yes it's mainly nepotism. I graduated in 1997 with a worthless degree in a made up course from a crap uni. I spent the next year getting rejection letters from every company in london, growing weed, playing network doom, until the other computer fried due to condensation from the freezing cold house we lived in, and learning the then brand new 3ds max. eventually I had a fat portfolio and through nepotism got a job. But I had to be able to do the 3d work before the nepotism got me call. Then the porfolio got me the work. I later realised most of the people I'd met at uni could have jemmied me into some position, whether or not it was in my "chosen career" path, I just needed to get on the phone, and stick my pride up my arse. this was before mobile phones were cheap. no-one had mobile phones. sad. anyway all of it is the real world. everywhere, everyone, doing anything, is the real world. there is no non-real world. I got fired 2 years later and since then I've done 18 months employed work. the best bits were living on the edge doing club visuals and getting twatted every day of the week and being evicted and the worst were having a job and being made to sit in a chair. if you have a great community around you work becomes irrelevant. so my point is keep improving your skillset. don't ever burn bridges, don't unfriend people or close social networks down but don't freak out about them. don't panic. read some books. try recreating goatse in a mirror. sniff some ketamine. know that pride and shame are crap emotions.