Viral Doshi
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Viral Doshi is one of India’s pioneers in career and college counselling. Since 2004, he has guided more than 30,000 students through decisions around careers, college admissions and higher education. While the counselling industry has expanded rapidly, Viral has deliberately chosen to remain highly personalised, focusing on excellence over scale.
In this conversation, he reflects on his transition from running a manufacturing business to building a career around mentoring young people. He shares how changing economic realities, evolving education systems and the rise of AI are reshaping how students and parents should think about careers.
Drawing from over two decades of experience, Viral challenges several conventional assumptions around undergraduate education, career planning and success. He offers practical frameworks for making better educational choices while staying grounded in passion, aptitude and long-term thinking.
Here's what I will learn...
- Why choosing the right career starts with understanding yourself rather than following trends
- Why your first degree should help you discover your interests while your second degree builds specialised skills
- The biggest mistakes students and parents make while choosing careers
- Why Computer Science and AI are not the answer for everyone
- How AI is changing entry-level careers and what students should do differently
- Why following your passion works only when combined with excellence
- What separates a Rolex approach from a Swatch approach to building a career
- Why staying deeply human may become your biggest competitive advantage in an AI-driven world
- How parents can support career decisions without projecting their own ambitions onto their children
- What twenty years of mentoring over 30,000 students reveals about building a meaningful and successful career
LISTEN TO THE FULL CONVERSATION
From the Podcast
When money stops moving the needle
Viral speaks about his journey from Cathedral to Cornell to Wall Street to setting up a Super Alloys business with his father. When he shut down the business in early 2000s, he speaks about pivoting to what he always enjoyed doing – Mentoring young students.
Viral speaks about the fork in the road when he and his father shut down the Alloys business in early 2000s. He mentions that if he hadn’t come down this path of counselling children, he would have loved to be the headmaster of a Boarding School.
Viral Doshi speaks about how he has chosen to operate closer to a Rolex model than a Swatch model. He talks about the structure of his typical day and month.
Viral Doshi speaks about the fact that he has chosen to stay small and focus on excellence rather than scale and go after the large commercial opportunity in this space. He speaks about what gives him joy and how he thinks about the trade-offs between growth and flexibility to travel, spend time with family etc.
Viral Doshi speaks about how he has stayed relevant by staying in touch with the trends in the world of education and by engaging with parents and students across cultures. He also speaks about how he has conducted research and presented his findings through books, talks and presentations to many relevant forums over the years. He also shares how he weaves in a personal touch in the way he engages with children and parents.
Viral Doshi speaks about the evolution of trends in how students make choices over the years. He also speaks about the distinction between how children in cities are making choices compared to those in Tier 2, 3,4 towns in India.
Viral Doshi speaks about some common mistakes people make. He specifically speaks about some of the mistaken notions people have about pursuing Computer Science and AI.
Viral Doshi speaks about how the financial context often shapes choices children make around the first and second degree. He also speaks about how 1st degree should often be about pursuing one’s passion while the second degree should possibly be about a particular career pathway.
Viral Doshi speaks about some of the intrinsic traits that students have and career direction. He also speaks about some gender biases that exist in the way students think about choices.