I would say that getting the right internship will make a huge difference. In 2009 before I went to university I was still living at home, splitting firewood i

I would say that getting the right internship will make a huge difference. In 2009 before I went to university I was still living at home, splitting firewood in the middle of nowhere in New Brunswick, Canada to make a bit of extra money. This turned out to be an activity with an effective wage of about $10/hour. In 2012 I was interning at NVIDIA in Santa Clara. Interns get lots of special treatment to indoctrinate you into the company, so I got to meet the CEO and he invited all the interns over to his house. Of course, he would probably never remember me, but I can't think of many other ways to move so quickly into a place where you could actually have some influence.