Starting without a professional network is like playing a video game on hell mode: you can have talent, excellent grades, and even high-quality peer-reviewed publications in academia. However, in a society like Venezuela's, none of that matters if you don't have connections inside the company or government organization where you want to work.
Ever since Chavismo came to power, securing a public sector job became far easier through ruling party membership than by possessing valid credentials to perform the role. In theory, serving as a minister requires university degrees, master's degrees, and other specializations that prove competence. Yet, in everyday reality, ministers have either bought their degrees or don't even have them, meaning almost all the work is done by underpaid subordinates who actually hold serious academic credentials.
This presents a deep ethical dilemma. If you join the PSUV and climb the professional ladder by flattering nefarious leaders, you might improve your personal economic situation, but you end up supporting the very class of people who left the country in ruins. And that has long-term consequences: they will force you to march in defense of a repugnant ideology, pressure you to report coworkers who post negative opinions on social media, and push you to become complicit in illicit activities.
I know all of this firsthand. A friend of my brother was forced to attend marches and pressured to inform on his coworkers' complaints (which he refused to do). Another friend from their circle was targeted to be used as a courier to transport suitcases of dirty money to an unknown destination (a task he rejected on principle).
If I had agreed to join the PSUV youth wings—who had active recruiters inside the Universidad Central de Venezuela where I studied—and accepted being complicit in all those indignities, I would have lost my integrity as a person. I would have become exactly what I despise. That is why today I don't regret rejecting those potential connections that could have improved my living conditions in the short term. I don't regret throwing every single one of those PSUV flyer invitations in the trash.
Because sometimes, it is infinitely better to have no connections than to have to work for monsters.
Both the translation of this post from Spanish to English and the images used were done with Gemini AI.
