You were looking around at your peers and the hiring statistics, and you realized that your performance, thus far, wasn’t going to be enough to land you a job at that prestigious New York City firm paying $145,000. You can’t change the past, but you realized that, to improve your prospects, you’d need to bust a move because the clock is ticking.

You took a step in the right direction by pursuing a position as a research assistant to get some mentoring and experience and to break into better circles. And now you’re mine.