The best post I have read on this topic is Seth Levine's (of Foundry Group) series of posts on this topic. http://www.sethlevine.com/blog/archives/2005/05... , http://www.sethlevine.com/blog/archives/2008/04...

When I was trying to land an associate gig 1.5 years ago I actually passed up getting an MBA at that time, figuring I'd learn more getting to see the insides of the company building/sausage making process, and I haven't been disappointed at all.

FYI I tweet pretty frequently on the #JuniorVC hashtag trying to give people tips on what life is like as an associate. It would be cool if anyone chiming in on the topic wanted to use the same hashtag, so there'd be an easy for way for people to see what's out there on this very popular topic.

One thing I've also seen are situations where junior VCs see something they really like and they hop out of the firm and into a portfolio company to make them successful. That's one way of making it to partner without ever having had “checkbook” experience (and making a little coin along the way faster than being a VC of course). This road is heavily influenced by how much risk you're willing to take though. If you fail, you may not get your VC position back and your risk exposure is to only one company (whereas at a VC firm, your exposure is to a portfolio of companies).

There's another problem going on with the glass ceiling right now. As I alluded to in a prior post, the funding of the VC and growth stage funds are just collapsing because of the situation a lot of LPs got themselves into with liquidity and in general with too much cash going into the asset class with too much money chasing too few good deals. So, if the fund size isn't expanding (if not shrinking) and the senior partners of the firm aren't leaving, then where is a young up and comer to get their way to partner at a major firm? This is where I'll agree with Chris a bit that sometimes it's better to join a bunch of senior junior principals that hop out and start their own VC firms that may not start top tier. There's just a higher likelihood of making it into a partner position when you're at the firm early on.

Last point is this. As I pointed out earlier, networking, networking, networking is the way to get into VC (especially a good one). While I appreciate the thought that it's better to get into a top tier VC fund, not everyone is fortunate enough to have access to getting into a top tier fund. Sometimes, starting at a second tier fund is better from the standpoint that it's a better platform to do networking and finding out what's going on in a geographic region. Much easier to talk to a brand name shop and network when you're from second tier VC rather than being joe schmoe off the street. Maybe you're on boards of companies or speaking at panels where you can meet other VCs. So, I don't think people should blow off opportunities at second tier shops.

On the flip side, just be ready to take the calls for business plans for crap deals they're trying to salvage by getting more dumb money into their companies…

We recently hired an associated. I got > 700 resumes and I didn't even post that widely. 65 of them were of unreal quality in terms of education and job experience. Undergrad: Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Princeton, Yale & MBA: Harvard, Stanford, Wharton. Many had near perfect SATs and GMATs. Many worked for Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, McKinsey or had worked in P/E or VC before.

It was UNREAL. Not that you need these qualifications to be successful. But when you're staring at 700 resumes (and we VCs don't have an HR department!) you need some way of filtering quickly. In my process I also gave high street cred to CS undergrads – particularly from MIT or equivalent and for premier tech experience: Google, well-known startups or even one great candidate from Microsoft's Xbox group.

From the 65 we did 16 1-hour in-person interviews. We short-listed 6 and did full day interviews including a presentation from the candidate analyzing a market. They were given less than 1 week to prepare. We finalized 3 that we took to dinner to check social fit. We chose 1.

My point is … the numbers are so daunting that anything “standard” won't work unless you already walk on water. The people who “sneaked into” the process were a) great networkers b) great networkers and c) had other people contact me on their behalf (great networkers). But if you don't have GREAT street cred already don't hassle the VCs. Just accept that it isn't likely you'll get in without doing great things at a start-up first.