Student Profile

Chirag Gandhi

What is your current job? Any career highlights you’d like to share?

I am a Risk Analyst at Credit Suisse, managing the risk methodology for positions in private equity and strategic transactions for Credit Suisse globally. In just five months at the firm, I have been given substantial responsibilities and ownership in the current role. This is the start of my career - my first job after graduation. I look forward to seeing where it goes.

Why did you decide to sign up for CORe?

The motivation to sign up for the Harvard Business School Online course was threefold - networking, learning, and positioning. The cohort of CORe participants across the globe includes people who are working across different functions and sectors, and I enjoyed exchanging ideas, learning from the rich experiences of each other, and sharing moments to get to know and connect with each other. I also wanted to learn the language of business and understand if earning an MBA will be the correct strategic choice for me some years down the line. Finally, I wanted to position myself in the job market for current and future employers as someone who is dedicated to the pursuit of learning and developing right at the start of his career.

What did you enjoy most about CORe?

The best part of CORe was its case-based approach to learning and retaining business fundamentals. No chapter in the entire curriculum had raw theory. In fact, it was all about: what is Google doing differently from Bing? Why is online news free? Why are some features on the Amazon website the way they are? Why is being the market leader not always a good thing? It helped in challenging conventional wisdom with strong and practical, real-life examples.

How are you applying what you’ve learned in CORe?

CORe as a course has changed the way I look at problems now. It has made me identify and question assumptions and follow a linear approach to solving problems. Tools taught in Business Analytics such as regression analysis have proved helpful in a current company project where I was expected to identify market parameters affecting the price of a particular stock. I am confident that the phase of application of learnings has just started and will develop over time when I will have significant decision-making responsibilities. 

Any advice for people who will be taking HBS Online courses?

My advice to everyone joining is to start each chapter early. It can sometimes be easy to procrastinate until the weekend, the deadline, or anytime in the future. This hampers the objective as serious learning in the course requires serious dedication and time commitment. This was a reason why I was able to retain the course content, help classmates with their queries, engage in meaningful discussions over the course platform, and finally pass with High Honors.