>Or, if not, then what's the path into a job like this? Are they simply 0.00001% level brilliant people, lucky, well connected?
A lot of it is about jumping through hoops but also I think a lot of people who "overachieve" just started young.
I knew people who knew they wanted to be lawyers from age 12 and were finding ways to do work experience from that age.
Similarly, I know many people who were coding from <small age>. (Maybe on the BBC micro, or learning BASIC or learning Java for Minecraft, take your pick).
I have also known people managing personal investment portfolios, and pianists sinking 50 hours per week practising when they were 8 years old.
My personal favorite (because it concerns people close to me) are two people who have instinctively honed the skill to sell and have been selling in some shape or form since they could essentially talk.
When it comes to these "prestigious" type jobs, I think a lot of the people who did well and got the jobs had been prepped a long time in advance. Quite a lot of it is worldview/personality grooming that happens from the high school you go to and your parents but less about direct connections because there are very few grad-level people who get blatant nepotistic hand-me-outs at the big companies you've heard of. Though coaching and interview prep probably does probably abound.
That's not to say it's too late in life to try learn something new, but inevitably life takes over (relationships, and kids).
A lot of it is about jumping through hoops but also I think a lot of people who "overachieve" just started young.
I knew people who knew they wanted to be lawyers from age 12 and were finding ways to do work experience from that age.
Similarly, I know many people who were coding from <small age>. (Maybe on the BBC micro, or learning BASIC or learning Java for Minecraft, take your pick).
I have also known people managing personal investment portfolios, and pianists sinking 50 hours per week practising when they were 8 years old.
My personal favorite (because it concerns people close to me) are two people who have instinctively honed the skill to sell and have been selling in some shape or form since they could essentially talk.
When it comes to these "prestigious" type jobs, I think a lot of the people who did well and got the jobs had been prepped a long time in advance. Quite a lot of it is worldview/personality grooming that happens from the high school you go to and your parents but less about direct connections because there are very few grad-level people who get blatant nepotistic hand-me-outs at the big companies you've heard of. Though coaching and interview prep probably does probably abound.
That's not to say it's too late in life to try learn something new, but inevitably life takes over (relationships, and kids).