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In this edition, Harvard career advisor Gorick Ng shares a personal experience of rejection and how the experience helped him land a dream job, write a bestselling book, and bounce back stronger.

In 2015, a simple photo of a dress sparked millions of arguments online. Was it blue and black, or white and gold? Discover what this viral moment reveals about “reality conflicts” at work—and how to avoid miscommunication before it derails your career.

Feeling stuck in a satellite office while others get the spotlight? Harvard career advisor Gorick Ng shares how to take off—or show off—to earn the same opportunities as your HQ peers. Learn the unspoken rules for getting noticed and pulled in.

Most CEOs rise through business or operational roles—Julie Sweet took a different path. This newsletter explores how she went from General Counsel to CEO of Accenture—and how you can use the same strategy to fast-track your career.

Struggling to land a job even after getting interviews? Learn why you're not getting past the interview stage—and what to say and do differently—straight from Harvard career advisor Gorick Ng.

Jonah Alben found ways to get around limitations while on Stanford’s rowing team. He took that mindset to Nvidia, where he leads high-performance chip or GPU development.

Job hunting after a tough exit? In this Ask Gorick Anything edition, career expert Gorick Ng shares how to rebuild confidence and stay strong after a layoff. Learn practical tips to overcome self-doubt and bounce back stronger.

From part-time security guard to 2-time Fortune 500 CEO, Marvin Ellison’s journey shows how being seen and heard can help you get out of a dead-end job.

Want to serve on a board but don’t know how people get picked? In this edition of Gorick Ng’s Ask Gorick Anything series, he breaks down what it really takes to get appointed to a corporate or nonprofit board—plus how to build the relationships and reputation to get there.

Is Keanu Reeves a "nepo baby"? His Hollywood connections might surprise you. Discover what Keanu, industry leaders, and research say about networking, and how you can use these strategies in your own career.

Looking for a high-paying job but want to avoid too much human interaction? In Part 2 of this AMA, Gorick Ng explores when you can stay unnoticed at work, the trade-offs of avoiding visibility, and what career paths are realistically attainable.

Dyslexia made reading and writing a challenge for Charles Schwab, but he found a way to succeed anyway. Discover how managing struggles and harnessing your superpower can change your career.

Looking for a high-paying job with minimal human interaction? In this edition of Ask Gorick Anything, Gorick breaks down what truly counts as "high paying," the trade-offs of avoiding people at work, and the hidden risks of staying unnoticed.

Ina Garten wasn’t always a celebrity chef—she was a nuclear energy analyst. Discover how following her instincts led her from government work to building a culinary empire.

Is an MBA worth it for a career pivot? Gorick Ng breaks down the real value of an MBA, how to assess if a program is a 'feeder' to your dream job, and what to consider before investing in grad school.

The Oscars favor late-year films—but does timing shape success beyond Hollywood? Gorick explores the Academy’s recency bias, Dune: Part Two’s Oscar snub, and how to stay relevant in your career.

Looking to switch careers? In this edition of Ask Gorick Anything, Harvard career advisor and WSJ bestselling author Gorick Ng breaks down career transitions and networking strategies. Read now for actionable career advice!

Take control of your career by mastering The 3 C’s of competence, commitment, and compatibility. This framework will help you build trust, unlock opportunities, and get closer to achieving your career goals.

Andy Weir’s The Martian didn’t start as a bestseller—it started as a blog. Learn how small, consistent steps led to a book deal, a Hollywood movie, and a global success story.

My company is doing frequent layoffs. I am in active search mode. But what do I do if I get an offer that's much lower pay than my job today? Take it and resign with the hope of at least having something in case I’m laid off?

Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party of Canada are surging at the polls. This is an example of the “rally ‘round the flag effect.”

How to stay in touch with someone in your professional network.

Ken Frazier went from first-gen to lawyer to CEO of Merck Pharmaceuticals.

How much bluffing can I do on my resume and interview? Employers lie ALL the time to candidates and employees.

How DeepSeek AI got Silicon Valley’s attention and why making things more efficient is a proven way of getting promoted.

OpenAI is having a very real employee retention crisis right now.

Demi Moore received her first major acting award 45 years into her career.

How Manmohan Singh, the late Prime Minister of India, rose to prominence.

How to succeed in a new job, get promoted, change careers, find a mentor, overcome a setback, leave a lasting legacy, be more focused, be more productive, become a better leader, and more.

How Orangetheory, the billion-dollar fitness franchise, got started and 3 key things you should focus on when you get laid off.

Learn how to wow the people who matter so you can achieve your goals with a fraction of the effort.

The fashion retailer ZARA was founded by a poor middle school dropout.

Peggy Cherng, co-founder of Panda Express, used her experience in battlefield tech to build one of America’s most successful fast-food restaurants.

