Welcome to Edition #18 of Ask Gorick Anything. This AMA is part of Gorick's Newsletter, where Harvard career advisor and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Gorick Ng shares what they don't teach you in school about how to succeed in your career.
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→ Read time: 6 min
ASK GORICK ANYTHING
“How do I get better work opportunities?”
Have a career question? Ask me here.
Subscriber’s question:
“Dear Gorick,
I wanted to take a moment to thank you for The Unspoken Rules—it has been a great kickstarter for my career.
I graduated in 2024 with a bachelor’s degree in History and have since been working in international development at an international consulting firm as an Assistant Manager. I’m based out of the India office (which functions more as a capability center).
But, I notice a significant difference in opportunities, particularly in terms of travel, exposure to project locations, and skill-building experiences, compared to our UK/US counterparts.
How do I get the same opportunities as my colleagues in the UK/US offices?
I've tried to address this with supervisors and reached out to my colleagues, but I see no tangible change. Lateral movement also seems limited. I want to bridge this gap but don't know how.
Best,
Aakarshi”
— “Aakarshi” from Delhi, India
Gorick’s response:
Hi Aakarshi,
First off, thank you for your kind words! I’m so glad to hear that The Unspoken Rules made it all the way to India and made an impact on your life.
And second: I’m sorry to hear that you don't feel like you're getting as many opportunities as your coworkers in the UK and US.
Unfortunately, you are not alone. I speak at a lot of global companies, which gives me the chance to interview employees as part of my prep. Each time, I hear the same complaint: yours! (Of feeling like a second-class citizen because employees at HQ seem to get all the love).
It's not intentional, though! It's just a matter of proximity. As I explain in my story on Taylor Swift's decision to move to Nashville, you get a career boost by being at the "center of gravity" of an industry or company.
Why? Because you're more likely to bump into the decision makers and more likely to be a part of high-profile work that helps you bump into decision makers (so yes—it's a virtuous circle).
So what do you do if you're not in the center of gravity?
Take off or show off.
Take off
One option is to simply relocate to one of these centers of gravity, whether that’s your organization’s HQ or where the movers and shakers reside for your given industry.
Here are just a few industries and their respective centers of gravity:
- Energy: Abu Dhabi, Calgary, Houston, Riyadh
- Entertainment: Las Vegas, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai (Bollywood), New York City, Seoul, Tokyo
- Fashion: London, Milan, New York City, Paris
- Finance: Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, New York City, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo, Zurich
- Fortune 500 companies: Atlanta, Bay Area (San Jose and San Francisco), Beijing, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York City, Seattle, Seoul, Shanghai, Tokyo, Washington DC
- Government: Brussels, Geneva, New York (the UN), Washington DC, or your country's capital city
- Technology: Austin, Bangalore, Boston, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, Shenzhen, Tel Aviv
- Think tanks: Berlin, Brussels, London, Washington DC
Does this mean you’re doomed if you don’t live in a major city (which is what this list consists of)? And does it mean you should just pack your bags, move, roam the streets, and wait for someone to give you a job?
This may have been true back in the day, but thanks to the Internet and especially remote work, it's not enough to just “push” yourself. You also need others to “pull” you in.
This is where showing off becomes important.
Show off
When I say “show off” I don't mean to be an a**hole—I'm saying to leave the decision makers thinking, “Wow... this person is so valuable that I need them on my team and by my side (no matter where they're located right now).”
Here are 3 ways to show your value:
1. Share your successes — like how Ursula Burns, the CEO of Xerox, did
- Try saying, “I’m excited to share that we ______ / surpassed our goal of ______ by ______%. (Thank you to ______ and ______ for their hard work on ______ that made this possible!)”
2. Develop a point of view (and share it with others) — like how Joe Columbe, the founder of Trader Joe’s, did
- Try saying, “I believe the world is going in ______ direction. We can expect ______. Therefore, we should consider ______ and ______ so that ______.”
3. Volunteer to join a project (and specify why you’re qualified) — like how Marvin Ellison, the CEO of Lowe’s, did
- Try saying, “I noticed that there was a recent [email / announcement] about ______. While I haven’t worked directly on/with ______, it’s an area that [I’m interested in / reminds me of previous work]. What would it take to be a part of this?”
But! It’s not enough to just show off. You also need others to pull you in.
You want to be in what I call a “lush” forest—not a “crowded” or “deserted” one—which means having access to resources (exposure, learning, mentorship, and networks) while being in such a competitive environment that those resources will always go to someone else.
So, you may want to ask yourself: What type of forest am I? It doesn’t matter the type of tree you are. If you don’t have the right conditions, you still won’t grow tall and strong.
What next?
Some of you may know that I used to work in investment banking in New York City.
While I knew that NYC is one of the aforementioned “centers of gravity” for finance, I didn’t realize until I got there that thousands of my colleagues would be in India. Many of those colleagues did what was perceived to be “lower level” research, data crunching, visualization, and formatting work. (I heard people say “just send it to India” literally every day at work.)
One day, I overheard a coworker referring to someone else down the hall as “the smartest guy on the floor.”
I leaned in to listen. My colleague went on to say, “The MD [Managing Director] liked this guy so much that he pounded the table to move him from Mumbai to New York. That’s only ever happened once.”
Why? Because even though this person in Mumbai was doing “just” grunt work, he did it so quickly, so thoroughly, and so thoughtfully that the MD trusted him more than he trusted the Ivy League grads on the team—and pulled him in to New York City.
So, know this: Whether you take off or show off (or both), you’ll still need someone like the Managing Director in my story to give you a leg up.
In your case, I would ask myself:
- Which higher-up has the authority to pull me up and pull me in?
- What are their top priorities—and how can I work (more) closely with them on those priorities?
- How can I do not an “okay” job, but an “amazing” job?
- How can I show that I'm capable of more than just “doing work”?
If you do this often enough, it's only a matter of time before you get lucky.
You've got this!
See you next Tuesday!
Gorick
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