During his early professional years, he taught economics at Columbia, then had a stint as a professor at Brock University in St. Catharines, Canada.^{[citation needed]}

He joined Morgan Stanley as an associate in 1983, one of the first Indians to join the company.^[1][9][17] In 1990, Vikram Pandit was chosen as the managing director and head of the US Equity Syndicate unit of Morgan Stanley and by 1994, he had risen to become managing director (MD) and head of its worldwide Institutional securities division.

He was instrumental in building Morgan Stanley's electronic trading and prime brokerage division and in 2000, ultimately rose to the post of president and chief operating officer (COO) of its worldwide operations of the Institutional securities and Investment banking businesses.^[3]

In 2005, after more than two decades with Morgan Stanley, Vikram Pandit decided to leave the firm along with John Havens after being passed over by Philip J. Purcell.^[18][19]

Post Morgan Stanley and joining Citigroup (2006 – 2012)