Everyone thinks you need a perfect resume, a CS degree from a top school, and 3 years of experience to land a tech job.

That's completely wrong.

I got my internships with zero credentials. Not "low credentials" — literally zero. No relevant degree, no connections, no portfolio. Then I helped 3 friends do the same thing and they all landed at YC startups.

Here's the framework:

1. Stop applying through job boards. The conversion rate is like 0.2%. You're competing against 500 people with better resumes. It's a losing game by design.

2. Build something small that solves a real problem the company has. Not a portfolio project. Go find a bug on their product, write up a fix, and send it to an engineer on the team. Or make a 2-minute Loom showing how you'd improve their onboarding flow.

3. DM founders directly. On Twitter/X, LinkedIn, wherever. But not with a "hey I'm looking for a job" message. Lead with value: "I noticed [specific thing] about your product and made [specific improvement]. Would love to chat."

4. Be relentlessly specific. Generic = invisible. "I'm passionate about tech" means nothing. "I rebuilt your checkout flow in Figma and here's why it would increase conversion by 12%" gets responses.

My friends followed this exact playbook. One of them got a response from a YC founder within 4 hours of his first cold DM.

The game is rigged against you if you play it the normal way. Stop playing it the normal way.

If you want more advice like this — career, self-improvement, relationships, or just someone to give you the honest truth — I'm here.