Ritesh Gupta graduated from Florida State‘s School of Communication in 1998. “I always knew I wanted to do media production,” he told a full room, fifteen years later. “But – it took me 13 months to get a job offer.”

Today, Ritesh owns his own production company, R&D Media. He’s traveled to Africa with Bill Clinton, creates commercials for Match.com, sang to Nelson Mandela and met Beyonce. Twice.

Somewhere after the thirteen month wait and today, Ritesh made some invaluable career moves to become an Emmy-nominated producer. “It’s not so much about your degree, but who you know,” he shared. “Utilize every resource – especially your professors and fellow students.”

It was a fellow student that gave Ritesh his “door” into a career. He was working as an on-air sports anchor for WCTV in Tallahassee when a friend got him an interview with MTV. He spent five years at MTV as a Producer, traveling across the world and working on the football documentary series, “Two-a-Days.” 

Now, he runs R&D Media. He’s done work with Subway for their World Cup spots, 5 Gum, and NFL Community Projects. He’s done commercials for Allstate, Vogue & GAP. “My friend Erin opened the door,” he said. “But I walked through it.” He stressed the importance of internships. “You have to intern,” he said. “But you have to be reliable, consistent and dependable. The industry is huge on word-of-mouth.”

Fifteen years later, Ritesh still believes his college experiences are what made him who he is today. “Your classmates today will be your partners in ten years.”