Draft from February 26, 2026
Waterloo 5-year internship funnel, insane. It’s now super well known; had never heard of Waterloo until 2023. Finance bros are children of finance parents so it’s not just role models as parents but also the literal colleges are just pipelines into those fields. To have a successful college transition process into working, then a college with pipelines into a field is great. Trade schools do this really well already. Ah yes, and that substack article I read about a Harvard girl arriving and hearing about recruiting until like the end of her first year. Everyone had their internships but not her. She just didn’t understand; well, I mean a lot of rich kids knew 1) to network but also 2) they’ve had tutors all their lives. They just know what to do to setup for success. Same for me in college. I had just left a career I thought I was going to do for my life in government; suddenly I’m in CS and business. First year out, I do very few activities, got finalist for my non profit in a business competition, and did an internship as an engineer. But by second year, apparently I missed out on the whole recruiting cycle for FAANG. I went to a public university. I did not know about any of this; how was I supposed to know anything? Pipelines are super important; I think a lot of my female friends who went into Microsoft got in through the same female UMich eng pipeline because they’re all at Microsoft lol. One friend totally flunked the interview and still made it. The nice thing about Waterloo’s 5 year training is that they basically force everyone into the workforce; they’re all smart, so it works out in the end for most participating companies too. But I did not have this pipeline at UMich; I wish I did because, seriously, what else is a CS degree meant for? And also, America has been convinced college is not only an education but also a guarantee for a job. So if they want to continue that promise they better make those funnels.
It could also lead to talking about setting kids up for their future from a young age (acting, olympians/sports, chess people, CS people, anything with hard skills) and seeing how useful they become in a success factor measured based on monetary potential.
Emmanuel Macron is actually a fantastic example of skyrocketing a smart person to the top leadership position quickly.
I’ve also previously discussed DEI and my reasons for its importance, and that extends in this discussion regarding pipelines.