Elections are won by persuading swing voters and mobilizing core supporters.

None of Elon Musk’s companies were started by Musk alone. They all took a dedicated team of subject matter experts.

Thanks to 30 years of self-promotion, the song “All I Want For Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey streams 1 million+ times daily each holiday season.

A soon-to-be dad’s mission to connect with his immigrant parents led to a cooking channel with millions of subscribers and two James Beard Awards.

"Tiffany Blue®" and "Minions Yellow™" are always the same shade no matter where you see them, thanks to the part-time employee who invented the Pantone Color Matching System.

Mary Barra held 13 roles at the Fortune 500 company General Motors before becoming its CEO.

Ramin Djawadi went from being an assistant to composing HBO’s Game of Thrones soundtrack.

IKEA would have never become the king of “build-it-yourself” furniture had its employee #4 not suggested the idea.

LVMH (which owns the most valuable luxury brands from Louis Vuitton to Dior) created its own definition of success.

Bank of America would not be around today had its founder, Amadeo Peter Giannini, not lent coins off a San Francisco pier.

Did you know that Sallie Krawcheck became the CEO of 4 different Wall Street businesses—Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. (now AB Bernstein), Smith Barney (now Morgan Stanley Wealth Management), Citi Wealth Management, and Merrill Lynch Wealth Management and US Trust—within 10 years?

Did you know that Shopify, the $7 billion e-commerce platform used by Allbirds, Gymshark, and Chubbies, started because its co-founders Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake needed a better way to sell their snowboards online?

Did you know that Marriott International, the largest lodging company in the world, started as a nine-stool A&W root beer stand?

Did you know that Stanley’s “Quencher” cup doubled its revenue 3 times in 3 years? What does this mean for your career? Hint: Ashlee LeSueur, Taylor Cannon, Linley Hutchinson, and Lauren Solomon made history!

Food4Education took a free lunch program in India, adapted it to Kenya, and now feeds 300,000 schoolchildren per day (and was just named a TIME100 Most Influential Company of 2024).

Did you know that the USA just won its first women's road race Olympic gold in 40 years—thanks to Kristen Faulkner, a venture capitalist who picked up cycling after work?

Did you know that the largest US-Russia prisoner swap since the Cold War required cooperation across 7 countries?

Did you know that Fei-Fei Li, the “godmother of AI,” got to where she is today because she never became complacent?

Did you know? JD Vance would not have gotten to where he is today had he not gone to office hours and met a special guest speaker while in law school.

Did you know that the Disney movie “Frozen” is based on a fairytale from the 1800s?

Did you know that career success = skill x drive x luck? Find out what legendary genetics researcher Mary-Claire King (who discovered BRCA1, “the breast cancer gene”) can teach us for our own careers.

Did you know that the founder of the United Farm Workers union started her career as an elementary school teacher?

What do Joe Biden and MrBeast have in common?

Did you know that Coke was once at risk of losing out to Pepsi… and losing its loyal fanbase?

Whether you’re a first-gen college grad or a college student looking to get a head start on this “adulting” thing, these life hacks are for you! Learn how to hit the ground running by building both your network and your net worth.

If you or someone you know has a Nintendo Switch, you’ve also seen its hybrid design: the Switch can be played on a television set or it can be turned into a portable handheld console. But did you know that the Nintendo Switch happened because Nintendo wanted to break away from the competition?

When you think of American Express, what comes to mind? Credit cards? What if I told you that American Express actually started out as a shipping company? What can American Express’s change in direction teach us about changing direction in our careers?

When she was 6 years old, Nobel Prize-winning economist Esther Duflo asked herself, “Why?” This question turned into a hypothesis that evolved into her life’s work: alleviating poverty.

Yale undergrad Frederick W. Smith wrote a paper for his economics class, proposing a more efficient delivery system. 20 years later, the paper’s proposal became a million-dollar company—which we know today as FedEx.

Marine biology teacher Stephen Hillenburg loved the ocean—and drawing. SpongeBob SquarePants, one of the most popular and longest-running TV shows of all time, is the merger of his two passions.

Racehorse Seabiscuit and jockey Red Pollard were underdogs that became a symbol of hope and second chances. What can Seabiscuit and Pollard teach us about building a strong personal brand?

Comedy writers Leonard B. Stern and Roger Price had an idea: a silly storybook of funny fill in the blanks. There was just one problem: People didn’t understand the idea. What can “Mad Libs” (which has since sold more than 120 million copies) teach us about selling our ideas effectively?

Aspiring author and college student Samin Nosrat felt directionless. So, she applied to be a busser at a local restaurant. 17 years later, Nosrat fulfilled her writing dream—as a chef.

Former high school principal Doug Lemov wanted to understand why some teachers were more effective than others. Five years later, he went on to write a bestselling guide for teachers and lead Uncommon Schools, a charter school.

