Akron where?

Before I left Akron, OH to begin my internship in Washington DC, at least one professor advised me not to be intimidated by the ivy-league credentials of those I would be working with and for. At first I took this advice as well-meant coaching and encouragement, but with a grain of salt. How would/could a student from the University of Akron really measure up to those from Georgetown or Harvard? And yet here is a lesson that I have already picked up and passed on to a fellow Midwesterner (my wife): it doesn't matter where you are from. What matters is how hard you work and the results that you produce.

The first several times that I introduced myself to my coworkers, I would say "I'm from the University of Akron. That's in Ohio." The other interns that I worked with seemed to need this extra information. The government-employed analysts, however, did not. Nor did they seem to care.

What I also learned was that attempting to overcompensate for an imaginary Midwestern stigma was unnecessary, even a bad idea. I did not need to have a "Napoleon complex" about my background, nor did I need to attempt to over-sell my other attributes or abilities. Hard work and results are visible and valued, regardless of who you are and where you are from. This does not mean that all you need to do is work hard. Good luck helps (and I suppose political skills will also eventually become important in my career too). But if a Midwesterner has a chip on their shoulder when they come to DC, my advice is: get over it.