When I moved the U.S. from another country at the age of 14, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t a burden for my parents when I completed my college degree.

So when I entered college, I expected to get a degree and to get a job that paid $50K a year because that was the ticker price of my college at the time. My alma mater actually had the dubious honor of the most expensive university at the time.

Oy, I didn’t know that the prestige of the college had very little bearing on my career prospects.

Two months ago, I started my new career as a credit analyst at a commercial bank. While I had been a credit analyst before, I was never a credit analyst a bank.

I was able to switch from a niche industry (insurance) to a bigger industry (commercial banking) in a recession.

How did I do it? It all starts with relationship building.