Why I left my job at McKinsey
This past month, I made a big jump. I decided to leave my job at McKinsey and begin a new journey in Vietnam. I’m joining a team founding a new university in Saigon — Fulbright University Vietnam. It’s the nation’s first non-profit, private, liberal arts university.
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Professor Datar and I sat at his office laughing. His laugh bellowed rhythmically from his chest — sounding something between a jolly pirate and an Indian Santa. My laugh screeched out of my throat — sounding somewhere between a hyena attack and a choking howler monkey.
Our laughs slowly began to fade until, finally, Professor Datar turned to me. “Enough, enough jokes” he finally got out, “let me think about your question.”
He paused stroking his enviably-full mustache. “Should Stephen do a PhD directly after senior year?” He asked himself aloud.
It was the fall of my senior year, and I was talking to professor Srikant Datar, a professor I admired at HBS and introduced to me by my late-mentor David Garvin. I was deciding whether to apply directly to a PhD at a business school. So, I’d come to Srikant for some advice.
His advice changed my next three years and is the reason I recently left my job at McKinsey.
“If you want to be a professor who answers academic questions,” he said, “then you could always do a PhD directly.” He paused for a moment as if trying to figure out how to word his next sentence. “But, if you want to be a professor that answers the *big* questions that businesses care about, then I think you should work first.”
His advice was simple. If I wanted to research organizations, then I should work for a few years and witness real questions these organizations faced.
After Datar and my conversation, I went back to a library to think. It was there that I started the fragments of a plan for post-graduation. Though I’d be lying if I said the idea came all at once, over time the structure of my post-graduation became clear.
I decided to create a “real life degree” for myself before applying to a PhD: two semesters of real-life learning over three to four years. Each semester would be 1.5–2 years and would focus on a different type of business.
In my first “semester” after graduation, I decided I would focus on large, international organizations. The bigger and more international the better. That’s one of the main reasons I joined McKinsey.
In my second “semester,” I’d work with small and starting-up organizations. Ideally, in a place with few resources — like a quickly developing country. In both, I hoped I would learn different things — questions that were unique to big and small organizations.
A few months ago, I realized I was nearing the end of my first semester. I’d spent nearly two years with McKinsey across the US and China. And though I loved my time with McKinsey, I knew that there was a series of questions that I couldn’t answer at such a large and well-established firm.
About a month ago, my most recent project with McKinsey ended. So, I decided that it was time to move on to my next semester. After considerable thought, deliberation, and at least one conversation in a Tokyo karaoke salon with the song “Call Me Maybe” in the background, I decided to give my final notice to my manager.
Reflecting on my “first semester” briefly, I probably earned a C+ when it came to performance as a junior-level analyst. But, in terms of learning about large organizations, I think I got an A. I learned what it meant to be inspired at work by a manager, to be frustrated by internal politics, and how organizations desperately have to learn to stay relevant.
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Now, my second semester has just begun, and I can’t be more excited. Naturally, if I were you, I would ask the question “So, what’s next Stephen?”
The answer is that there are a few different things that I’ll be doing.
The first, and most important, will be my work with Fulbright University. Fulbright University is Vietnam’s first ever private, not-for-profit, liberal arts university. It is born from a teaching program that Harvard administered for 20 years in Vietnam, named after anti-war Senator Fulbright, and made possible by sizable donations by the US & Vietnamese government.
It’s also a start-up — and that’s where I come in. My job over the next year+ will be to help create a center for entrepreneurship & innovation (like Harvard’s Ilab) and help fundraise to make the university sustainable. That also means I’ll be living full-time in Ho Chi Minh City, the economic capital of Vietnam.
We face a daunting challenge — how to create a world-class university in Vietnam — but also one that deeply excites me.
The second thing I’ll be doing is learning Vietnamese. Before joining Fulbright, I spent 4-hours a day in 1–1 Vietnamese class. To me, language is a tool to connect to a place and say, through my actions, that I care. That’s not going to change as I work with Fulbright.
The final part of my time will be applying to PhD programs. This theme isn’t sexy. But, it’s something I need to do to matriculate by fall 2020.
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Admittedly, this might feel like a sudden pivot. Didn’t I just move to Beijing? Why do I want to suddenly go to Vietnam?
The answer is that, for me, Vietnam feels like a “now or never” type of move.
From a macro perspective, Vietnam is like China in the early ’00s. Slowly, the country is emerging as an economic starling in the region. According to some sources*, Vietnam has the fastest growing middle class in the world right now. Now is the best time to witness the changes in this country. If I don’t go now, this time in history will never return. [*When I say some sources, I am actually referring to BCG. Man, it feels good to say that.]
From a personal perspective, I also feel that it is now or never. If I don’t spend the next few years in Vietnam, I don’t think I will ever gain the depth of connection I want with the country. I know, for example, that the road to academia is a long and winding one. After I start a PhD, it will likely be 10–15 years before I have time to breathe and think about something besides research.
Finally, in my mind, I am not “leaving” China; I’m adding on Vietnam. I know that China is here to stay in my life. Over the next year and a half, I’ll still spend time in Beijing. In particular, I’ll keep working with my good friend Raz on Chinese social media.
My connection to China and Taiwan is a lifetime one — and that’s something that’s not changing anytime soon.
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Where I’d love your advice
The two main areas of my work for Fulbright will be in 1. Innovation management (e.g., creating an incubator) and 2. Development (e.g., fundraising for the university.) If you have suggestions of books to read, people to reach out to, or ideas for me to ponder, please let me know! I’m a newbie, but I’m hoping to learn quickly.
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A quick quote by Barack Obama on Fulbright University
“We’re very excited that… the new Fulbright University Vietnam will open in Ho Chi Minh City — this nation’s first independent, non-profit university — where there will be full academic freedom and scholarship for those in need….
…Students, scholars, and researchers will focus on public policy and management and business; on engineering and computer science; and liberal arts — everything from the poetry of Nguyen Du, to the philosophy of Phan Chu Trinh, to the mathematics of Ngo Bad Chau”
- Barack Obama, Hanoi, May 24, 2016
