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✅ How to use this guide

• The focus is the readings, not this page.
• Thinking about the questions posed in some of the readings will set the stage for a more productive conversation with me if you want to follow up.
• Suggest resources/books you'd love to be added! Let me know what you'd like to see here.
• This guide is geared primarily towards ambitious and intentional undergrads, but many linked readings are more general.
• Ask yourself hard questions. Write your responses, don't think yourself into an illusion of progress.
  • "What are my values?"
  • "What is success?"
  • "Do I like what I'm doing? Why? Why not?"

🚨 How this guide doesn't work

• I don't summarize or provide the salient points of the resources suggested. Taking the time to think about the sources for yourself is way more than worth it.
• I advise that you not read everything at once. Trust your gut when deciding to revisit or save some readings when they feel more 'right'. Bookmark this if you want!
• This guide is not a shortcut. If you follow my general advice, you'll likely be doing more thinking/reflection about your career, not less. If you made it here, though, you're probably fine with that.

<aside> 🖤 Here are resources on how to get involved in Black ally communities.

</aside>

<aside> 🦠 Here are some resources for life during COVID.

</aside>

🗺 Context

This is a list of resources I highly recommend if you're looking for guidance on any of a variety of topics. You can find a lot of great material, like the books listed here, at libgen.is.

I made this guide because I've seen how broken early-career mentorship is. Too many bright and passionate people end up spinning their wheels because they haven't been exposed to/taken the time to think intentionally about what they want to do with their careers/how to think about their careers.

I might expand this with more advice, like how I use Twitter, manage my productivity, and more. You can make me write those things faster by filling out the below form and sending me an email saying you want them (or anything else!).

At a high level, I'd encourage you to be intentional about the choices you make with respect to your education and career choices. With a little effort, you can create really outsized impact on your outcomes. If you're able to supplement that with deriving your fulfillment and satisfaction around your career from things that are within your control, you can be completely in control of your own happiness and success.

Get in touch!

https://chilipepper.io/form/hot-pickled-pepperoncini-a36c10c4-0503-4866-9826-cbb23eb38210

[M](http://rishitripathy.mehttps://rishitripathy.me/Rishi-Tripathy-473be1006a35497e825c57205fbbcd21)ore on me here.

With love, Rishi

Contents (click to skip to a section):

📈 General Career Advice

"Spend 80% of your job hunt preparing for the 20% of opportunities you care most about."

How to Pick a Career (That Actually Fits You) - Wait But Why

~30 min read. but 100% worth it. If you read nothing else here, read this. The seminal article for figuring out what you want to do with your life. This comes from a great blog called "Wait But Why" that covers a ton of things from procrastination to aliens to AI and more.

So Good They Can't Ignore You

Book. This book dives into what gives people purpose and fulfillment in their careers. Spoiler: Don't do what you love.

The best way to make tough career decisions

~15 min read. You'll spend about 80000 hours on your career. Make them count.

Want more general career advice? Email me or find a time.

Also, you should check out this new Paul Graham essay:

How to Do Great Work

🗣 Building professional relationships

I think networking gets a bad rap, and for good reason. Authenticity is your best friend in making friends.

How to ask for advice

~1 min read. Short and sweet. Written by the CEO of one of the biggest startup accelerators in the world, YC.

Stripe Atlas: Guide to networking for founders

~20 min read. Don't get intimidated by the title mentioning founders. The tips here are golden for anyone. Article goes over cold-emailing, online presence, building and maintaining meaningful relationships.

~8 min read. A guide written by Harvard Business Review on cold-emailing. May be more applicable for more formal situations (business school, consulting, finance, etc)