stronger position when it's time to choose.
Students apply sequentially out of fear of overcommitting, then end up accepting the first offer that arrives simply because no other option exists yet.
Build a simple list of the opportunities you are pursuing, with the stage of each conversation, and review it weekly.
Keeping the relationship alive after the yes
Getting the internship or the recommendation is not the end of the relationship, since that mentor or manager may write your next letter or make your next introduction. Staying in touch, sharing what you learned, and following through on what you promised turns a one-time favor into a relationship that keeps opening doors for years.
Sometimes the most prestigious opportunity available is not the one where you would build the best relationships or learn the most, and the pressure to impress others can push you toward the shinier name. When that tension appears, weigh the mentorship and fit as heavily as the label on the offer.
Name one thing, honestly
Which relationship in your life right now could become a real mentor if you invested in it before you needed anything?
Good. Now look back at the "Try this" line under whichever lesson feels most connected to what you just wrote, and treat that as this week's actual assignment — not all 4 at once.
The practices from this edition
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Run this for seven days
Build a simple list of the opportunities you are pursuing, with the stage of each conversation, and review it weekly.