Nobel Prize winner Katalin Karikó was rejected by academic journals, denied grant funding, and even kicked out of her lab for what was considered insignificant work.

Dog sled teams, who helped save the small town of Nome, Alaska in 1925, are comprised of carefully selected pups. Without the right dogs placed in the right places, the team is doomed to fail.

Nike started out as a side hustle between a college track coach and an accountant.

US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor knew she wanted to become an attorney since the age of 10. Her journey went as intended… until she was rejected for a full-time job offer after a summer internship with a New York corporate law firm. Three decades later, she was appointed to the US Supreme Court. What can Sonia Sotomayor teach us about rerouting our path to reach our full potential?

In 1908, a new cookie was born: one made up of a sweet cream filling sandwiched between two chocolate-y wafers. Thinking OREO? Not quite. That's because OREO is a direct copycat of a cookie called Hydrox—which became obsolete after OREO crushed it in sales. What can we learn about how OREO overtook its competition for our own careers?

Did you know? The director of the “Dune” series (2021, 2024), Denis Villeneuve, was originally going to become a biologist. But, feeling deeply depressed, Villeneuve dropped everything—and enrolled in film school. What can his 40-year journey teach us about finding fulfillment in our own careers?

Did you know? The most powerful telescope ever, designed to find and photograph the first galaxies in the universe, had 344 ways it could fail—and yet it did not. What can NASA’s meticulous planning teach us for our own careers?

Did you know? Reliance Industries, India’s largest company (88th on the Fortune 500), owns 234 subsidiary companies from grocery stores to gas stations. What can we learn from Reliance’s early days for our own careers?

Did you know? Heart-shaped Valentine’s Day chocolate originated from a 19th-century marketing strategy. What can we learn from this sweet tradition for our own careers?

In 2014, Celeste Ng released her first novel ever. Five months later, it was Amazon’s Best Book of the Year. What can we learn for our own careers?

In 1814, British troops invading Washington, D.C. took to their ships and fled. Why? A canon-tossing tornado landed on the Capitol. What can we learn from the “Storm That Saved Washington” for our own careers?

Angela Merkel, the former German Chancellor, went from a physics Ph.D. to a political campaign volunteer to the first female leader of Germany. What can we learn from Merkel’s volunteering for our own careers?

The General Sherman is the largest tree on Earth. How did it get this big… and what can its growth teach us about growing our own careers?

Instant noodles are associated with college students, late nights, and empty wallets. But did you know the easy meal started in a backyard shed as a response to food shortages? What can the company with $5 billion in revenue today teach us for our own careers?

Oprah dreamed of being “famous” as a teenager. Today, she’s a household name known for her media empire and boasts $2.8B in net worth. How did Oprah make her goals reality?

What can the man behind Trader Joe’s—the small but mighty grocery store with $16B in revenue—teach us about the power of a point of view? And, what can you learn from Joe for your own career?

Slack’s relentless search for feedback led them to a $28B acquisition in just two years. What can Slack’s journey teach us for our own careers?

What can one of the hottest toys of the 90s (Polly Pocket) teach us about finding our “edge” for our own careers?

Gorick’s top travel gear recommendations for virtual keynote speakers and anyone joining conferences, meetings, or podcasts on the go.

How did Susan Cain lead the “Quiet Revolution”? What can her path from Wall Street corporate attorney to New York Times bestselling author teach us about building a personal brand?

How did Ursula Burns work her way up from executive assistant to CEO of Xerox? What can her journey teach us about being seen and heard?

How did pickleball become the fastest-growing sport in America? And what can the tennis-like game teach us about how to make smarter career moves by being… simpler?

How did The Rock become the superstar he is today—and what can his career moves teach us about how we should navigate our own careers?

In honor of National First Generation College Celebration Day, here are 10 first-generation college student experiences that I thought were setbacks but that are actually superpowers.

Did you know? 36 billion. That’s the number of streams that Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny has amassed on Spotify since 2020, putting him at the top of the charts for 3 years in a row. What can we learn for our own careers from Bad Bunny’s example?

Did You Know? “Halloween” (1978) used a $2 mask to build a $700M movie franchise. What can we learn from “Halloween” for our careers?

Did you know that shoppers used to check out at grocery stores using punch cards? The first barcode was dreamt up in 1947. Then why did it take 27 years for it to be put into practice?

Did you know that this former migrant farmer was rejected by NASA *eleven* times? How did he become an astronaut at age 47?

Did you know that the first Star Wars standalone film (Rogue One, 2016) was refilmed only two months before its release in theaters? Why was it changed—and what can we learn from it?

Gorick's must-have gear for a complete home studio setup. Perfect for virtual meetings, webinars, speaking engagements and keynote presentations.

How was the coffee filter invented? That's our topic in this week’s edition of “Did You Know?”