Gorick Ng Keynote Speaker

  • Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author
  • Harvard career advisor
  • UC Berkeley faculty

Gorick Ng's Biography

Gorick Ng is the Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author of The Unspoken Rules: Secrets to Starting Your Career Off Right, a book published by Harvard Business Review Press named by Thinkers50 as one of the top 10 management books of 2022. He is creator of the How to Say It flashcard series for confident professional communication and also writes a weekly newsletter called Did You Know? that deconstructs how successful people and companies got to where they are today.

Gorick’s mission is to empower professionals, especially those without the parents and mentors guiding them, to take control of their careers and ascend to positions of leadership.

Gorick has spoken at companies such as Aon, GE, IBM, Kirkland & Ellis, and Google, nonprofits such as Questbridge, Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America, and Africa.com, and educational institutions such as Georgia Tech, Berkeley Law, the University of Missouri, and Stanford University. Harvard Business School has also given The Unspoken Rules to every MBA student to give them an edge in the labor market.

Gorick is a career adviser at Harvard College, specializing in coaching first-generation, low-income students. He is also on the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, where he teaches the unspoken rules of career navigation.

Gorick has worked in management consulting at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), investment banking at Credit Suisse, and research with the Managing the Future of Work project at Harvard Business School.

He has been featured in Forbes, The Today Show, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, BuzzFeed, New York Post, Fast Company, Fortune Magazine, and CNBC. He was named by Thinkers50 as one of 30 thinkers to watch in 2022.

Gorick, a first-generation college student, is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School.

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Gorick Ng's Speaking Topics

  • Fireside Chat/Facilitated Q+A

For all audiences. Have a firm representative facilitate a 60-min live Q&A with Gorick on topics of your choosing. And / or, have Gorick design and moderate a panel with senior leaders of your firm along a theme of your choosing (e.g., how to navigate the unspoken rules of the workplace).

  • How to Manage More Effectively and Inclusively

For people leaders. People don’t leave companies; they leave managers. Unfortunately, the vast majority of managers get zero training, leading to management through trial and error. In this session, Gorick shares the most common frustrations managers have towards their teams—and how tiny tweaks in one’s management approach can help people leaders help others help themselves.

  • How to Reach “Level 7 Ownership”

For all audiences (especially individual contributors). What separates star performers from the rest? An ownership mindset. In this session, Gorick demystifies what ownership looks like and sounds like, from “level 1” (how school conditions us to behave) to “level 7” (what star performers do subconsciously) in some of the most common scenarios at work, from asking for help to managing projects.

  • How to Succeed in a New Internship or Job

For students + interns + early career professionals. Hard skills get you hired, but a lack of soft skills gets you fired. In this workshop, Gorick shows how little things in your first day, week, month, and year can make a big difference in the trajectory of your career.

  • How to Take Control Of Your Career

For all audiences (especially individual contributors). If you want it, you have to strive for it. If what you want doesn’t exist, you have to create it. If you aren’t sure you can have it, you have to ask for it. In this session, Gorick shares strategies for how to take your career development into your own hands.

  • What I Wish Someone Had Told Me Sooner: Reflections From a First-Gen Professional

For talent from underrepresented backgrounds and members of ERGs (Employee Resource Groups). Who are the high performers at your work? Chances are, you're thinking of people who grew up with family or mentors in the white-collar world. How can all of your employees thrive, not just survive? In this session, Gorick shares the tacit-but-not-talked-about career tips he learned as the son of a working-class single mom.

  • How to Make the Most of Higher Education: Reflections from a First-Gen, Low-Income College Grad

For first-gen college students, low-income students, and other non-traditional students. Look around your campus. Who are your most engaged students? Chances are, the students you are thinking of have family and mentors with a college or advanced degree. How can all of your students persist, graduate, and succeed? In this session, Gorick shares his experiences as a first-gen college student, first-gen MBA, and Harvard career adviser, how he came to navigate the unspoken rules, and the tips he learned along the way.

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Videos of Gorick Ng

WORKSHOP: Unspoken Rules for Women Who Are Climbing the African Corporate Ladder
WORKSHOP: Unspoken Rules for Women Who Are Climbing the African Corporate Ladder
How to succeed in your new job
How to succeed in your new job
How to get your first job after college | Gorick Ng | Harvard Law School
How to get your first job after college | Gorick Ng | Harvard Law School

Articles, Media & Podcasts

Books by Gorick Ng

The Unspoken Rules bookcover
The Unspoken Rules

Comments & Testimonials

IBMers love the book and Gorick’s events are always well attended and receive amazing feedback. Gorick has joined IBM on 3 different occasions and we just keep asking him to come back. If you are looking for a relatable, high-energy and authentic approach to leadership development, look no further.
Sophia Dozier (Diversity and Inclusion Leader, IBM)
He managed to engage 230 attendees across Google as part of our Asian Googler's Network (AGN). Attendees stayed 20 minutes afterwards (and would have stayed longer) to ask their questions.
Lynn Xie (YouTube Product Partnerships, Google)

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