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Slim to none……The F-16XL was not built by Lockheed Martin. General Dynamics built it as an derivative of its F-16 with cranked arrow delta wing and was a technology demonstrator entry in the competition which the F-15 Strike Eagle eventually won. In 1993, General Dynamics sold its aircraft manufacturing business to the Lockheed Corporation,which in turn became part of Lockheed Martin after a 1995 merger with Martin Marietta. The original F-16XL along with all documents etc was turned over to NASA and the aircraft currently is on display at Edwards AFB. Lockheed has moved its F-16 production facilities from Fortworth, TX to Greenville S.C. to make room for the F-35. Currently there are only limited orders for the F-16 ( mostly with Iraq), but the company is still trying to sell a few to third world countries with the caveat they would be assembled in the country that bought them. However Trump’s policies of buy America may kill these sales. The F-16XL was one of a kind proof of concept and would have to be “reinvented” as a viable fighter aircraft.

No, not really. That’s the bad news. (I’ll get to the good news in a moment).Worthwhile companies in investment banking simply won’t take interns at such an early stage. Why is that? A few reasons:It’s too hard to find candidates of the requisite quality when the pool is so massively dispersed (among myriad high schools all over the country/world)The purpose of internship programs is to serve as a talent pipeline that ultimately yields full-time, entry-level hires. The chances of someone remaining focused on the same firm and role, and making the grade, from age 16 to the time they graduate college are extremely slim.Don’t be offended, but it’s a rare 16 year old indeed who has the level of judgement and maturity required for the professional workplace.Wall Street internship programs are typically focused on candidates who have just completed their junior (penultimate) year of college, and are therefore eligible to receive an offer to return on a full-time basis when they complete their studies a year later.So the bad news is that it’s going to be a little while before you become eligible for most formal internship programs in investment banking.So what’s the good news?You have lots of time on your side to learn, prepare, become a very knowledgeable candidate - and the full universe of opportunities still lies ahead of you.You can begin that journey right away. Read about finance, markets and companies in some of the many, many books published on those subjects. I’ll provide some suggestions below. Consider opening an investment portfolio. It doesn’t have to involve real money, even - you can make a virtual one. Use it to explore the activity of researching a company and formulating a view on it as a potential investment.Focus on your formal studies, because excellent grades are your ticket.And make sure to cultivate a range of interests. Don’t be one-dimensional. Your early focus on investment banking is great. As long as it’s not to the exclusion of everything else.Enjoy the journey. You may also get something useful from this answerPS here’s that list of books I mentioned above.The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham and Jason ZweigDevil Take the Hindmost by Edward ChancellorStock Wizards by Jack D SchwagerManias, Panics and Crises: A History of Financial Crises by Charles KindlebergerThe Alchemy of Finance by George SorosThe Crash of 2008 and What It Means by George SorosLords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke The World by Liaquat AhamedExpectations Investing by MauboussinThe Wisdom of Crowds by James SurowieckiCompetition Demystified by Greenwald

To answer this we have to define zero background, and first job.I will define zero background as having no background in any design field, or related field that could be helpful to ease into the profession, such as architecture, psychology, computer science, fashion design etc. etc. So for arguments sake, let's say you come from a background as a plumber, and you're tired of plumbing. Plumbing is a great profession in high demand, but for various reasons you've had it with it and wish to become a UX designer.I will define first job as a job that is stable and pays a decent salary. Just getting your first freelance gig doesn't count. It needs to be a position as at least an entry-level designer with a market salary.Now, let us look at your chances to land that first job, depending on how much effort you put into learning design:Stage 1 (Where you are now). Zero effort, you've decided to apply for ux positions while still holding down your job as a plumber. You still don't know anything more about design than the average plumber.Chance of success: Negligible. Your only chance would be a company in the plumbing industry, let's say a startup wanting to connect plumbers with customers. You would come in as a domain expert (since you're a plumber). This could be your foot in the door to get started in design. From you, the company would learn how plumbers actually work, what are their pain points, how do they interact with customers, etc. etc.To increase your chances for success as you gain more design experience, keep looking for positions in companies where you can utilize your domain expertise as a plumber. This gives you a competitive advantage over other designers who doesn't know anything about plumbing. You can also look for opportunities in the company you're currently working. Is there a way you can transition into a design role?Stage 2 You decide to read a few books, look at youtube videos, and you try your hand at some app redesigns by yourself, maybe you post