Parikshit "Rick" Gandhi

B.S. in Economics and Information Technology, 2004
Analyst — Morgan Stanley
New York City, NY

He chose the wrong nickname. He’s called “Rick,” but he should go by “The Prince of Networking.” You know the old saying that it’s not what you know, it’s who you know? Rick Gandhi knows the ones who count, and to him, everyone counts.

This young man — endlessly polite, intellectually curious and acutely aware of, well, everything — is a marvel. He is working for an internationally respected investment banking firm in the nation’s financial capital … and he is living there, in Manhattan, in his own apartment with no roommate sharing expenses. All at the age of 25.

What’s more, he has come to this impressive (and expensive) life from a very small town in India. “Even after you fly to India, it’s an 8-hour train ride to my village of Rourkela,” he says. He made the transition through a combination of intelligence, hard work, athletic ability and, of course, networking.

He played golf in India. Quite well. “The golf coach at Guilford College called me at home in India repeatedly,” Rick says, “talking for an hour to almost two hours per call. I heard from a lot of other schools, but no one else gave me that kind of attention.”

The truth, some say, is that he was good enough to play almost anywhere he wanted to, but he knew that golf at college was simply one step in a long journey. He chose Guilford College because the coach was personally committed to Rick’s success, as were the entire faculty and staff. As he puts it, “Guilford was small, it was personal, it was always helpful. Where else could I have interacted so often and easily with a college’s president and vice presidents?”

See there? Networking already. And how did he get from Guilford College to a plum job in The Big Apple? He networked with Guilford alumni in Chicago at what was then Bank One, the nation’s 5th-largest bank holding company. One alumnus liked Rick and asked another alumnus to do a favor and take a chance. So Rick got a summer internship in Chicago. That was all it took for him.

In fact, a summer is about three months longer than he normally requires to do a successful job pitch. He got the Morgan Stanley job in 10 minutes. Well, almost.

During his senior year at Guilford College, he heard that a group of Morgan Stanley recruiters were scheduled to spend a day fairly close to Greensboro, so he went there. He walked in, armed with his resume and a smile, and he was told that their day was completely booked. He said, “I’m not asking for a job. I’m asking for 10 minutes.”

They said he could wait, if he wanted, and maybe, just maybe, they’d talk to him as they walked to the car to go to the airport. He waited. He waited for six hours. At the end of the day, when the Morgan Stanley people saw that he was still there, they were impressed. They said, walking, “talk to us.” He had Bank One experience in his pocket, and Guilford had taught him to go “well beyond my comfort zone.”

Ten minutes later they were gone, and their last words were, “We want to fly you to New York to meet some people.” They did, everyone was impressed, and he received and accepted an offer to work for Morgan Stanley in New York City.

Is he bright? Oh, yes. Is he articulate and poised and likeable? Oh, yes. But here’s how he sees it: “Assimilation is very important for any field of endeavor, and that means an ability to communicate. That’s one major thing that Guilford College gave me. The classes are very small, and the students are required to speak. That has proven invaluable.”

He adds: “My sophomore-year Economics class was extremely appealing to me. Economics made me learn how to think, how to study hard, how to work. I’d say the most important things that Guilford College taught me were how to work hard and how to write. Wow. So important.”

He gives thanks to individuals, as well. “I had great professors, and three of them in particular gave to me generously — I spent massive amounts of time in their offices. Their help has never stopped shaping my life and career.” In fact, he adds, “All of the Guilford College professors invest massive amounts of time and effort in their students, as do the administrators and staff.”

What does the future hold for Rick? All he’ll reveal is this: “The options are limitless.”