And I got my first job out of college through a friend who had joined the company a year earlier. He knew me, had a decent sense of my ability from our classes

And I got my first job out of college through a friend who had joined the company a year earlier. He knew me, had a decent sense of my ability from our classes together, and gave me a strong recommendation. Every job since has built off that first one, both technically and relationship-ally. So that's two competing anecdotes. The number of variables here is enormous, but I'll pick out just one: my college network may be unusually meaningful (career-wise) because I'm still living in the same state that I went to school in.