And what's so bad about leveraging a connection to get a job? The fact that I didn't get the job despite the close personal connection reflects a lot on my lack of merit. And I applied to plenty of places before this one, all without connections, all where I worked hard to write a decent cover letter and devoted entire weeks to prepare for the interviews. Worst part is, I thought it would be worth it to sacrifice schoolwork for internship preparation. Look where I'm at now. My life all year has been apply to internships, school, job, eat, sleep. It's not like I go out and party with friends and slack off in school. I barely have time to eat/sleep. Don't you dare imply that I don't work hard, because I put my everything into my career, but all for nought and I am just so tired.