McKinsey Youth Leadership Academy Program

A few weeks back I applied for a special youth program by McKinsey & Co called the Youth Leadership Academy (YLA). Applying via e-mail, my application was shortlisted and I was invited by the McKinsey people for a one-on-one interview last Saturday at their KLCC office, which was situated on the 57th floor of the KLCC Tower 2. The meeting went quite well and I felt that my odds were quite good of getting in.

True enough,yesterday evening, fate came knocking at my door; or more like it came ringing on my phone. At the time I wondered who was interrupting me while I was doing my maths revision. I saw that it was from an unknown 012 number and when I picked up the phone I instantly recognised the voice on the other side. It was Mr. Dago, one of the McKinsey people who had interviewed me last Saturday at their office, and he congratulated me as he informed me that I had made the cut for the YLA program. I was ecstatic.

Apparently I was one of the 22 successful youth applicants (all of whom were Malaysian undergraduates, either doing their year 1 or year 2 of their course) and he mentioned that they were most impressed by my leadership experience as the IET Student Chapter Chairman on campus and of my plans to establish The Capitalist Society NGO and a Renewable Energy Society on campus.

The YLA program was created to train and mentor young and visionary Malaysian youths into successful future leaders. I was most attracted to the program because it offered a way for me to expand my social network and, more excitingly, each successful applicant would be assigned a mentor either from McKinsey or from the industry. A good mentor would be able to offer me guidance in my current endeavors and might even be able to open doors for me in the industry, hopefully bringing my vision of establishing a renewable energy venture closer to reality.

Being a part of the program now, my plans for The Capitalist Society NGO and the Renewable Energy Society will now be able to be accelerated.