Tucker’s story

While an Associate, Tucker took an extended leave to pursue a personal passion

As the end of my first year as an Associate approached, I was given the opportunity to attend a nine-week intensive Arabic immersion program at Middlebury College. Having lived in the Middle East and studied Arabic for two years prior to joining McKinsey, I was eager to continue progressing in the language. I quickly found, however, that my travel schedule and client work did not afford me much time to study and my proficiency began to atrophy.

I broached the subject of taking a leave of absence in order to study the language further with my Development Group Leader and staffing coordinator. While there was initially some hesitancy given my short tenure with the firm, the office leadership was very supportive of my taking the time to attend the program. While I would like to use Arabic in a professional setting in the near future, simply learning Arabic is a personal passion of mine, and I was excited to have the opportunity to pursue it.

I returned to Middlebury College for a second summer to complete the advanced immersion program. While I missed my time away from the firm, I found myself recharged and excited about resuming client work at the end of the program.  My staffing coordinator and office leadership ensured that my time away from the office did not adversely impact me developmentally by helping me find the right studies both before and after the leave of absence. The ability to pursue outside interests has really made the McKinsey lifestyle sustainable.