Well, not always, as I have had people working for me that were from all sorts of second-tier schools. I'd say landing an institutional job is part luck (high-end education included), part social skills (being a pretty girl helps too) and part drive. You might get away with two of the three if you got them in excess. If you are trying to pitch yourself to funds, what is your desired position and what do you think you bring to the table?
Your subconscious tells you when your in a bad trade, ideally most trades that are profitable from the start, newbies tend to take profits quickly. You need take small losses and let winners ride. If you don't let winners ride, markets will beat you down mathematically.
This is comment Spectre2007 and I learning this now. When you get a winner, know how to manage it and be patience, cause you make more money this way and build confidence.
Become very adept at statistical modeling and machine learning. Learn to use packages like S plus and MatLab. Maybe get a job as an analyst and grow into it from there ?