some UI snapshots of a cool weather app that you've designed all by yourself to Dribbble or Behance. You also design a flyer for your friend's rastafari steampunk festival. Your redesigns, your weather app UI and the flyer all go on Behance, and boom, you have your first portfolio. Feeling pretty good about yourself you start applying to internships and design positionsChance of success: Slim to none. You have no real work to show, just examples of stuff that you've initiated and completed yourself. The only exception is the rastafari steampunk flyer, but your lack of knowledge of typography and color theory makes the flyer look as amateurish as the festival itself. Which, can be argued, is a good thing, you've captured the essence of the festival. But a successful print design project doesn't say much about your ability to do interactive design.At this point, before we move on to stage 3 and 4, it is important to point out who you are competing against. Who are these other people who are considering careers in design, and what kind of effort are they putting in, and what are their backgrounds?The best entry level designers today come from undergrad or graduate design programs at great schools. For instance, they may have an undergrad design degree from Carnegie MellonCarnegie Mellon School of DesignOr a graduate design degree from Rhode IslandDigital Media | Digital Media | Academics | RISDSome went to schools like Academy of Art, or the Art Institue. These institutions are perhaps less selective, but still turn out some great candidatesWeb Design & New Media SchoolArt and Design Education — The Art Institute of Seattle in WashingtonWhether they were accepted into Carnegie Mellon or Stanford, or took an online education at AAU, they've all invested years of their lives and thousands of dollars to learn multiple aspects of design in a collaborative environment, being subjected to both academic and industry input and influences together with highly motivated peers.Not only that, while in school they've had internships with great companies, so they already have the professional experience you're lacking, together with a great degree.Years. It took them years of hard work to become really really good entry level designers. And many of these people will land $100k plus salaries straight out of college, plus equity, bonus etc. etc. And they are worth it.I'm not saying this is the only path, but this is your competition.But back to you.Stage 3 You've realized you're not getting anywhere by yourself, so you've decided to splurge on a UX bootcamp, like the General Assembly 10 week immersive UX design programUser Experience Design ImmersiveThis is not a bad program. I've interviewed people from GA, but they all lost to people with either degrees in design or years of experience. But the fact that I've interviewed them means I did consider them for a position as either an intern or an entry level designer.Through this program you will finally start to get some better projects into your portfolio. You start to realize that showing process in your portfolio is more important than showing pretty UI snapshots on Behance. Even more importantly, you connect with peers, people from different backgrounds all looking to change their careers. And you get peer critique, you learn to give and take feedback, both from other designers, but also from users. The "User" part of UX starts to click for you.Deciding that a Behance portfolio is just embarrasing, you take your projects from General Assembly, your UI snapshots, your flyer (leave that flyer out, please), you get a suitable wordpress theme for your portfolio (nothing wrong with that, my portfolio is a wordpress theme), and you put together your own interactive portfolio and host it under your own domain, you are now proud to be known as www . johnsmithdesigner . io (.com was sadly taken).Chance of success: Now you're getting somewhere. Some people from bootcamps actually get jobs. Good jobs, with startups in areas like San Francisco, Silicon Valley, New York, etc. etc. You could definitely land an internship, which will give you real life experience, which again could lead to a full time position.You still need to utilize every edge you have. For instance, now is the time to again look for startups in the plumbing space, because as you know, you have domain expertise there. The market for designers, good designers, is almost insatiable in some areas, so there could be an opportunity for you here, but you need some luck.Stage 4 You realize that if you're actually going to be serious about design, you will need a proper education. This will take the next 4 years of your life.Chance of success: Very high, if you're good, and utilize the time in school well. Being in a good program will give you access to internships with great companies before you've even graduated. You will graduate with a great portfolio, plenty of connections, and professional experience from your internships.---Other paths and considerationsIf you come from a background in CS, psychology, architecture, industrial design etc. etc., you may be able to get a foot in the door that way. For instance, you can start as a front-end developer, and volunteer to do the design as well. If you come from psychology you can perhaps get a position as a UX Researcher.Look for opportunities in your current position, is there a way you can transition to design in the company you're currently in?Also, the world outside of SF, NYC, SV, Seattle, Austin etc. etc. might be less competitive. Perhaps companies cities and ares not know for their tech industry will find you interesting after Stage 3. After Stage 2 though... I personally doubt it, but it could happen.Best of luck!